The two parallel adaptations of Pedro Calderón de la Barca’s El mayor encanto, amor, a retelling of Circe’s and Ulysses’ story from Homer’s Odyssey, put animals onstage. However, the animals were... Show moreThe two parallel adaptations of Pedro Calderón de la Barca’s El mayor encanto, amor, a retelling of Circe’s and Ulysses’ story from Homer’s Odyssey, put animals onstage. However, the animals were certainly not all live animals, for the lions, bears, and tigers that feature in the two adaptations were too dangerous. Therefore, actors performed some animals via costumes. The article considers not only how this was a practical solution, but also how the costumes reflected the transformations that Circe performed on the Greek crewmen accompanying Ulysses. The transformations were incomplete, since even as animals the crewmen retained their ability to reason and, in some cases, even their speech. As such, the plays challenged the early modern understanding of animals as creatures without reason, solely led by their natural impulses. In their animal appearances, they failed to communicate with the human characters, but remained intelligible to the audience, disrupting the fiction of the play. Thus, the adaptations of El mayor encanto, amor questioned whether humans and animals are all that different. Show less
A high degree of intimacy between humans and other animals is expressed in the keeping of animals as pet companions. This practice was common as early as Ancient Greece and Rome and regained... Show moreA high degree of intimacy between humans and other animals is expressed in the keeping of animals as pet companions. This practice was common as early as Ancient Greece and Rome and regained popularity during the thirteenth century. In this period, dogs began to play a vital role in domestic life and so became a favourite pet among nobles in the fourteenth century. Contrary to hunting or working dogs, pet dogs were given names and had privileges within their owners’ households. By virtue of their special status, they even accompanied their owners to church, despite the condemnation of this practice by church officials. This reflects a special relationship that was established during the fourteenth century between man, animals, and the divine. This paper focuses on the trilateral connection of God, humans, and dogs in a book of hours known as the Margaret Hours (c. 1320), where a dog and the praying book owner are depicted side-by-side in various illustrations. Special attention is given to a framed miniature presenting the lady, in prayer, next to a dog and a collared bird. Through this miniature, this paper will demonstrate the participation of both the lady and the dog in prayer. Show less
Anthropomorphism is a recurring and contested topic in the scientific study of animal behaviour. This article aims at gaining a deeper understanding of anthropomorphism and its function for animal... Show moreAnthropomorphism is a recurring and contested topic in the scientific study of animal behaviour. This article aims at gaining a deeper understanding of anthropomorphism and its function for animal behaviour science by examining the study of ants in the German-language discourse of animal psychology around 1900. By analysing the works of physiologist Albrecht Bethe and entomologist Auguste Forel it is demonstrated that the use of analogy as a method in the study of animals led to a debate on anthropomorphism, resulting in the demarcation of scientific approaches from unscientific ones. As the production of knowledge in animal psychology relied heavily on human judgement of scientific methods and philosophical ideas, it can be concluded that the mind of ants is not only conceptually, but socially constructed in these studies. Show less
This article examines the transformations that the Brazilian tanager, a South American songbird, underwent as it crossed the Atlantic Ocean and was represented by the traveller and naturalist... Show moreThis article examines the transformations that the Brazilian tanager, a South American songbird, underwent as it crossed the Atlantic Ocean and was represented by the traveller and naturalist Pierre Belon in his bird treatise L’Histoire de la nature des oyseaux (1555). I show that Belon carefully chose his vocabulary and modes of depiction in order to address the constraints of his project, especially in showing colour; and I trace how subsequent representations further modified the imagery of the bird. As this article argues, the case of the Brazilian tanager reveals how Belon’s true-to-nature rhetoric of his vocabulary and modes of depiction were meant to offset difficulties of using flawed or incomplete information in the case of descriptions, drawings, and physical evidence when it comes to preserved birds. Furthermore, I show that the red colour of the bird’s feathers worked as a symbol of access to “exotic” commodities. In comparing Belon’s text and representation to the ones in Ulisse Aldrovandi’s bird treatise Ornithologiae of 1600, I examine the mechanisms of early modern “collective empiricism” through various layers of knowledge transfer. Show less
