Humans and Other Animals:A New Global History from the Pleistocene to the Anthropocene

Class Time: MWF 11-11:50Professor: Daniel Vandersommers, Ph.D.

Contact: davandersomm@bsu.edu Room: BU 121

Office Hours: Thursday, 1:00-9, or by appointment, Tue. & Wed.Office: Elliot B027

“In the last three hours of the day, God sits and plays with the Leviathan, as is written: ‘you made the Leviathan in order to play with it.’”

-- Talmud, Avodah Zarah

“In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.”

-- Charles Darwin

"Animals are good to think with."-- Claude Lévi-Strauss

Course DescriptionAnimals riddle the pages of human history, yet most historians have made these animals invisible, relegating them to the margins. In actuality, though, animals have not only made human history itself possible, but they

have appeared as important and central figures in every chapter of this history. The standard narratives of civilizations, societies, and nations are built upon the backs of animals, large and small. In many chapters of

these tales, animals indeed may even prove more important than humans. This class attempts to push through and past a human-centered (anthropocentric) historical tradition to uncover a livelier, more truthful, and

complex past fashioned and experienced by all of the planet’s animals—human and otherwise.

Learning Objectives1) To get you to better understand the processes of historical inquiry.2) Develop your critical thinking skills.3) Improve your ability to express yourself, verbally and in writing.4) Expand your historical body of knowledge.5) Learn to apply said historical body of knowledge to the world around you.6) Encourage you to (re)cultivate a passion for reading about diverse topics.7) Practice ‘experiencing’ the past through empathy and humility rather than treating history as fixed “information” and “data” to “learn.”

GradingGrades will be a composite of short reading quizzes, participation, and a final writing assignment. Quizzes will take place immediately at the beginning of each class. They will be short “reading checks” of 5 to 10 questions. If you do not read carefully, actively, and consistently, these reading quizzes will prove difficult. Up to 40% of the questions on these quizzes may also derive from previous lectures, discussions, and classes. The quizzes account for 70% of your grade. They are “the glue” of the course. They are designed to 1) provide incentive to read 2) reward those who do read 3) provide incentive to be engaged in class 4) reward those who are engaged in class, and 5) provide me with a method of evaluating students that is consistent with a discussion- and reading-based introductory course while, at the same time, sidestepping the need to administer the stressful and gargantuan exams, midterms, and finals commonplace in overly-hierarchical high school and undergraduate education. Your lowest two quiz grades of the semester will be dropped. These drops function solely as “sick leaves,” allowing you to drop quiz-grades from days you are absent due to official, excused, illness (with a doctor’s note). However, if you happen to be completely well and in good-health during the semester, these two grades will still be dropped. If you happen to have more than two “sick days” (meaning that you have two official notes of excused health-related or Academy-related leaves), I am indeed able to provide make-up quizzes beginning with your third excused absence. If and when you are sick and not able to come to class, you are responsible for class content: please connect with a colleague or inquire with me about material you may have missed.

The class participation component of the grade is based on my assessment of the consistency and quality of your engagement in class. Participation is worth 10% of your grade. Lastly, a final, writing assignment will be turned in on Finals Week. I will elaborate on this assignment in class, in early April. It represents 20% of your grade.

Final grade scale: 94-100 = A; 88-93 = A- ; 80-88 = B ; 70-79 = C ; 60-69 = D; <60 = D*

ReadingsYou will be assigned a good deal of reading each week, and you will need to develop critical reading skills. A verbatim scrutiny is not always necessary, but you should closely consult all the materials, comprehend them and be able to articulate the substantive content of the pieces (what topics/events they cover), the theoretical content (what the authors are arguing) and discuss any points of interest that may have struck you as significant, bizarre, profound &c.

This course is divided into six sections that will serve as dive different windows into “Animal history,” examining individuals, cultures, places, and events that have influenced large amounts of time and space. For each section we will read (excerpts from) one corresponding monograph, sometimes accompanied by an article or two. If needed, I will provide PDF-scans of all the readings for the course, as the course unfolds. However, if you prefer to have a hard-copy of the book, you may feel free to either purchase the books on your own (most of them are quite cheap on Amazon) or order them through the Ball State University Library. The appropriate books for each section are as follows:

1. Pat Shipman’s The Invaders: How Humans and Their Dogs Drove Neanderthals to Extinction

2. Karen Raber’s Animal Bodies, Renaissance Culture

3. Mark Kurlansky’s Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World

4. Jon T. Coleman’s Vicious: Wolves and Men in America

5. Ellen Meloy’s Eating Stone: Imagination and the Loss of the Wild

Some suggestions to guide your reading:

Read Actively: Preview each chapter to figure out what it is about, and formulate questions to guide your reading. Read the introductory and concluding paragraphs and note major headings to get a sense of where the author is taking you. Keep in mind the author is being selective here. She or he cannot possibly tell you everything you need to know. What the author chooses to include will tell you a lot about what she or he considers important.

Write In Your Books: Write in the margins.Flag critically important points, and summarize the author’s arguments. Note stream of consciousness connections or anything else that will help you go back through all the readings and make sense of them. Everyone reads differently. Find what works for you.

Get Away: We are an increasingly connected society in which many people feel uncomfortable being “away” or unavailable for any length of time. I advise you to leave those places where friends or family can distract you, turn your cell phones off and be “away.” Coffeehouses, public libraries, or shady trees rarely if ever ask engaged patrons to move along. Spend time with yourself and your readings. I promise you will soon realize the worth of your education, and begin to truly benefit from it.

General Notes Regarding Conduct

This class is expected to be a positive learning experience based on open communication and respect. You are expected to be collegial and to respect the rights of the other seminar participants.

You should not use laptops, tablets, I-Pads, or other types of electronic technology in the classroom unless I specifically say that we will utilize them for an activity.

Under no circumstance should cell phones be visible in the classrooms. They must be stowed away or kept in pockets, with ringers and sounds turned off. Texting in class can result in a loss of quiz or participation points.

I encourage you to visit my office hours to ask questions, raise concerns, continue discussion, talk about the readings, etc. Please don’t hesitate to stop by. Also, due to high volume, please be aware that it could take me 48 hours to respond to emails.

Diversity and Inclusion Policy

Ball State University aspires to be a university that attracts and retains a diverse faculty, staff, and student body. We are committed to ensuring that all members of the community are welcome, through valuing the various experiences and worldviews represented at Ball State and among those we serve. We promote a culture of

respect and civil discourse as expressed in our Beneficence Pledge and through university resources found at http://cms.bsu.edu/campuslife/multiculturalcenter.

Academic Dishonesty:

Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated and will be subject to the Academy’s policies on academic dishonesty. For a full discussion of this process and possible sanctions, please refer to the student handbook.

Attendance and Tardies

Attendance is required, per Academy policy. Unexcused absences may result in a grade deduction in participation. Late arrivals may be counted tardy, with late arrivals of more than ten minutes subject to be

counted absent for the day.

Disclaimer

I reserve the right to make changes to this syllabus at my discretion. I will give notice to the class as soon as possible after making any change.

Reading and Assignment Schedule

Please note that reading assignments are subject to change. As Dwight D. Eisenhower once said: “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” The same is true for my courses, which are often exercises in lateral thinking, improvisation, headlong advances and scurrilous retreats. I don’t follow a divine script; I don’t have a strict agenda regarding what I expect you to get out of this course. The end result will ultimately be what you make of it.

P.S. In accordance with my belief that we, knowingly or not, engage history every single day, I may occasionally send links to stories, articles, and audio or video related to the readings for the week. You will be responsible for reading and/or watching/listening to them, so our class discussions will be pertinent and dynamic. That said, I will never bombard you with last minute manifestos of biblical proportions. Most news stories are relatively short, and the audio links can be listened to while you’re reading your email. They’ll simply be things to consider while you read for class.

1.6 – Lecture: “What is ‘Big History,’ ‘Deep History,’ and ‘Animal History’?”

1.8 – Lecture: “Origins and Mass Extinctions: From the Archean through the Phanerozoic”

1.10 – Lecture: “Origins and Humans: Miocene Apes, Early Hominins, and the Genus Homo”Shipman – Preface - Chapter 3

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1.13 – Shipman – Chapters 4 - 6

1.15 – Lecture: “The Early Holocene and the First Animal Domestications: From Lentils to Goats, Sheep, and Pigs”

1.17 – Lecture: “Animals In Antiquity: An Overview, 5000 BCE - 500 CE”Shipman – Chapters 7-9

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1.20 – MLK, Jr. Holiday

1.22 – Shipman – Chapters 10-13

1.24 – Lecture: “Animals In Antiquity: Menagerie, Science, Philosophy, Art”

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1.27 – NO CLASS (DR. VANDERSOMMERS HAS SPEAKING OBLIGATION IN PITTSBURGH)

1.29 – Shipman – Chapters 14-15

1.31 – Lecture: “Animals and the Medieval World: Religion, Sport, Science, Art”

-------2.3 – LONG WEEKEND

2.5 – Lecture: “Animals and the Renaissance: An Overview, 1400-1600”Raber – Introduction

2.7 – Raber – Chapter 1

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2.10 – Lecture: “Animals and the Renaissance: Hunting, Science, Philosophy, Art”Raber – Chapter 2

2.12 – Raber – Chapter 3

2.14 – Lecture: “Animal Diseases, Biotic Invasions, and the Ecological Reunification of Pangea”Raber – Chapter 4

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2.17 – Lecture: “Animals and the Enlightenment: The Animal Soul in History”

2.19 – Raber – Chapter 5

2.21 – Lecture: “Animals and Empire: Entertainment and Science”Raber – Conclusion

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2.24 – Lecture: “Animals and Empire: Hunting and Domestication”

2.26 – Kurlansky – Chapters 1-3

2.28 – Lecture: “Empire and Extinction”

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3.2 – Spring Break

3.4 – Spring Break

3.6 – Spring Break

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3.9 – Lecture: “Global Ecologies in the Age of Empire: The Dodo and Narratives of Extinction”

3.11 – Kurlansky – Chapters 4-9

3.13 – Lecture: “An Evolutionary History of Pork: Pig Genetics from Ancient China to Today”

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3.16 – Kurlansky – Chapters 10-14

3.18 – Lecture: “Nineteenth Century: Animals and Agriculture”

3.20 – Lecture: “Nineteenth Century: Animals and the Congested City”Etienne Benson: “The Urbanization of the Eastern Gray Squirrel

in the United States”

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3.23 – Coleman – Introduction and Chapter 1

3.25 – NO CLASS (DR. VANDERSOMMERS HAS SPEAKING OBLIGATION IN OTTAWA)

3.27 – Coleman – Chapter 2-3 (Discussion with substitute)(DR. VANDERSOMMERS HAS SPEAKING OBLIGATION IN OTTAWA)

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3.30 – Coleman – Chapter 4

4.1 – Lecture: “Nineteenth Century: Animals and the Congested City, Part III: Animals on Display”Vandersommers – “Failed Zoo Experiments: Primatology, Aeronautics, and the Animality of

‘Modern’ Science” in Zoo Studies: A New Humanities (2019).

4.3 – Coleman – Chapter 5-6

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4.6 – Film Night (Time TBA): Project NIM

4.8 – Lecture: “Animals and the Modern Laboratory”Coleman – Chapter 7-8

4.10 – LONG WEEKEND

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4.13 – Lecture: “Industrializing Animals for Human Consumption”

4.15 – Coleman – Chapter 9 & Reintroduction &Vandersommers – “Narrating Animal History from the Crags: A Turn-of-the-Century Tale about Mountain Sheep, Resistance, and a Nation,” in the Journal of American Studies (2017).

4.17 – Meloy – Pages 1-33

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4.20 – Film Night (Time TBA): Blackfish

4.22 – Meloy – Pages 33-166

4.24 – Lecture: “Environmentalism and Ecological Thought in the Twentieth Century”Meloy – Pages 167-249

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4.27 – Lecture: “Animals Rights Philosophy from Bentham to Singer and Beyond”

5.29 – Lecture: “Ticks, Biosemiotics, and the Emergence of Posthumanism”Meloy – Pages 250-328

5.1 – Lecture: “Animals and the Questions of the Anthropocene”

-------5.4 – 5.8 – Final Exams