When Species Meet: 03 Paperback – Illustrated, 26 November 2007
by Donna J. Haraway (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars 56 ratings
Part of: Posthumanities (57 books)
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In 2006, about 69 million U.S. households had pets, giving homes to around 73.9 million dogs, 90.5 million cats, and 16.6 million birds, and spending more than 38 billion dollars on companion animals. As never before in history, our pets are truly members of the family. But the notion of "companion species"―knotted from human beings, animals and other organisms, landscapes, and technologies―includes much more than "companion animals."
360 pages
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Donna Haraway's latest book, When Species Meet, is a stunning meditation on the ordinary. Tying together questions of interspecies encounters and alternative practices of world building, Haraway explores how contemporary human beings interact with various critters to form meanings, experiences, and worlds. The text effortlessly slides between theory and autobiography; one of the driving connections in this regard is Ms. Cayenne Pepper, an Australian sheepdog whose "darter-tongue kisses" compel Haraway to look closely at what biologist Lynn Margulis calls "symbiogenesis," a process that explains how life forms continually intermingle, leading to ever more "intricate and multidirectional acts of association of and with other life forms." From lab animals to interspecies love to breeding purebreds, Haraway ensures that her readers will never look at human-animal encounters of any sort in the same way again.
While those familiar with Haraway's oeuvre will find numerous connections to her earlier work, she does an excellent job of narrating how she came to the questions at the heart of When Species Meet and (perhaps most importantly) what is at stake for her in these questions, politically and otherwise. Of particular interest to philosophy buffs are Haraway's gratifying critiques of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari's well-known writing on "becoming-animal"; these critiques arise as part of Haraway's overall challenge to the boundaries between "wild" or "domestic" creatures. Similarly, her response to Jacques Derrida's ruminations on animals reveals the provocations that can arise from work that pokes holes in conventional disciplinary engagements with any given topic. Haraway's willingness to take on both biology and philosophy, to cite only two of her resources, results in suggestive insights on a number of issues, but especially (with Derrida, et. al.) regarding the question of what it means to take animals seriously.
I found Haraway's considerable enthusiasm and knowledge in When Species Meet to be invigorating. This book should appeal to a broad audience including animal lovers, scientists and their allies, theorists, and people who love random and little known information (e.g., the history of imported North American gray wolves during South African apartheid). While Haraway emphasizes that her desire to look more carefully at companion species, those "who eat and break bread together but not without some indigestion," does not come with any guarantees, she infectiously believes that there is a good deal at stake in the mundane and extraordinary details of the co-shaping species she documents across these pages. Given her hope for the worldly orientations, such as curiosity and respect, that might be cultivated by looking at companion species differently, it is appropriate that she begins and ends the text by reminding us that "[t]here is no assured happy or unhappy ending -- socially, ecologically, or scientifically. There is only the chance for getting on together with some grace."
Review by Marie Draz, Feminist Review Blog
Product details
Publisher : University of Minnesota Press; Illustrated edition (26 November 2007)
Language : English
Paperback : 360 pages
4.3 out of 5 stars 56 ratings
Donna Jeanne Haraway
One of the founders of the posthumanities, Donna J. Haraway is professor in the History of Consciousness program at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Author of many books and widely read essays, including The Companion Species Manifesto: Dogs, People, and Significant Otherness and the now-classic essay "The Cyborg Manifesto," she received the J.D. Bernal Prize in 2000, a lifetime achievement award from the Society for Social Studies in Science.
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peter gidal
5.0 out of 5 stars original, radical what more can one want, or need. a must …Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 26 April 2016
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what a great iconoclastic original radical book!
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pc
4.0 out of 5 stars A philosophical workReviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 26 December 2011
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This is a great book. I love animals so am biased when it comes to reading about them. But this is a different kind of read. In a word, this is philosophy, of which I am also a big fan. So, again, I am biased. I love how the author presents her position on the human objectification of animals. We need to take a greater stand on this as a human race, but again, this is the philosopher in me and my love of animals taking over. If you are not into animals, it is still a wonder piece of profound thinking, and will inspire you to question your beliefs, values, etc. The only thing that sort of made me sneer was the over use in my opinion of difficult discourse applied throughout. I found myself having to stop and think about what she meant at times, not for the short story reader. I also found myself thinking of how she could have said the same thing more easily.
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C., Katja
5.0 out of 5 stars must have zum Thema human animal studiesReviewed in Germany 🇩🇪 on 22 June 2018
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Zum Thema human-animal studies ein Muss. Ein Perspektivwechsel vom Mensch zum Tier, bzw. Der Versuch die Welt aus der Sichtweise des Tieres zu betrachten. Oder zumindest die Möglichkeit in Betracht zu ziehen, dass es auch eine andere Sicht auf die Welt gibt, als die anthropzentrische. Dadurch ergeben sich interessante Verschiebungen und Denkansätze. Haraway zeigt viele Beispiele, zitiert und diskutiert andere Philosophen und Wissenschaftler. Ein spannendes Spektrum an Gedanken zum Thema Mensch-Tier.must
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avik chatterjee
5.0 out of 5 stars Read more of this woman by avik chatterjeeReviewed in India 🇮🇳 on 14 June 2017
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Best living female philosopher. Very uncanny and truly transversal .
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ResponsibleDogOwner
1.0 out of 5 stars Unreadable Pseudo-academic GobbledegookReviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 17 July 2017
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I found this utterly impossible to read - life's too short. This is typical of a certain strain in academia that mangles language to cover up for the fact that there is no substance to the argument. It will tell you nothing about the relationship between humans and other animals and advances anthrozoology not one jot. Read Serpell, Sandøe and Corr, Podberscek, Kaminski, Miklósi et alia. They are concerned with communicating the subject clearly and intelligently, not clouding it with obfuscation in an attempt to boost their egos and apparent standing.
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