Comment on this article Inside the Blue Book
The Burden of Beasts
November 2002
by Jennifer L. Holley HIST 442a: Humans and Animals from Genesis to the Genome
Faculty: Bettyann Kevles, Lecturer in History When Bettyann Kevles wrote a weekly column about animal behavior for the Los Angeles Times, she was praised by both the Fund for Animals and the Foundation for Biomedical Research. Gaining respect from both sides of the animal rights debate is indicative of Kevles’s goal in her course, “Humans and Animals from Genesis to the Genome.” “I’m not there to pontificate,” Kevles says. Rather, she explores how religious, philosophical, and scientific attitudes have affected the human relationship with non-human animals from antiquity to the present day. She starts with Aristotle, who claimed that animals had no souls. Aristotle, in turn, greatly influenced the theology of the Catholic Church, especially its interpretation of the meaning of humans' “dominion” over animals, as mentioned in Genesis.
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“Most people eat meat, but most also believe that animals should be treated kindly.”
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The course focuses on a paradox epitomized by the experiences of Charles Darwin. As a young man entering medical school, he saw how animals were being used for experiments and was so appalled he left. However, towards the end of his life, when asked to sign a petition against animal experimentation, he wouldn’t. This paradox is still alive and well today. “Most people eat meat,” says Kevles. “But most also believe that animals should be treated kindly—until they are slaughtered.” In addition, many people support animals being used for research—as long as they are not used gratuitously. To see how animal-human relationships are still being negotiated, students write weekly papers about animals in the news or popular culture. (This semester’s class will see films of H.G. Wells’s The Island of Dr. Moreau.) Kevles says, “How humans should deal with animals is an issue that’s been around for thousands of years, and it will not rest.”  |
