Domesticated Animals in Renaissance Europe

Food Sovereignty in the City: Challenging Historical Barriers to Food Justice

“…These labels signify different relationships between humans and non-human animals (Palmer 2011), as wildness came to emphasize "the absence of a relation and a disposition that is markedly not 'tame,' while a domesticated animal is one that is both controlled by humans and has been made dependent upon humans in various degrees" (Noll 2015). Due to these conceptual developments, "civilized" spaces, such as the home and the city, that were traditionally viewed as a place where various animals (such as agricultural and work animals) were welcomed (Edwards 2011;Pascua 2011), were increasingly conceptualized as a place where only the most "tame" or controlled animals (mostly companion animals) could safely enter (Clutton-Brock 2011). In the context of the city, this translated into the upper class ideal of the home as place where an increasingly private and animal-free space was now understood as a marker of status (Gamber 2005).…”

History Lessons: What Urban Environmental Ethics Can Learn from Nineteenth Century Cities

“…These emerging concepts (civilization and domestication) built upon key dualisms (wild/tame, primitive/cultivated etc) then helped to shift the accepted definition of the home from an area where different types of animals were welcomed, to a place where only ''pets'' (or highly dependent animals) could enter. Due to these cultural changes, farm animals historically kept in the home, such as cattle, pigs, and chickens (Edwards 2011;Pascua 2011), were essentially banished from the house (Clutton-Brock 2011). 3 As will be discussed below, the reliance on rationality and science (especially in the area of public health) coupled with the separation of most animals from the home had palpable consequences in urban environments during the nineteenth century.…”