Éric Baratay - Animal Biographies: Toward a History of Individuals

Animal Biographies

Robert W. Mitchell, series editor

SERIES ADVISORY BOARD

Jonathan Balcombe

Margo DeMello

Francine L. Dolins

Hal Herzog

Dale Jamieson

Claire Parkinson

Paul Waldau

Sara Waller

Animal
Biographies

TOWARD A HISTORY OF INDIVIDUALS

ric Baratay

translated by Lindsay Turner

The University of Georgia Press

ATHENS

English translation 2022 by the University of Georgia Press

Athens, Georgia 30602

www.ugapress.org

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Baratay, ric, author. | Turner, Lindsay, translator.

Title: Animal biographies : toward a history of individuals / ric Baratay ; translated by Lindsay Turner.

Other titles: Biographies animales. English.

Description: Athens : The University of Georgia Press, [2022] | Series: Animal voices, animal worlds | Originally published in French under the title Biographies animales: Des Vies retrouves Editions du Seuil, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2022011667 | ISBN 9780820362182 (paperback) | ISBN 9780820362199 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: AnimalsBiography. | Animals and civilization. | Animal psychology. | Animals and history.

Classification: LCC QL85 .B3613 2022 | DDC 591dc23/eng/20220330

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022011667

Originally published in French under the title Biographies animales: Des Vies retrouves Editions du Seuil, 2017

To Yvonne Bchet my grandmother

Of course what I felt then as an ape I can represent now only in human terms, and therefore I misrepresent it, but although I cannot reach back to the truth of the old ape life, there is no doubt that it lies somewhere in the direction I have indicated.

FRANZ KAFKA, A Report to an Academy

CONTENTS

I imagine that ric Baratays Animal Biographies will be as sobering, challenging, and delightful to read as it was to translate. As the reader will discover, Baratay sets himself the challenge of remaining on the animals side as he revisits and rewrites existing biographies of a set of animals. This is as much an exercise in reading and research as it is in empathy; Baratay draws on a vast array of sources (most of them scientific or historical) to complete the picture. Translating the book required not that I enter into the authors mindset, as it often does, but that I enter--via the authors words and sources--as close as possible into the animals experience, perceptions, or sensations. As this book shows, the history of animal-human relationships has been rife with misunderstandings; it is, in a way, a history of failed translation. I hope that this book and its translation into English work to rectify at least some of them.

The reader of Animal Biographies will note, as Baratay himself notes, a few awkward constructions. These include instances in which the animal finds herself or sees herself acted upon, for example. Moments like this are written to preserve the animal as subject of the sentence or the actor in the story.

Special thanks to Eszter Takacs for her invaluable research assistance, and to Sadie the terrier for keeping me company throughout the translation process.

Animal biographies. The phrase is surprising, perhaps shocking, maybe even amusing. Unlike human biographies, which constitute some of our most prized literature, the category of animal biographies at first glance makes no sense. The confusion stems from the status accorded to the animal: an undifferentiated category that hides a diversity of species and that, from antiquity to the present, has served only to set the human being uniquely apart. Writing biographies, of course, requires the belief that the individuals of a given species are all different from each other in temperaments, abilities, and qualities. Yet we are still convinced that all dogs, cats, horses, etc. are identical, and that we must think at higher levels: the species, animals, the animal. Writing biographies also presupposes that the environment (natural, familial, social, cultural, or historical) influences different individuals differently. Yet it has long been assumed that biologyat different moments qualified as instinct, drive, or genetic capitalis the sole driver of animal behavior, which remains resistant to exterior pressures. And finally, the biography genre requires that individuals have different trajectories and therefore different existences, whereas we tend to be sure that animal lives are all similar, starting from the origin of each species.

This book challenges these long-standing beliefs. They do not in fact obtain in every human civilization; certain civilizations place more importance on animal individualities, while some barely think in terms of species or category at all.fantasy) has never served to take stock of the various animals but has instead reinforced the idea of human superiority. And it is distorted in that we still understand so little about these animals and still less seek to understand them. Preferring instead the convenient stereotypes of the animal, we erect differences stemming from these beliefs, confusing a discourse of domination with genuine research. This discourse leads us to reject all ideas regarding the individuality, personality, or subjectivity of a particular animal, repressing any evidence for it in favor of facile certainties and standing interests.

It is high time to rethink the concept of the animal at the level of multiple speciesincluding the humanand to approach it not in terms of distinction, superiority, or hierarchy but of difference, specificity, and the richness of each kind. We stand to learn immensely more this way. It is time to operate at the level of the individual to understand the facts and to nuance them; they are always more tangled than we anticipate, and the goal of science is not to simplify this complexity but to present it more clearly. And finally, it is time to seek out individual animals and to write their lives.

Animal Biographies

While philosophers have tended to negate or deny the notion of animal individuality, there have always been dissenting voices. Various strains of thought have complicated or opposed the majority view, and I will address them briefly to help situate the aims of this book.