• Complain

Hannah Velten - Cow

Here you can read online Hannah Velten - Cow full text of the book (entire story) in english for free. Download pdf and epub, get meaning, cover and reviews about this ebook. year: 2007, publisher: Reaktion Books, genre: Religion. Description of the work, (preface) as well as reviews are available. Best literature library LitArk.com created for fans of good reading and offers a wide selection of genres:

Romance novel Science fiction Adventure Detective Science History Home and family Prose Art Politics Computer Non-fiction Religion Business Children Humor

Choose a favorite category and find really read worthwhile books. Enjoy immersion in the world of imagination, feel the emotions of the characters or learn something new for yourself, make an fascinating discovery.

Hannah Velten Cow
  • Book:
    Cow
  • Author:
  • Publisher:
    Reaktion Books
  • Genre:
  • Year:
    2007
  • Rating:
    3 / 5
  • Favourites:
    Add to favourites
  • Your mark:
    • 60
    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

Cow: summary, description and annotation

We offer to read an annotation, description, summary or preface (depends on what the author of the book "Cow" wrote himself). If you haven't found the necessary information about the book — write in the comments, we will try to find it.

From the milk we drink in the morning, to the leather shoes we slip on for the day, to the steak we savor at dinner, our daily lives are thoroughly bound up with cows. Yet there is a far more complex story behind this seemingly benign creature, which Hannah Velten explores here, plumbing the rich trove of myth, fact, and legend surrounding these familar animals.
From the plowing field to the rodeo to the temple, Velten tracks the constantly changing social relationship between man and cattle, beginning with the domestication of aurochs around 9000 BCE. From there, Cow launches into a fascinating story of religious fanaticism, scientific exploits, and the economic transformations engendered by the trade of the numerous products derived from the animal. She explores in engaging detail how despite cattles prominence at two ends of a wide spectrum: Hinduism venerates the cow as one of the most sacred members of the animal kingdom, while beef is a prized staple of the American diet. Thought provoking and informative, Cow restores this oft-overlooked animal to the nobility it richly deserves.

Hannah Velten: author's other books


Who wrote Cow? Find out the surname, the name of the author of the book and a list of all author's works by series.

Cow — read online for free the complete book (whole text) full work

Below is the text of the book, divided by pages. System saving the place of the last page read, allows you to conveniently read the book "Cow" online for free, without having to search again every time where you left off. Put a bookmark, and you can go to the page where you finished reading at any time.

Light

Font size:

Reset

Interval:

Bookmark:

Make
Cow Animal Series editor Jonathan Burt Already published Crow Boria - photo 1

Cow

Picture 2

Animal

Series editor: Jonathan Burt

Already published

Crow
Boria Sax

Ant
Charlotte Sleigh

Tortoise
Peter Young

Cockroach
Marion Copeland

Dog
Susan McHugh

Oyster
Rebecca Stott

Bear
Robert E. Bieder

Fox
Martin Wallen

Salmon
Peter Coates

Snake
Drake Stutesman

Whale
Joe Roman

Falcon
Helen Macdonald

Bee
Clare Preston

Tiger
Susie Green

Parrot
Paul Carter

Cat
Katherine M. Rogers

Fly
Steven Connor

Peacock
Christine E. Jackson

Rat
Jonathan Burt

Forthcoming

Swan
Peter Young

Duck
Victoria de Rijke

Shark
Dean Crawford

Spider
Katja and Sergiusz Michalski

Hare
Simon Carnell

Cow

Hannah Velten

REAKTION BOOKS For my brother Christian Velten Published by REAKTION BOOKS - photo 3

REAKTION BOOKS

For my brother, Christian Velten

Published by

REAKTION BOOKS LTD

33 Great Sutton Street

London EC1V 0DX, UK

www.reaktionbooks.co.uk

First published 2007

Copyright Hannah Velten 2007

All rights reserved

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publishers.

Page references in the Photo Acknowledgements and
Index match the printed edition of this book.

Printed and bound in China

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Velten, Hannah

Cow. (Animal)

1. Cattle 2. Cattle History 3. Animals and civilization
4. Human-animal relationships

I. Title

636.2

eISBN: 9781861894861

Contents

Michael J Austin Right of Way 2005 oil on canvas This is a fighting bull - photo 4

Michael J Austin, Right of Way, 2005, oil on canvas. This is a fighting bull from Andalusia, southern Spain, painted at home a breeding ranch in the country.

Introduction: Reintroducing the
Cow, Bull and Ox

In no animal is there to met with a greater variety of kinds; and in none, a more humble and pliant disposition... a source of inexhaustible wealth the pride and boast of this happy country.

Thomas Bewick, A General History of Quadrupeds (1790)

There are over 1.37 billion cattle in the world. How many have you met? Chances are if you live in the West, not many, or none. You can imagine being close to a cow: experiencing their weighty bulk near you, feeling their hot, grassy breath on your face, touching their cool, slimy muzzle or experiencing their curling, sandpaper-like tongue licking your skin. Our ancestors would have known this close contact with cattle, living and working with them, relying on them almost exclusively for food and labour, and even sharing their diseases.

This unique relationship between humans and cattle has shaped millennia of global history and culture both in religious and secular life. In fact, as one commentator states, No other event in early history was of such comparably far reaching significance for the development of human culture as the domestication of oxen.

From their limited global beginnings in the Near East, the Indus Valley and Africa, the man-made domestic cow followed in the wake of human movement; becoming the symbol of a civilized life. Cattle were revered, loved, exalted and romanticized.

Today, cattle are on virtually every continent in the world and the word cow is recognized in 539 different languages and dialects. Yet, in the West, most cows are hidden away on farms where only a few lucky people continue to relate with them.

We do have a cattle culture of sorts in the modern Western world, but it is generally not a happy lot for the cow. Cattle cultures are now big business: dictated by the consumers, fast-food outlets and supermarkets, processors, abattoirs, transporters, auctioneers, commodity traders, vets and scientists there are few romantic associations attached to modern cattle production, except the sight of cattle grazing in the fields.

But what does this mean for cows, and our relationship with them? Our huge, urban societies demand a steady supply of lean meat, wholesome milk and leather, of a uniform quality at a reasonable price. To meet these demands, the cow has been turned into an object one that is bred, reared and grown to specification, as cheaply as possible, which means essentially that economies of scale dictate the means of production.

Although cattle have largely escaped the excesses of intensive production compared with pigs and poultry, there are now far fewer people looking after more cows than ever before: this is as true of cattle in automated beef-lots as of those being raised on cattle stations in Latin America and Australia.

If there are fewer people looking after cattle, is it obvious that the majority of beef- and veal-eaters, milk-drinkers and leather-wearers have not the slightest link with cattle. As a consequence, most cattle production, transportation and slaughter goes on behind closed doors, and it is only through investigative journalism, animal rights campaigners, environmentalists and the mass media that our current cultural views and opinions of cattle are formed. As a result, people today are generally ignorant of cattle: for example, few realize that the cow has to have a calf before she will give milk; she does not produce milk naturally for humans. In a media-informed age, you may see the cow as a staggering, BSE-infected mad cow, an exploited poor cow, an environment-polluting hoofed locust or an esteemed sacred cow?

John Kenny Lady in White 2005 gicle print on Hahnemuhle Rag paper Among the - photo 5

John Kenny Lady in White, 2005, gicle print on Hahnemuhle Rag paper. Among the sacred cows of Gujarat, India.

Apart from the last-named, the images we are fed of cattle are essentially negative. Hopefully, this potted cultural history of cattle will reintroduce you to the bull, cow, ox and calf as your ancestors would have viewed them: in a positive light, as fearsome adversaries, mythical beings, as mobile wealth and respected animal companions.

These terms are used throughout the book:

bull entire male
cow female who has produced a calf
heifer young female who is yet to calve
ox castrated male used as a source of power
steer castrated male used for beef production

Wild Ox to Domesticates
AUROCHS EVOLUTION

Domestic or true cattle belong to the order Artiodactyla (mammals with an even numbers of toes on each foot), and along with sheep, goats and antelope, cattle belong to the family of horned, ruminant herbivores called bovidae (bovines). Within this family, cattle belong to the sub-family bovinae and the genus Bos.

Domestic cattle throughout the world are all descended from a single wild species,

Next page
Light

Font size:

Reset

Interval:

Bookmark:

Make

Similar books «Cow»

Look at similar books to Cow. We have selected literature similar in name and meaning in the hope of providing readers with more options to find new, interesting, not yet read works.


Reviews about «Cow»

Discussion, reviews of the book Cow and just readers' own opinions. Leave your comments, write what you think about the work, its meaning or the main characters. Specify what exactly you liked and what you didn't like, and why you think so.