Samantha Hurn
Biographic Data
| ID | 132394 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Samantha Hurn |
| GIVEN NAMES | Samantha |
| FAMILY NAME | Hurn |
| SIGNATURE | HURN S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Exeter |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4876-458X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 50 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 14 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Why we should keep quiet at the zoo
Zoos are typically public attractions that do not explicitly, or through a more implicit culture, expect quietness from their guests. This paper will explore whether quietness is something we should aim for when we are visiting zoos. Primarily through analogy with other public spaces which share some of the key characteristics of zoos (libraries and schools, cinemas, theatres and galleries, war memorials, and hospitals and gardens), we suggest th…
A desirable privation
This article describes and discusses a set of exercises in silent zoo visiting conducted at two zoos in the Southwest of the UK in 2019. The visits were part of a wider project on the auditory culture of zoos, institutions which have tended to be analysed by reference to their concern with the visual display of captive other-than-human animals (henceforth animals). Linking ideas on silence that have emerged from work in anthropology and sound stu…
An Individual’s Lived Experiences of Taking Cannabis-Based Medicinal Products (CBMPs) to Treat Anxiety
This report documents the case of a patient (the author) participating in a clinical trial of medical cannabis ( Cannabis sativa L.)-the Sapphire Access Scheme, run by the Sapphire Medical Clinic as part of the UK Medical Cannabis Registry-to explore the impacts of cannabis-based medicinal products (CBMPs) on anxiety. For most of my life, I have experienced often very serious bouts of poor mental health arising, in part, from childhood abuse, and…
Listening after the animals
In anthropology and across the humanities and social sciences, zoos have tended to be theorized as places of spectacle. Scholars often focus on the ways in which these institutions enable the viewing of other-than-human animals by human publics. This article, however, uses sound-focused ethnographic fieldwork to engage with two UK zoos and to describe a particular mode of cross-species listening which is enacted by zookeepers. The concepts of pas…
Communication, Animal
Communication between humans and nonhuman animals has been complicated by traditional assumptions that human language is preeminent. While some anthropologists have explored communication in nonhuman primates to inform our understanding of the evolution of human language, there has been reluctance within sociocultural anthropology to consider the communicative competencies of other species as intrinsically valuable. However, spoken language is ju…
Care as an Alternative to Euthanasia? Reconceptualizing Veterinary Palliative and End-of-life Care
Palliative care is routinely offered to humans in the United Kingdom, while euthanasia remains illegal. The converse is true for nonhuman animals (henceforth animals). Indeed, euthanasia is widely accepted as the appropriate course of action for "suffering" animals, and for those whose behaviors or suspected ill health are thought to pose a threat to others. This article details examples of nonhuman death at a multi-faith ashram whose members veh…
Animals as Producers, Consumers and Consumed
This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Taylor & Francis via the DOI in this record
Anthropology and Cryptozoology
Students and Fieldwork Collide
This paper discusses how students may be involved in a fieldwork learning process through supervised participating in the fieldwork setting of their supervisor. I focus on the issues associated with introducing undergraduate students to the practicalities of ethnographic fieldwork
Humans and Other Animals
Humans and Other Animals is about the myriad and evolving ways in which humans and animals interact, the divergent cultural constructions of humanity and animality found around the world, and individual experiences of other animals. Samantha Hurn explores the work of anthropologists and scholars from related disciplines concerned with the growing field of anthrozoology. Case studies from a wide range of cultural contexts are discussed, and reader…
Dressing Down
Cet article est consacré à l'habillage des animaux non-humains. En effet, alors que bien des anthropologues ont souligné que certaines espèces d'animaux domestiques constituent des accessoires ou des marqueurs d'une identité culturelle ou individuelle, la pratique consistant à doter d'accessoires, vestimentaires ou autres, les animaux eux-mêmes a reçu peu d'attention. Cet article entend combler ce vide, et ce faisant, soutenir que ce sujet est d'…
What's in a name? Anthrozoology, human‐animal studies, animal studies or…? (Respond to this article at http
Human interactions with other animals feature regularly in the pages of Anthropology Today, and academic research focusing on the human‐animal relationship is undergoing something of a boom in the social sciences and humanities generally. This comment, prompted by Caplan's paper ‘Death on the farm’ in the last issue of AT, considers the place of human‐animal interactions in anthropology through a discussion of the terminology and methodologies em…
Here be Dragons? No, big cats! Predator symbolism in rural West Wales
The presence of non-endemic 'Alien Big Cats' (ABCs) in Britain is an oft debated topic in the press and the public sphere, especially in rural areas where agriculture is the dominant industry. Based on seven years of fieldwork in a farming community in rural Ceredigion, West Wales, this paper considers the 'Big Cat' phenomenon from the perspectives of informants for whom inexplicable livestock losses must be accounted for and 'rationalised'. More…
What's Love Got to Do With It? The Interplay of Sex and Gender in the Commercial Breeding of Welsh Cobs
The lack of importance traditionally ascribed to human-nonhuman animal relationships in the social sciences has meant that while commercial sex in the human realm has been well documented, very few socio-cultural studies of commercial sex involving nonhuman animals have been undertaken to date. However, the growing recognition that nonhuman, as well as human, animals are “actors” means that their role in the sex trade, (commercial breeding) becom…
The `Cardinauts' of the Western Coast of Wales
This article is concerned with considering non-human animals as examples of inalienable material culture. The non-human animals in question are the horses indigenous to a particular area of West Wales in the UK, where they have been selectively bred for centuries. The purpose of this breeding programme initially was to ensure that they were able to negotiate the obstacles presented by the local landscape, thereby providing a lifeline to the peopl…
What's Love Got to Do With It? The Interplay of Sex and Gender in the Commercial Breeding of Welsh Cobs
The lack of importance traditionally ascribed to human-nonhuman animal relationships in the social sciences has meant that while commercial sex in the human realm has been well documented, very few socio-cultural studies of commercial sex involving nonhuman animals have been undertaken to date. However, the growing recognition that nonhuman, as well as human, animals are “actors” means that their role in the sex trade, (commercial breeding) becom…
Care as an Alternative to Euthanasia? Reconceptualizing Veterinary Palliative and End-of-life Care
Palliative care is routinely offered to humans in the United Kingdom, while euthanasia remains illegal. The converse is true for nonhuman animals (henceforth animals). Indeed, euthanasia is widely accepted as the appropriate course of action for "suffering" animals, and for those whose behaviors or suspected ill health are thought to pose a threat to others. This article details examples of nonhuman death at a multi-faith ashram whose members veh…
Animals as Producers, Consumers and Consumed
This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Taylor & Francis via the DOI in this record
Listening after the animals
In anthropology and across the humanities and social sciences, zoos have tended to be theorized as places of spectacle. Scholars often focus on the ways in which these institutions enable the viewing of other-than-human animals by human publics. This article, however, uses sound-focused ethnographic fieldwork to engage with two UK zoos and to describe a particular mode of cross-species listening which is enacted by zookeepers. The concepts of pas…
Here be Dragons? No, big cats! Predator symbolism in rural West Wales
The presence of non-endemic 'Alien Big Cats' (ABCs) in Britain is an oft debated topic in the press and the public sphere, especially in rural areas where agriculture is the dominant industry. Based on seven years of fieldwork in a farming community in rural Ceredigion, West Wales, this paper considers the 'Big Cat' phenomenon from the perspectives of informants for whom inexplicable livestock losses must be accounted for and 'rationalised'. More…
Dressing Down
Cet article est consacré à l'habillage des animaux non-humains. En effet, alors que bien des anthropologues ont souligné que certaines espèces d'animaux domestiques constituent des accessoires ou des marqueurs d'une identité culturelle ou individuelle, la pratique consistant à doter d'accessoires, vestimentaires ou autres, les animaux eux-mêmes a reçu peu d'attention. Cet article entend combler ce vide, et ce faisant, soutenir que ce sujet est d'…
The `Cardinauts' of the Western Coast of Wales
This article is concerned with considering non-human animals as examples of inalienable material culture. The non-human animals in question are the horses indigenous to a particular area of West Wales in the UK, where they have been selectively bred for centuries. The purpose of this breeding programme initially was to ensure that they were able to negotiate the obstacles presented by the local landscape, thereby providing a lifeline to the peopl…
Students and Fieldwork Collide
This paper discusses how students may be involved in a fieldwork learning process through supervised participating in the fieldwork setting of their supervisor. I focus on the issues associated with introducing undergraduate students to the practicalities of ethnographic fieldwork
What's Love Got to Do With It? The Interplay of Sex and Gender in the Commercial Breeding of Welsh Cobs
The lack of importance traditionally ascribed to human-nonhuman animal relationships in the social sciences has meant that while commercial sex in the human realm has been well documented, very few socio-cultural studies of commercial sex involving nonhuman animals have been undertaken to date. However, the growing recognition that nonhuman, as well as human, animals are “actors” means that their role in the sex trade, (commercial breeding) becom…
The `Cardinauts' of the Western Coast of Wales
This article is concerned with considering non-human animals as examples of inalienable material culture. The non-human animals in question are the horses indigenous to a particular area of West Wales in the UK, where they have been selectively bred for centuries. The purpose of this breeding programme initially was to ensure that they were able to negotiate the obstacles presented by the local landscape, thereby providing a lifeline to the peopl…
Here be Dragons? No, big cats! Predator symbolism in rural West Wales
The presence of non-endemic 'Alien Big Cats' (ABCs) in Britain is an oft debated topic in the press and the public sphere, especially in rural areas where agriculture is the dominant industry. Based on seven years of fieldwork in a farming community in rural Ceredigion, West Wales, this paper considers the 'Big Cat' phenomenon from the perspectives of informants for whom inexplicable livestock losses must be accounted for and 'rationalised'. More…
What's in a name? Anthrozoology, human‐animal studies, animal studies or…? (Respond to this article at http
Human interactions with other animals feature regularly in the pages of Anthropology Today, and academic research focusing on the human‐animal relationship is undergoing something of a boom in the social sciences and humanities generally. This comment, prompted by Caplan's paper ‘Death on the farm’ in the last issue of AT, considers the place of human‐animal interactions in anthropology through a discussion of the terminology and methodologies em…
Dressing Down
Cet article est consacré à l'habillage des animaux non-humains. En effet, alors que bien des anthropologues ont souligné que certaines espèces d'animaux domestiques constituent des accessoires ou des marqueurs d'une identité culturelle ou individuelle, la pratique consistant à doter d'accessoires, vestimentaires ou autres, les animaux eux-mêmes a reçu peu d'attention. Cet article entend combler ce vide, et ce faisant, soutenir que ce sujet est d'…
Humans and Other Animals
Humans and Other Animals is about the myriad and evolving ways in which humans and animals interact, the divergent cultural constructions of humanity and animality found around the world, and individual experiences of other animals. Samantha Hurn explores the work of anthropologists and scholars from related disciplines concerned with the growing field of anthrozoology. Case studies from a wide range of cultural contexts are discussed, and reader…
Students and Fieldwork Collide
This paper discusses how students may be involved in a fieldwork learning process through supervised participating in the fieldwork setting of their supervisor. I focus on the issues associated with introducing undergraduate students to the practicalities of ethnographic fieldwork
Anthropology and Cryptozoology
Animals as Producers, Consumers and Consumed
This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Taylor & Francis via the DOI in this record
Care as an Alternative to Euthanasia? Reconceptualizing Veterinary Palliative and End-of-life Care
Palliative care is routinely offered to humans in the United Kingdom, while euthanasia remains illegal. The converse is true for nonhuman animals (henceforth animals). Indeed, euthanasia is widely accepted as the appropriate course of action for "suffering" animals, and for those whose behaviors or suspected ill health are thought to pose a threat to others. This article details examples of nonhuman death at a multi-faith ashram whose members veh…
Communication, Animal
Communication between humans and nonhuman animals has been complicated by traditional assumptions that human language is preeminent. While some anthropologists have explored communication in nonhuman primates to inform our understanding of the evolution of human language, there has been reluctance within sociocultural anthropology to consider the communicative competencies of other species as intrinsically valuable. However, spoken language is ju…
Listening after the animals
In anthropology and across the humanities and social sciences, zoos have tended to be theorized as places of spectacle. Scholars often focus on the ways in which these institutions enable the viewing of other-than-human animals by human publics. This article, however, uses sound-focused ethnographic fieldwork to engage with two UK zoos and to describe a particular mode of cross-species listening which is enacted by zookeepers. The concepts of pas…
A desirable privation
This article describes and discusses a set of exercises in silent zoo visiting conducted at two zoos in the Southwest of the UK in 2019. The visits were part of a wider project on the auditory culture of zoos, institutions which have tended to be analysed by reference to their concern with the visual display of captive other-than-human animals (henceforth animals). Linking ideas on silence that have emerged from work in anthropology and sound stu…
An Individual’s Lived Experiences of Taking Cannabis-Based Medicinal Products (CBMPs) to Treat Anxiety
This report documents the case of a patient (the author) participating in a clinical trial of medical cannabis ( Cannabis sativa L.)-the Sapphire Access Scheme, run by the Sapphire Medical Clinic as part of the UK Medical Cannabis Registry-to explore the impacts of cannabis-based medicinal products (CBMPs) on anxiety. For most of my life, I have experienced often very serious bouts of poor mental health arising, in part, from childhood abuse, and…
Why we should keep quiet at the zoo
Zoos are typically public attractions that do not explicitly, or through a more implicit culture, expect quietness from their guests. This paper will explore whether quietness is something we should aim for when we are visiting zoos. Primarily through analogy with other public spaces which share some of the key characteristics of zoos (libraries and schools, cinemas, theatres and galleries, war memorials, and hospitals and gardens), we suggest th…
Geographies of human-animal interactions (11 works) · Sociology (11 works) · Human-Animal Interaction Studies (10 works) · Anthropology (8 works) · Biology (6 works) · Political science (6 works) · Psychology (6 works) · Ecology (5 works) · Epistemology (5 works) · Ethnography (5 works)