The `Cardinauts' of the Western Coast of Wales

Exchanging and Exhibiting Horses in the Pursuit of Fame

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2390918
AutoresSamantha Hurn (0000-0003-4876-458X, University of Wales, Lampeter,, autor de correspondencia)
Año2008
Volumen13
Número3
Páginas335-355
Fecha de publicación2008-11-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Material Culture (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1359-1835 • E-ISSN: 1460-3586
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1359183508095499
OpenAlexW1990671041
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas24

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 people living on isolated farms and smallholdings in the area. However, now that horses are no longer integral to agricultural production, their selective breeding is continued to achieve different ends - the fame of their human owners who engage in a form of ceremonial exchange reminiscent of the Trobriand kula. Traditionally, kula participants travelled to neighbouring islands to exchange shell items which were, according to Malinowski `possessed for the sake of possession itself, and the ownership of them with the ensuing renown . . . the main source of their value' (1922: 89). As Leip (2001) notes when comparing bird watching in contemporary Sweden to the kula, the two practices are not directly comparable. Nonetheless, comparison is rewarding with regard to the motivations of the players involved. Such a position will form the basis of the discussion

Agriculture · Archaeology · Biology · Business · Ethnology · Genealogy · Geography · Indigenous · Negotiation · Position (finance · Possession (linguistics · Social science · Sociology · Culinary Culture and Tourism · Geographies of human-animal interactions · History · Human-Animal Interaction Studies · Ecology