Zoos and Eyes

Contesting Captivity and Seeking Successor Practices

Dados Bibliográficos

ID8097030
AutoresRalph Acampora (autor correspondente)
Ano2005
Volume13
Fascículo1
Páginas69-88
Data de publicação2005-01-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoSociety and Animals (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1063-1119 • E-ISSN: 1568-5306
EditoraBrill (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1163/1568530053966643
OpenAlexW1965243851
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas38

This paper compares the phenomenological structure of zoological exhibition to the pattern prevalent in pornography. It examines several disanalogies between the two, finds them lacking or irrelevant, and concludes that the proposed analogy is strong enough to serve as a critical lens through which to view the institution of zoos. The central idea uncovered in this process of interpretation is paradoxical: Zoos are pornographic in that they make the nature of their subjects disappear precisely by overexposing them. The paper asserts that the keep are thus degraded or marginalized through the marketing and consumption of their very visibility and criticizes the pretense of preservation. Furthermore, the paper subjects the related framework of captivity to Foucauldian analysis and critique—we see that the "zoöpticon" deserves designation as an island of power in the carceral archipelago of hegemonic social institutions mapped by Foucault. Hence, this paper suggests that the zoo as we know it be phased out in favor of richer and less oppressive modes of encountering other forms of life; toward this end, the paper explores and assesses alternative approaches to, and practices of, nonhuman animal spectatorship and cross-species conviviality

Aesthetics · Archipelago · Art · Art history · Captivity · Environmental ethics · Exhibition · Hegemony · Institution · Interpretation (philosophy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Social science · Sociology · Successor cardinal · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology · History · Law · Philosophy