Prestación Familiar

late-modern period

2.3.1

Pre-history

The transition to subsistence farming as the dominant way of life occurred in the Neolithic (New Stone Age) period (about 10,000 years ago in Mesopotamia), reaching Britain around 3,000 B.C. This marked a change from the (semi- )nomadic hunter-gatherer way of life of the Paleolithic (lower Stone Age) period (Clutton-Brock, 1981, p. 47; Kalof, 2007) and it is at this point that the origins of taming wilderness lie. For approximately 1,000 years before this period, areas of land were cleared and certain indigenous and non-indigenous wild animal species (e.g. pigs, cattle, and sheep) were domesticated and kept for meat, produce, and materials. The nature and “intrinsic properties” of some animals meant that they were better suited to domestication than others (Clutton-Brock, 1981; Philo, 1998, p. 57). Galton’s (1865, p. 16) six conditions that animals must satisfy in order for them to be domesticable are that they should: be hardy; have an inborn liking for humans (i.e. they should be social and easily dominated); be comfort-loving (not prone to flight); be useful as a source of food or materials; be easy to tend; and finally, they should breed freely. Species not fulfilling all these requirements were destined to remain wild. Humans had limited or no control over such animals; they had less material worth, and they were less easily understood since their social behaviours were not aligned with those of humans. Species that fulfilled some of the six conditions, such as deer, may have remained

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semi-wild but have been managed and exploited by humans in ways other than those in which the truly domesticated are exploited.

Zooarchaeological data suggests that a “cultural taboo” over exploiting wild animals for food and resources existed from the Neolithic through to the Iron Age, where certain species were “sacred icons of the wilderness” (Sykes, 2017, pp. 4-7). The landscape of Bronze Age Britain was still largely forested; horses and oxen were tamed, whilst interest in exploiting wild animals for food and resources waned in this period as domesticated animals replaced the need for other resources (Bartosiewicz, 2013; Sykes, 2017). Wild animals continued to be exploited only occasionally through to the Iron Age in England but there is evidence of an increase in the utilisation of wildlife including mammals, birds, and fish in the transition to the Roman Empire (Sykes, 2017).

2.3.2

Middle Ages

In the Middle Ages, recreational hunting changed the way British people related to animals (and one another) following the Norman Conquest. Griffin (2007) provides a thorough account of hunting in this period, the core elements of which I report here. The royal pastime of deer hunting and the management that came with maintaining populations has had a long-standing bearing on the treatment and perception of other wild animals that were subsequently controlled in order to promote deer (e.g. rabbits, hares, and foxes). William I designated areas of England royal forests (known as “afforestation”) (Griffin, 2007) where, without a licence, it was prohibited to hunt all animals so that deer would not be disturbed. Afforestation altered the concept of wild animal ownership in the royal forests;

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before this, wild animals were considered to be “res nullis: property with no owner” up until the point they were caught, an idea which dated back to the Romans (Griffin, 2007, p. 16). After afforestation, wild animal ownership became detached from land ownership and deer species became property of the king in these areas. In 1087, William II shifted hunting rights to favoured landowners and away from land occupiers, marking a change in the role of wild animals for different people. For people not afforded hunting rights in afforested areas, the killing of wild animals, even for food, became prohibited and punishable, whilst recreationally hunting wild animals became an activity reserved for aristocracy and wealthy landowners throughout the Middle Ages. The period following the Conquest saw a shift from “a situation where people seemingly negotiated with the 'wilderness' and 'wild things' to one where people felt they had the right or the responsibility to bring them to order” (Allen & Sykes, 2011, p. 7).

2.3.3

Renaissance

Popular hunting manuals in the 16th _{century recommended control of “vermin”}

and predatory wild species such as foxes, badgers, wildcats, polecats, and otters (Justice, 2015). Whilst the wealthy classes hunted protected game animals, others interested in animal sports looked to wildlife unprotected by game laws, such as badgers, foxes, squirrels and otters, for their entertainment (Griffin, 2007). One sport that gained popularity in the Renaissance period is baiting, where badgers and other animals were pitted against trained dogs for sport.

Arguably the most significant events in wildlife history in terms of the legacy effects on human relationships with wild animals are the Tudor Vermin Acts, a

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series of legislative acts passed from 1566 (Lovegrove, 2007). They specified that varying sums of money would be paid per head for the control of named “vermin”, “pest”, and “predator” species including badgers, foxes, and hedgehogs. These Acts are the earliest evidence of systematic control of wild animals on a species specific basis. During this period (and extending beyond to the Stuart and Hanovarian periods), there was no question that certain species should be controlled and no consideration that control would cause species to become endangered (see Lovegrove, 2007 for a detailed account). Wild animals were killed under the Acts for reasons ranging from fear of large predators to genuine competition between humans and animals for food that had been triggered by the severe climate of the period. That many animals from the original lists (e.g. foxes, rats, badgers, magpies, and moles) are still considered to be pests in certain contexts today, despite no longer being in true competition with humans, demonstrates how measures based on historical factors become ingrained in cultural values.

2.3.4

Renaissance to Enlightenment

In early-modern England, animals were “outside the terms of moral reference” (Thomas, 1991, p. 148). It is argued by some that the most dominant view of animals in this period is Descartes’ (1637) “beast machine” theory (Wolloch, 1999, p. 706). It centred on the idea of human superiority, which was central to the general attitude towards animals at the time. Descartes rejected the idea that animals might have immortal souls; they were likened to machines with automatic movements and behaviours. The belief of the ancients that animals could communicate was rejected and whilst it was conceded that, in some

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activities, animals (and machines) might outperform humans, they were still considered inferior because they could not act from knowledge in all circumstances, as is the way of “man”. This extreme human exceptionalism is recognisable as the basis of many human-animal relationships through the industrial age but Preece (2007, pp. 365-366) argues that the “view of animals as insentient machines was pervasively subscribed to” is a fallacy. Whether or not this is the case, anthropocentric values that were established as part of Christian belief were widely adhered to during this period (White Jr, 1967).