British Animal Behaviour Studies in the Twentieth Century: Some Interdisciplinary Perspectives

Abstract

An understanding of our relationship with animals, and of the uncertain boundary between our dependence on them and our exploitation of them, demands an awareness of the historical extent of the purposes of our interaction. An examination of this past relationship provides a context for a better assessment of the present-day importance many of us place on animals as other beings who ultimately have independent interests and a discreet power over our own human behaviour: they have become agents who affect the quality of our own lives. Our study, knowledge and manipulation of animal behaviour lie at the centre of the human-animal relationship, as demonstrated by the variety of situations in which attempts have been made to acquire a better understanding of animal behaviour in order to secure human interests. From the standpoint of the historian, this variety demands much interdisciplinary analysis concentrating on the late-nineteenth and the twentieth centuries. In this chapter, some British examples will be discussed in relation to developments in the United States, where scientific studies of animal behaviour soon stole the lead from Britain at the beginning of the last century. The interdisciplinary potential of the historical study of British comparative (animal) psychology and ethology straddles many aspects of the arts and sciences; and the same is true of studies of animal behaviour that have been undertaken on a less scientific basis. It is perhaps surprising to find that a relatively new and ostensibly narrow research area (the history of studies of animal behaviour) has links with so many centres of thought and activity beyond its immediate academic boundaries. The history of comparative psychology and other studies of animal behaviour (pure and applied) in Britain offers interdisciplinary links with institutional, professional, ethical, recreational, literary and military histories. We will identify some of these links, most of which continue to offer opportunities for research across disciplines and subject areas. In doing so, we may perhaps also be able to understand the extent to which our attitudes to non-human animals have altered since the dissemination of Darwinian evolutionary theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved). (chapter)