Introduction

Abstract

Companion Animals in Everyday Life: Situating Human-Animal Engagement within Cultures is an interdisciplinary collection shedding light on human-animal relationships and interactions around the world. The book offers a predominantly empirical look at social and cultural practices related to companion animals in Mexico, Poland, the Netherlands, Japan, China and Taiwan, Vietnam, USA and Turkey, among others. It focuses on how dogs, cats, rabbits and members of other species are perceived and treated in various cultures, highlighting commonalities and differences between them. A few of the many topics covered in the book are: (1) what makes a companion animal and what makes a nuisance animal, and how and where these categories permeate; (2) the adoption of the cultural patterns of pet keeping from the West in post-communist European and Asian countries; (3) the cultural practice of naming companion animals using human names; (4) the rise of popularity of rabbits as companion animals across the world; (5) the multiplicity of dimensions of the human-animal bond in times of a nuclear disaster; (6) the social and political attitudes to feral, stray and semi-stray animals; as well as (7) public perceptions of the animal adoption process and (8) strategies of strengthening the public awareness of the link between animal abuse and domestic violence. The book looks at these and numerous other issues from a variety of perspectives. Its interdisciplinary character is reflected by the academic background of the authors, one that includes psychology, anthropology, philosophy, cultural studies, history, sociology, religion studies, as well as literary studies.