Sentient genetics: Breeding the animal breeder as fundamental other

Abstract

This article discusses some aspects of the discourses of genetics in eighteenth-century animal breeding as they affected animals, agricultural labourers and breeders, with a specific focus on the work of the yeoman farmer and master breeder Robert Bakewell. Bakewell's celebrity as an agricultural innovator is discussed in the context of his class position. While the potential malleability of animals appeared limitless in the light of new breeding methods, the opportunities for the social mobility of humans remained subject to the apparently naturalised boundaries of their class position. © 2010 British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies.