The Meaning of Horses Biosocial Encounters [Hardcover]

The Meaning of Horses: Biosocial Encounters examines some of the engagements or entanglements that link the lived experiences of human and non-human animals. The contributors discuss horse-human relationships in multiple contexts, times and places, highlighting variations in the meaning of horses as well as universals of horsiness. They consider how horses are unlike other animals, and cover topics such as commodification, identity, communication and performance. This collection emphasises the agency of the horse and a need to move beyond anthropocentric studies, with a theoretical approach that features naturecultures, co-being and biosocial encounters as interactive forms of becoming. Rooted in anthropology and multispecies ethnography, this book introduces new questions and areas for consideration in the field of animals and society.

1. Introduction: Meaning of Horses  (Dona Lee Davis and Anita Maurstad)  PART 1: COMMODIFICATION AND IDENTITY  2. From Horses to Jesus: Saving Souls in the Transition from Pagan to Christian Scandinavia (Kristin Armstrong Oma)  3. Purity, Nobility, Beauty and Performance: Past and Present   Construction of Meaning for the Arabian Horse (Christoph Lange)  4. From Servant to Therapist: The Changing Meaning of Horses in Finland (Riitta-Marja Leinonen)  5. From Working to Winning: The Shifting Symbolic Value of Connemara  Ponies in the West of Ireland (Claire J. Brown)  PART 2: COMMUNICATION AND RELATION  6. Learning to Communicate: The Triad of (Mis)Communication in Horse Riding Lessons (Katherine Dashper)  7. Follow the Horse: The Complexities of Collaboration between the Lasso-pole Horse (uurgach mor) and his Rider among Mongolian Horse Herders (Charlotte Marchina)  8. My Horse is Not My Therapist: Embodied Communicative Practices and   tlcš