Marcy Norton, "The Tame and the Wild: People and Animals after 1492" (Harvard UP, 2024)

Jan 11, 2026

In this engaging discussion, historian Marcy Norton dives into her book exploring the profound impact of human-animal relations post-1492. She reveals how European conquest was intricately linked to animals, from horses in military campaigns to livestock reshaping diets and economies. Norton contrasts indigenous practices of familiarization with European approaches to animals, highlighting overlooked perspectives. The episode also touches on the intersection of indigenous knowledge and early zoology, shedding light on cultural exchanges that shaped the modern world.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Books

Transcript

Episode notes

INSIGHT

Subjectivity Is Produced Through Interaction

Marcy Norton treats animal subjectivity as produced through interaction, not as an inherent trait.
She argues cultural structures shape how people perceive other animals' minds and behaviors.

INSIGHT

Hunting And Husbandry Shape Different Subjectivities

Norton distinguishes European aristocratic hunting and livestock husbandry as separate modes shaping animal subjectivity.
Hunting elevated horses, dogs, and raptors as respected 'vassal' subjects within elite relations.

INSIGHT

Predation Emphasizes Mimesis, Not Domestication

Indigenous predation emphasized mimesis and becoming one with prey, not intermediary trained animals.
Predation practices produced different perceptions of animal minds and porous human-animal boundaries.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

In The Tame and the Wild: People and Animals after 1492 (Harvard University Press, 2024), Dr. Marcy Norton offers a dramatic new interpretation of the encounter between Europe and the Americas that reveals the crucial role of animals in the shaping of the modern world.

When the men and women of the island of Guanahani first made contact with Christopher Columbus and his crew on October 12, 1492, the cultural differences between the two groups were vaster than the oceans that had separated them. There is perhaps no better demonstration than the divide in their respective ways of relating to animals. In this book, Dr. Norton tells a new history of the colonisation of the Americas, one that places wildlife and livestock at the centre of the story. She reveals that the encounters between European and Native American beliefs about animal life transformed societies on both sides of the Atlantic.

Europeans’ strategies and motives for conquest were inseparable from the horses that carried them in military campaigns and the dogs they deployed to terrorise Native peoples. Even more crucial were the sheep, cattle, pigs, and chickens whose flesh became food and whose skins became valuable commodities. Yet as central as the domestication of animals was to European plans in the Americas, Native peoples’ own practices around animals proved just as crucial in shaping the world after 1492. Cultures throughout the Caribbean, Amazonia, and Mexico were deeply invested in familiarisation: the practice of capturing wild animals—not only parrots and monkeys but even tapir, deer, and manatee—and turning some of them into “companion species.” These taming practices not only influenced the way Indigenous people responded to human and nonhuman intruders but also transformed European culture itself, paving the way for both zoological science and the modern pet.

This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose forthcoming book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network