New Books in Animal Studies Marcy Norton, "The Tame and the Wild: People and Animals after 1492" (Harvard UP, 2024)
Jan 11, 2026
In this engaging discussion, Marcy Norton, a historian specializing in Atlantic world interactions, reveals insights from her new book on the pivotal role of animals after 1492. She contrasts European hunting practices with Indigenous methods of familiarization, highlighting how these different approaches shaped societies. Norton also explores the implications of livestock husbandry on Indigenous peoples and connects European views of animals to misunderstandings of their practices. A fascinating look at how human-animal relations influenced history!
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Personal Impulse Sparked The Project
- Marcy Norton began the project partly because of her personal bafflement at contemporary human-animal relations.
- She connected that feeling to archival surprises from her earlier research on tobacco and chocolate.
Subjectivity Is Socially Produced
- Subjectivity of animals is produced through interaction and cultural structures, not just biology.
- Marcy Norton argues observers' interactions shape what we perceive about animal minds.
Hunting Creates Different Animal Bonds
- European aristocratic hunting produced close relations with vassal animals like dogs, horses, and raptors.
- Indigenous predation emphasized mimesis and becoming one with prey, creating a different animal subjectivity.
