Animals, Machines, and the Quest for Humanity in Late Mediaeval France
Funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) and University of Groningen via the Research Programme 'PhDs in the Humanities' for talented researchers.
How were nonhuman animals entangled in mediaeval conceptions of humanity?
How did such entanglements affect the animals involved?
How did such entanglements affect the animals involved?
This three-part project furnishes a historical dimension to topical questions about humankind’s exploitation of nature and environmental ethics, based on original historical research. Homo Imperfectus critically examines how fifteenth-century Christian communities conceptualised humanity via the anthropocentric rationalisation, mechanisation, and subjugation of animals.
Mediaeval encyclopaedias, based on classical knowledge of zoology and Christian prescriptions, are compendia about Creation that readers could utilise to fathom God’s plan for humankind. Animals were therefore described in terms of their potential role in the development of humanity, i.e. as food, draught animal, moral symbol, or medicine. I consider these discourses of animality to be prescriptive: encyclopaedias thus naturalised human expectations of animals and, because of their emphasis on the inferiority and nonhumanity of animals, they also articulated norms for humans. This way, people who ostensibly diverged from these norms could be represented as ‘inhuman’. These rhetorics are still often invoked to subjugate animals and human minorities. In this project, I deconstruct such discourses to destabilise their present self-evidence.
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The aforementioned expectations of animals are explicitly visible in human reproductions of animals in mechanical form. For instance, the dukes of Burgundy installed all kinds of artificial animals at their estate in Hesdin to awe and frighten European aristocrats. Because of their resemblance to biological animals, artificial animals provoked similar questions as the artificial intelligences that are presently developed. Is an organism no more than the sum of its parts? Does humankind have such an intrinsic understanding of the natural world that it can play for God now as well? What position do artificial intelligences occupy in the order of Creation, and can they dethrone their human creators? These questions, now more urgent than ever, play a prominent role in my project.
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The self-evidence of human superiority was undermined when biological animals diverged from the—humanly prescribed—expectational pattern, like when a wandering pig killed a human infant. Valois-Burgundy was the epicentre of numerous secular and ecclesiastical ‘animal trials’ that were organised in Western Europe for many centuries as a reaction to such transgressions of God’s earthly hierarchy. To which extent were these trials social laboratories where everyday modes of sociality between humans and animals could be reinvented and re-naturalised?
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Each of these themes suggests an interest in defining, subjugating, and controlling the natural world. By approaching mediaeval books of beasts, automata, and animal trials from an anthropocritical perspective, Homo Imperfectus challenges human exceptionalism and develops new insights into anthropocentrism and its (non)human discontents, past and present, to contribute towards a more sustainable world.
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Publications
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Academic Activities
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Public Activities
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Media
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Funding
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Academic Journal Articles (Peer-Reviewed)
Academic Journal Articles
Magazines and Professional Journals
Varkens voor de rechter. Het dier als misdadiger in de Middeleeuwen.
Geschiedenis Magazine, 1 June 2023 (pp. 32-35).
Bij de beesten af. De vergeten geschiedenis van de dierenprocessen.
Knack, 15 June 2022 (pp. 98-101).
Geschiedenis Magazine, 1 June 2023 (pp. 32-35).
Bij de beesten af. De vergeten geschiedenis van de dierenprocessen.
Knack, 15 June 2022 (pp. 98-101).
Blogs
Organisation
International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds. July 2023.
- Convenor: The Natures of the Beast: Medieval Animal Entanglements, I.
- Chair, The Natures of the Beast: Medieval Animal Entanglements, I.
- Convenor: The Natures of the Beast: Medieval Animal Entanglements, II.
Invited Lectures and Talks
To Name a Hog. . . and Hang Her: Medieval Pig Trials.
Animals in Arts, Humanities, and Society I: Power of Pigs. University of Groningen, 25 January 2023.
Animals in Arts, Humanities, and Society I: Power of Pigs. University of Groningen, 25 January 2023.
Conference, Workshop, and Symposium Papers
‘In Here We Were Gods’: Animals and Automata at the Medieval Wonder Park of Hesdin.
Northeast Popular and American Culture Conference. 13 October 2023.
The Lion, the Weasel, and the Doodlebug: Entangled Species and Theriopoiesis in Middle French Encyclopaedias.
International Medieval Congress. University of Leeds, 5 July 2023.
The Unbounded Lion: Entangled Notions of Animality in the Middle French Properties of Things.
NLHF Medieval Animals Heritage Conference. Canterbury Christ Church University, 30 June 2023.
The Makings of a Lion: Entangled Notions of Animality in Medieval French Encyclopaedias.
Northeast Popular and American Culture Conference. 22 October 2022.
Casting Justice Before Swine: The Prosecution of Pigs in Late Mediaeval France.
The Joint Annual Conference of The Finnish Society for Human-Animal Studies and the Finnish Society for the Study of Religion. 7 April 2021.
Northeast Popular and American Culture Conference. 13 October 2023.
The Lion, the Weasel, and the Doodlebug: Entangled Species and Theriopoiesis in Middle French Encyclopaedias.
International Medieval Congress. University of Leeds, 5 July 2023.
The Unbounded Lion: Entangled Notions of Animality in the Middle French Properties of Things.
NLHF Medieval Animals Heritage Conference. Canterbury Christ Church University, 30 June 2023.
The Makings of a Lion: Entangled Notions of Animality in Medieval French Encyclopaedias.
Northeast Popular and American Culture Conference. 22 October 2022.
Casting Justice Before Swine: The Prosecution of Pigs in Late Mediaeval France.
The Joint Annual Conference of The Finnish Society for Human-Animal Studies and the Finnish Society for the Study of Religion. 7 April 2021.
Invited Lectures and Talks
‘These Violent Delights Have Violent Ends’: Animals and Robots in the Late Medieval Garden of Eden.
Religion, Culture and Society Public Lecture Series, University of Groningen, 13 March 2024.
Dieren voor het gerecht. Terug naar de Middeleeuwen?
Studium Generale, House of Connections Groningen, 25 September 2023.
Komt een kever bij de rechtbank. De vergeten geschiedenis van de dierenrechtszaken.
Museum University Lecture, Fries Museum, 30 October 2022.
Religion, Culture and Society Public Lecture Series, University of Groningen, 13 March 2024.
Dieren voor het gerecht. Terug naar de Middeleeuwen?
Studium Generale, House of Connections Groningen, 25 September 2023.
Komt een kever bij de rechtbank. De vergeten geschiedenis van de dierenrechtszaken.
Museum University Lecture, Fries Museum, 30 October 2022.
Interactive activities
“Svens Wilde Wereld.”
Weekend of Science, Faculty of Religion, Culture and Society, University of Groningen, 30 September 2023.
“Welke dieren zou jij aan een modern beestenboek toevoegen?”
Profielwerkstuk award event, Faculty of Religion, Culture and Society, University of Groningen, 20 April 2023.
“Svens Wilde Wereld.”
Weekend of Science, Faculty of Religion, Culture and Society, University of Groningen, 1 October 2022.
Weekend of Science, Faculty of Religion, Culture and Society, University of Groningen, 30 September 2023.
“Welke dieren zou jij aan een modern beestenboek toevoegen?”
Profielwerkstuk award event, Faculty of Religion, Culture and Society, University of Groningen, 20 April 2023.
“Svens Wilde Wereld.”
Weekend of Science, Faculty of Religion, Culture and Society, University of Groningen, 1 October 2022.
Interviews & Coverage
“In Middeleeuwen kon je als varken of bijenvolk de doodstraf krijgen.”
Vroege Vogels, NPO Radio 1 / BNNVARA, 7 July 2024. “Vermin & friend: Why mice deserve a space in your house.” UKrant, 13 May 2024. “Dieren voor het gerecht.” Quest, November 2023 (pp. 30-33). “Rondje Groningen: Landschap, lucht en universum.” RTV Noord, 22 September 2023. “Waarom het ene dier eten en het andere vertroetelen?” Dagblad van het Noorden, 29-30 July 2023. Published online as: “We doden 600 miljoen dieren per jaar voor hun vlees. In Nederland. Hoe lang is dat nog houdbaar?” (29 July 2023) “Waarom hielden Middeleeuwers rechtszaken tegen dieren?” OOG Op Wetenschap, OOG Radio (Omroep Organisatie Groningen), 22 March 2023. “Dieren voor de rechter.” Quest, no. 231, January 2023 (p. 16). “Dieren in het beklaagdenbankje.” Bionieuws, no. 20, 17 December 2022 (pp. 10-11). “Bijen en big in de beklaagdenbank.” Dagblad van het Noorden, 22-23 October 2022 (p. 23). Published online as: “Gestoken door een bij? Sleep hem voor de rechter. Middeleeuwers klaagden dieren aan, blijkt uit onderzoek van de RUG” (21 October 2022). “Medieval Animal Trials: Like Animals?” University of Groningen News Magazine, 27 September 2022. |
Podcasts
(Partial) funding of the project has been generously provided by:
2023
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Graduate Student Research Grant: Art and Architecture Across Borders in the Medieval World
Association Villard de Honnecourt for the Interdisciplinary Study of Technology, Science, and Art (AVISTA) |
2021
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PhDs in the Humanities Fellowship
Dutch Research Council (NWO) |