How Prevalent are Invertebrates in Human-Animal Scholarship? Scoping Study of Anthrozoös and Society & Animals

Rhoda M. Wilkie*, Lisa Jean Moore, Claire Molloy

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)
12 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The field of Human-Animal Studies (HAS) is about human-animal relations. However, which animals does the field encompass? In recent years, some scholars have noted a bias towards vertebrate species, especially domesticated mammals. To assess how prevalent (or not) invertebrates have been in HAS scholarship, a three-stage scoping study was conducted of two pioneering journals in the field: Anthrozoös and Society & Animals. This article reports on preliminary findings, and confirms that human-animal scholarship, as presented in these two leading journals, is characterised by “institutional vertebratism”, albeit the full extent of this invertebrate knowledge gap needs to be fully assessed. If the next generation of HAS scholars is to fully comprehend the full range of interspecies contexts, they must be more inclusive in terms of the diversity of vertebrate and invertebrate species studied. Widening the species net is therefore a necessary corrective to addressing vertebrate bias in this field.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)656–677
Number of pages22
JournalSociety & Animals
Volume27
Issue number7
Early online date11 Dec 2019
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2019

Keywords

  • Vertebrate bias
  • invertebrates
  • scoping study
  • HAS scholarship

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