Week 2 Reading Responses - Marianne

Week 2 Reading Responses - Marianne

1. Linnaeus’s method of organizing species influenced the way that the zoos were physically laid out on the ground.  Organizing the species by invertebrate and vertebrate animals, and then down from those categories into many other smaller groupings.  This focus on genus influenced the ways in which zoos added animals to their collections,  instead of working towards a variety of animals for the zoo’s collection, they worked to complete certain genuses.  To complete a certain genus would elevate the zoo in the ranks of zoo quality.  
The stamp collecting relates quite closely to the above mentioned way of putting together a zoo collection.  The stamp collecting method of zoo composition put most of the emphasis on pulling together the largest possible collection of animals, instead of focusing on things like long term breeding and preservation programs.  The stamp collecting method was problematic for quite a few reasons,  it perpetuated the idea that animals were plentiful and that more could always be required.  And secondly it overlooked the fact that zoos could serve a much more important purpose than just being a venue for people to see animals, they could be a means of preserving species that may otherwise go extinct.  

2. While natural history collections were most notably used for the rich to show of their wonderful collections to their rich friends in the 1700s and 1800s, natural history collections and books also were something that lower and middle class people were able to show to their children to show their children the wonder of god’s kingdom.  Zoos could be used in a similar means, possibly even more effective, because seeing these unbelievable animals up close and living was probably quite an experience for children at the time.  The zoological parks also gave the lower and middle classes opportunities they never had to mingle with the upper classes of society.

3.  In the zoos people wanted to see exotic animals, and especially their babies,  because after all they are cute and who doesn’t love baby animals?  But the zoos overbred the animals and lots and lots of them have ended up as people’s exotic pets, or in far below par roadside zoos and menageries,  as circus performance animals, tv performance animals and individuals exotic pets.  Lincoln Park Zoo, like most zoos started out as a showboat zoo. In many ways I think that most zoos remain showboat zoos, even if they are now also interested in preserving animal life.  

4. According to Berger we now look at animals because of the way in which they have been removed from our lives due to industrialization and capitalism.  He says we used to look at animals because they lived along with us, and they were a part of our lives, we looked at them for answers to questions we had in life and we looked at them because they were a source for food, for shelter, for clothing, etc.  Berger says that because when industrialism came around, and capitalism started to take a stronger hold, cities became more common and larger and most people became separated from animals we had lived side by side with in the past we gained an interest in seeing animals in zoos, and in children’s toys and decoration motifs. He mentioned the use of animals to express human characteristics throughout time, heavily quoting the Iliad.  I think that when Berger spoke of “similar, but not identical, abyss of non-comprehension” when an animal and a human look at each other in many cases there’s is an acknowledgement of difference and perhaps a bit of curiosity.  Maybe I’m just projecting a bit much onto animals though.  I found the whole essay to be really interesting.  I’m fascinated by the way in which people have stopped living alongside animals and how treatment of animals has changed over the years. And the ways in which we view animals today and how that affects the way we treat them.