The Sheep People - The Ontology of Making Lives, Building Homes and Forging Herds in Early Bronze Age Norway - Kristin Armstrong Oma

The Sheep People - The Ontology of Making Lives, Building Homes and Forging Herds in Early Bronze Age Norway - Kristin Armstrong Oma

Understanding Animals: Perception, Sentience and Anthropomorphism

The Sheep People - The Ontology of Making Lives, Building Homes and Forging Herds in Early Bronze Age Norway - Kristin Armstrong Oma

Kristin Armstrong Oma [+-]
University of Stavanger
Dr. Kristin Armstrong Oma is Associate Professor and Head of Research at the University of Stavanger, Archaeological museum (2013-present). She is an archaeologist and holds a PhD in archaeology from the University of Southampton (2002-2004), and a postdoctoral fellowship in archaeology from the University of Oslo (2010-2013). Previously, she was a junior lecturer in the department of archaeology at the University of Oslo, and has also participated in a wide range of archaeological fieldwork. Her research is situated in-between archaeology and human-animal studies. In her scholarly work she actively engages in arenas of archaeology and also of interdisciplinary human-animal studies arenas. She has published extensively on the relationships between humans and animals in the past, and she was guest editor of a Society and Animals special issue on archaeology, as well as co-editor of a World Archaeology volume called Humans and Animals.

Description

Chapter 2 presents a case for the sentience of animals, based upon recent research from various disciplines outside of archaeology, such as biology, psychology, sociology, anthropology and neuroscience. An in-depth discussion of anthropomorphism problematises the normative scientific view of the essentialist difference between humans and other animals. Anthropomorphism is situated in examples from past societies throughout history in order to make a case for different perceptions of animals in pre-humanist societies. Further, neuroscience and biology are drawn upon to make a case for inter-species physiology - notably mirror neurons and the hormone oxytocin.

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Citation

Armstrong Oma, Kristin. Understanding Animals: Perception, Sentience and Anthropomorphism. The Sheep People - The Ontology of Making Lives, Building Homes and Forging Herds in Early Bronze Age Norway. Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. p. 17-34 Jun 2018. ISBN 9781781792513. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=26512. Date accessed: 11 Nov 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.26512. Jun 2018

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