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■しかく

歴史を語る際に美化されがちな主題の一つとして、人間と他の動物の関係をめぐる解釈がある。いわく、人間は他の動物を飼い馴らして食料・資源・労働力とすることで、文明発展の大きな土台を築き上げた、と。
ジャレド・ダイアモンドをはじめ、著名な歴史研究者らが提唱するこの肯定的な「飼い馴らし」観に一定の真理があることは否めない。なるほど動物は人の食料となり労働力となった。馬の脚力は軍事力を高め、動物由来の感染症は多くの人命を奪って侵略戦争を支えた。それが例えば西欧を中心とする国々の植民地政策を成功に導いた無視できない要因であることは、いまや論をまたない。
しかしながら、これを文明「発展」と捉えることに問題はないのだろうか。ここにはその「発展」なるものの陰で無念にも葬り去られたあまたの被害者たちの視点が決定的に欠けているように思えてならない。栄華を極めた帝国の歴史は、同時にその抑圧下にあった社会的弱者たちの歴史でもあった筈である。後者の視点から同じ歴史を振り返れば、成功に彩られたこれまでの物語とはまた違った風景が見えてくるのではないか。
本書は人間による他の動物の飼い馴らし(著者のいう??飼い貶し??)が、人間同士の大規模な暴力に手段と目的を与え、真の文明発展を妨げたと告発する衝撃的な歴史新釈である。世界各地に共通するこの飼い貶しに始まる暴力の伝統は、力なき者を苦しめる現代の略奪的資本主義にまで繋がっており、南北格差、環境破壊、武力紛争、等々の問題を引き起こしている。動物の境遇を中心に据え、独自の観点から人類の暴虐史を見つめ直す著者は、弱者の犠牲を顧みない歪んだ世界秩序の形成を歴史学のレベルで正面から糾弾し、病理の根を断ち切る方途を示す。(いのうえ・たいち 翻訳家)

商品の説明
内容(「BOOK」データベースより)
衝撃的な歴史新釈。歴史家の多くが無視してきた"暴力の伝統"とその"負の遺産"。"人類発展史"の暗部をえぐり出す警世の書。
著者について
David A. NIBERT 米・ウィテンバーグ大学社会学教授。「動物と社会」「世界変革」「少数集団」等の講義を担当。人間と他の動物に対する抑圧の絡み合いを研究する。著書に『動物の権利/人間の権利―絡み合う抑圧と解放運動』『宝くじ―州政府と夢への課税』。
続きを読む

■しかくNibert, David A. 2013 Animal Oppression and Human Violence: Domesecration, Capitalism, and Global Conflict, Columbia University Press, Critical Perspectives on Animals: Theory, Culture, Science, and Law, 336p. ISBN-10:0231151888 ISBN-13:978-0231151887 [amazon]/[kinokuniya]

Jared Diamond and other leading scholars have argued that the domestication of animals for food, labor, and tools of war has advanced the development of human society. But by comparing practices of animal exploitation for food and resources in different societies over time, David A. Nibert reaches a strikingly different conclusion. He finds in the domestication of animals, which he renames "domesecration," a perversion of human ethics, the development of large-scale acts of violence, disastrous patterns of destruction, and growth-curbing epidemics of infectious disease.

Nibert centers his study on nomadic pastoralism and the development of commercial ranching, a practice that has been largely controlled by elite groups and expanded with the rise of capitalism. Beginning with the pastoral societies of the Eurasian steppe and continuing through to the exportation of Western, meat-centered eating habits throughout today's world, Nibert connects the domesecration of animals to violence, invasion, extermination, displacement, enslavement, repression, pandemic chronic disease, and hunger. In his view, conquest and subjugation were the results of the need to appropriate land and water to maintain large groups of animals, and the gross amassing of military power has its roots in the economic benefits of the exploitation, exchange, and sale of animals. Deadly zoonotic diseases, Nibert shows, have accompanied violent developments throughout history, laying waste to whole cities, societies, and civilizations. His most powerful insight situates the domesecration of animals as a precondition for the oppression of human populations, particularly indigenous peoples, an injustice impossible to rectify while the material interests of the elite are inextricably linked to the exploitation of animals.

Nibert links domesecration to some of the most critical issues facing the world today, including the depletion of fresh water, topsoil, and oil reserves; global warming; and world hunger, and he reviews the U.S. government's military response to the inevitable crises of an overheated, hungry, resource-depleted world. Most animal-advocacy campaigns reinforce current oppressive practices, Nibert argues. Instead, he suggests reforms that challenge the legitimacy of both domesecration and capitalism.

レビュー
... A book with great cross-disciplinary appeal. Highly recommended.--CHOICE

A profoundly important book and should be widely read and discussed.--AAG Review of Books

An impressive and extensive historical analysis of key intersections between the exploitation of animals and the oppression of human beings.--The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory

One of the great virtues of Animal Oppression and Human Violence is that it holds the potential for providing the expanding but vastly interdisciplinary field of Animal Studies with a unifying theory, and is therefore a highly significant contribution to this field.--Brian M. Lowe "Society & Animals "

著者について
David A. Nibert worked as a tenant organizer and community activist before becoming a professor of sociology at Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio. He teaches courses on animals and society and global change and is the author of Animal Rights/Human Rights: Entanglements of Oppression and Liberation.

■しかく書評・紹介・言及

◆だいやまーく立岩 真也 2022/**/** 『人命の特別を言わず*言う』,筑摩書房


*作成:立岩 真也