In this meticulously researched, wide-ranging and illuminating book, Joanna Bourke explores the legacy of more than two centuries, and looks forward to what the future might hold for humans and animals. If she had been capable of looking 100 years into the future, she might have wondered about chimeras, created by transplanting animal fluids and organs into human bodies, or the ethics of stem cell research. Request PDF On Apr 1, 2013, Katharine Cockin published Joanna Bourke (2011), What it Means to be Human: Reflections from 1791 to the Present, London. In this fascinating account, Joanna Bourke addresses the profound question of what it means to be human rather than animal. In her time and beyond, the debate around human status involved questions of language, facial physiology, and vegetarianism. If the Ernest Englishwoman had turned her gaze to the previous century, her critique could equally have applied to slaves.

What does it mean to be 'human' rather than 'animal'? In reality, their status was worse than that of animals: regulations prohibiting cruelty against dogs, horses and cattle were significantly more punitive than laws against cruelty to women. In 1872, a woman known only as 'An Ernest Englishwoman' published an open letter entitled 'Are women animals?', in which she protested the fact that women were not treated as fully human. That neither of these events takes place is strong evidence for a kind of dualism in the human male, and possibly the female. Buy What It Means To Be Human: Reflections from 1791 to the present by Bourke, Professor Joanna (ISBN: 9781844086443) from Amazons Book Store.

What it means to be human joanna bourke