[Colloquium] Early Modern Animal Trials—Environment, Energy, and the Anthropocene Inaugural Session

[Amy Coombs via Colloquium]

Join us Friday October 13, 2-4 pm in the Tea Room for a the inaugural session of the Environment, Energy, and the Anthropocene Reading Group:

Early Modern Capital Punishment of Animals—Human Rights Implications of the Legal Status of Animals

Recently popularized by the BBC and Wired Magazine, The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals by E. P. Evans was controversial in 1906 for juxtaposing animal trials and human torture to reconsider the inhumane treatment of animals.   The work sensationalizes and conflates the early modern legal and religious courts while glossing over the complexities of period and geography and the respective differences in ritual, superstition, exorcism, and trial.  However the accounts Evans described are well documented in primary historical sources—numerous animals were called for a hearing before an entity with jurisdiction and they were sometimes given defense representation, of sorts. Servants, neighbors, and owners then delivered testimony against a creature that was often sentenced to death--usually by hanging--for committing a crime against a human. On April 18, 1499, a pig was tried before the Bailiff of the Abbey of Josaphat in the Commune of Seves and sentenced to the gallows for the murder of an infant.  One month later, the bailiff of the Abbey of Beaupre sentenced a bull to death for killing a fourteen year old boy.  Even economically valuable animals like oxen and horses could be sentenced to death, though usually for repeated crimes if the owner brought forward a strong defense on behalf of the animal. Evans’ book reflects a wave of mid and nineteenth century writings on animal criminology and animal trials, and this session aims to foster a more serious investigation of a historical body of literature that has recently become trendy through the rediscovery of a few select works.  What does the structure of medieval and early modern animal trials, as well as the late nineteenth century and millennial studies of this topic, tell us about the moral and social status of non-human and the structure of culpability, criminal liability, and the court trial?

How to find the Tea Room:  Enter the Social Science Research Building, walk upstairs to floor 2, take a left.

Primary Reading Selections (see links and attached PDF):
E. P. Evans (1987) [1906] The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals (1-5 (image 11-15); 140-168 (image 150-178); p 335-361 (image 344 – 370) contains clips from manuscripts and historical sources).
Full text available online: https://catalog.lib.uchicago.edu/vufind/Record/5694626

Optional Readings:
Matt Simon (September 14, 2014) "Fantastically Wrong: Europe's Insane History of Putting Animals on Trial And Executing Them," Wired Magazine.
Full text available online: www.wired.com/2014/09/fantastically-wrong-europes-insane-history-putting-animals-trial-executing/<http://www.wired.com/2014/09/fantastically-wrong-europes-insane-history-putting-animals-trial-executing/>
Frances Fyfield (March 15, 2011) “Animals on Trial,” BBC World Service http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00f8885
Patrick Phillips (2012) Medieval Animal Trials: Justice for All.
Full text available online: https://catalog.lib.uchicago.edu/vufind/Record/11159742

Join us for wine, cheese, and great conversation every other week on Friday from 2 to 4 pm in the Social Science Tea Room, unless otherwise noted.  Join us at the Pub for happy hour after most sessions for a pitcher on the house.


Environment, Energy, and the Anthropocene Reading Group
Autumn Schedule
Social Science Tea Room
2–4:00 PM (unless otherwise noted)

Friday October 13, 2–4:00 PM—Early Modern Capital Punishment of Animals: Human Rights Implications of the Legal Status of Animals
Reading Session: Amy Coombs, Moderator

Friday October 27, 2–4:00 PM—“Concerning the Transmutation and Improvements of Plants: Vitalism, Alchemy, and Cornucopianism in John Beale's Agricultural Writings”
Presentation by:  Justin Niermeier-Dohoney, PhD Candidate, History (University of Chicago)

Wednesday November 8, 4:30–6 PM—Plant Xenophobia: Ethical Debates Concerning the Rhetoric of Invasive Species
Reading Session: Amy Coombs, Moderator

Wednesday November 15, 4:30–6 PM—"Environment and the U.S. Security State," Presentation by:  Joseph Masco, Professor of Anthropology (University of Chicago)

Wednesday November 30, 4:30-6 PM— Imagining Extinction: The Cultural Meanings of Endangered Species, Reading Session: Blair Bainbridge, Moderator

About Us:  The Environment, Energy, and the Anthropocene Reading Group is a forum for students with interests in the environment, broadly construed, to present and discuss scholarly works and to develop reading lists covering a range of disciplines.

Sign up for e-mails and updates:
https://lists.uchicago.edu/web/info/environment-energy-anthropocene

View Our Bio on the Environmental History Website:
https://history.uchicago.edu/content/environmental-history

For assistance attending the reading group:
contact Blair Bainbridge blairbainbridge at uchicago.edu<mailto:blairbainbridge at uchicago.edu>
 or Amy Coombs acoombs at uchicago.edu<mailto:acoombs at uchicago.edu>






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