Dominance and Affection

Is it cruelty or playfulness to breed a variety of goldfish with dysfunctional bulging eyes? Was it an urge for dominance or benevolence that led ladies of eighteenth-century England to keep finely dressed black boys as their pets? Can we be said to abuse a plant when part of our pleasure lies in twisting its stem into the shape of an animal?

This is a provocative book about ...

Is it cruelty or playfulness to breed a variety of goldfish with dysfunctional bulging eyes? Was it an urge for dominance or benevolence that led ladies of eighteenth-century England to keep finely dressed black boys as their pets? Can we be said to abuse a plant when part of our pleasure lies in twisting its stem into the shape of an animal?

This is a provocative book about the psychological impulse to “make pets”—to tame and control inanimate nature, animals, and other humans. Yi-Fu Tuan has amassed a wealth of evidence to show that the human urge for domination—even in the cultural and aesthetic realm—has exhibited itself repeatedly through the ages. He contends that we fail to understand the true nature of pleasure, play, and art unless we put power as well as affection somewhere close to its center.

When we view the beauty of a man-made landscape, we tend to forget that it was often initiated as an exercise in power; in the case of Louis XIV’s Versailles, for example, 30,000 soldiers had to labor day and night to bring water to the arid palace grounds. In the same way, the creation of topiary art and bonsai can be viewed in a dual light: as a playful, pleasurable activity or as a deliberate reminder of our ability to command and impose. Our relationship with animals is another vivid example of our inclination to control. Tuan contends that cruelty to animals is extremely widespread: breeding animals for aesthetic purpose and training them to perform are not only favored hobbies but examples of delight in willful manipulation.

The abuse of power is also seen in the treatment of those human members of a household who become patronized as pets. Children, women, servants, and entertainers have been at different times both highly valued and severely controlled—trained to approach the obedience of inanimate matter or mechanical toys.

Dominance and Affection is likely to change the way we look at ourselves and our “pets.” If it is sobering in the questions it raises about human nature, it is also irresistible in the nature of the varied and fascinating material it lays before the reader.

作者

段义孚，著名华裔地理学家，人文主义地理学之父，美国科学促进会会士、英国学术院通讯院士、美国人文与科学院院士。长期任教于明尼苏达大学与威斯康星大学，2012年获地理学界最高奖项瓦特林•路德国际地理学奖。代表作有《恋地情结》《浪漫地理学》《空间与地方》等。

译者

赵世玲，加拿大女王大学历史系博士，现从事历史、地理领域的翻译，译著有《中华帝国晚期的大众文化》《神州：历史眼光下的中国地理》等。