HomeThe edges of species
The edges of species
Aux frontières des espèces
Frontière·s. Revue d’archéologie, histoire et histoire de l’art
Published on Tuesday, May 17, 2022
Summary
Greek and Roman mythologies are populated by hybrid creatures borrowing physical characteristics from both humans and animals, as illustrated by the well-known examples of the Sphinx, the Faun, or the Minotaur. These imaginary hybridisations cross the permeable boundary that separates humans from animals. The affirmation of human exceptionality progressively allowed Greek philosophy to raise and isolate Man within the animal kingdom. Nevertheless, ancient and medieval literature, ethnography and zoology continued to question the interspecific boundaries not as a radical dissociation but as a porous limit, a grey zone with multiple gradients of humanity and animality, of which mythological hybridity is only one manifestation. For this eighth issue, the authors are invited to question the boun- daries between non-human animal species, but also between the animal and human species.
Announcement
Argument
Greek and Roman mythologies are populated by hybrid creatures borrowing physical characteristics from both humans and animals, as illustrated by the well-known examples of the Sphinx, the Faun, or the Minotaur.
These imaginary hybridisations cross the permeable boundary that separates humans from animals. The affirmation of human exceptionality progressively allowed Greek philosophy to raise and isolate Man within the animal kingdom. Nevertheless, ancient and medieval literature, ethnography and zoology continued to question the interspecific boundaries not as a radical dissociation but as a porous limit, a grey zone with multiple gradients of humanity and animality, of which mythological hybridity is only one manifestation.
For this eighth issue, the authors are invited to question the boundaries between non-human animal species, but also between the animal and human species. Several approaches to the subject can be considered:
- Following Emma Aston’s Mixanthrôpoi (2011) authors can pursue the role of hybrid creatures in the construction of a boundary (or its permeability) between humans and animals.
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Crossbreeds whether real — and known by archaeozoology — or imaginary and found in historical and literary sources and more generally in artistic creations, invite us to consider the points of intersection between species which have strongly contributed to ancient art, science, and mentalities.
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Furthermore, it is well known that the phenomena of interspecific transfers and projections play an important role in the construction of ancient ethnographic and zoological knowledge. The characterisation of exotic animals by compound zoonyms (giraffe: camelopardalis) is the best-known example.
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Conversely, in order to understand animal behaviours, an- cient and medieval zoology learned to study animals according to anthropocentric criteria. This led Ancients to read these behaviours as the expression of feelings, intelligence, social organisation, and even cultural practices, such as elephants to which religious practices were attributed. This humanisation might have been the result of a cognitive logic but may also have reflected a state of cohabitation that had allowed some non-human individuals to be more or less integrated into human societies. The authors are invited to call on archaeological sources to highlight the material traces of this interspecific proximity.
Editorial Committee
- Jérémy CLÉMENT (Université Paris Nanterre)
- Mathieu ENGERBEAUD (Aix-Marseille Université)
Submission Guidelines
All paper proposals (max. 25,000 signs) must be submitted to frontiere-s@msh-lse.fr including institutional affiliation, position and name.
Authors may submit an abstract with bibliographic references
5 months before the submission deadline (20/07/2022).
An assessment will be made within one month.
Bibliographic standards are here
Timeline
- December 20th 2022 : submission deadline
- June 2023: issue publication
The Journal
Frontière·s is an Open Access journal housed by the journal incubator Prairial. It applies to specialists of Ancient and Medieval studies and provides an interdisciplinary framework to the scientific community, evaluated by peer reviewing. The journal aims to investigate the border as a transdisciplinary subject and to understand how archeologists, historians and art historians understand it. The editorial board of Frontière·s invites authors to question revolving topics on a half-yearly basis. Authors may also submit unrestricted contributions, which will be included in the varia section of each issue. Reviews of books dealing with the matter of borders, limits, separation modes, etc. can also be presented.
Subjects
- History (Main subject)
- Periods > Prehistory and Antiquity
- Periods > Middle Ages
- Society > Ethnology, anthropology
- Mind and language > Language
- Mind and language > Epistemology and methodology > Epistemology
- Mind and language > Representation
- Mind and language > Epistemology and methodology > Archaeology
Date(s)
- Wednesday, July 20, 2022
Attached files
Keywords
- animal, homme, interspécifique, croisement, hybridation, frontière, séparation, limite, animal, human, interspecific, crossbreeds, hybridisation, border, boundary, limit, separation
Contact(s)
- Perrot Gaëlle
courriel : frontiere-s [at] msh-lse [dot] fr
Information source
- Gaëlle Perrot
courriel : frontiere-s [at] msh-lse [dot] fr
License
This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.
To cite this announcement
« The edges of species », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Tuesday, May 17, 2022, https://calenda.org/995214
