Humans, livestock and their landscape: past, present and future
Jessop West Exhibition Centre, 5th May 2015
Organised by: Umberto Albarella & Angelos Hadjikoumis
LIST OF ABSTRACTS (IN DELIVERY ORDER)
Hector Orengo (Dept. of Archaeology, University of Sheffield): The pastoral landscapes of northeastern Spain: long-term multidisciplinary approaches and current research perspectives
The study of pastoral landscapes is currently characterised by multidisciplinary approaches, which include archaeological
survey and excavation, geoarchaeology, palaeoenvironmental analyses and GIS. Pastoralism has been recognised as one of
the earliest and most important causes of human-related environmental change. Most importantly, these pastoral-related
environmental impacts are determined by specific socio-cultural settings and historical dynamics. Through the study of
landscapes, therefore, important insights can be gained on human-animal relationships. This papers aims at providing an
overview of current research on pastoral landscapes in north-eastern Spain. It will focus on the long-term socio-cultural
dynamics that generated specific human-animal relationships and how these can be investigated using landscape-based
multidisciplinary approaches.
Bob McKay & John Miller (School of English, University of Sheffield): Literary pigs
Part I: ‘Many’s the Rum-tempered Pig I’ve Knowed’: Thomas Hardy’s Porcine Plots (Miller)
Thomas Hardy’s third novel A Pair of Blue Eyes (1873) contains an extended scene of reminiscences in which the ‘pig-killer’
Robert Lickpan expands on his reflection that ‘Many's the rum-tempered pig I've knowed’. Among the curious beasts of his
professional acquaintance, Lickpan numbers an easily tricked ‘deaf and dumb pig’ and another, ‘never a hopeful pig’, who
eventually ‘went out of his mind’. Lickpan’s folksy anecdotes encapsulate a key tension in Hardy’s oeuvre. Animals are a
vital resource in the rural economies so intimately associated with Hardy. At the same time, they are individuated,
sentient, wilful and, frequently, resourceful. This short paper examines the occasions on which Hardy’s pigs drive his plots
as characters in their own right, rather than appearing merely as part of the agricultural backdrop.
Part II: ‘Once In A While Something Slips’ (McKay)
This short literary history of the porcine post-war develops the theme of pigs wresting control of human plots. In ‘Death of
a Pig’ (1948), his essay-memoir of rural Maine, E.B. White documents how a pig that he is raising for slaughter
unexpectedly dies a death all of his own; this compels White to imagine anew not just what he calls ‘the tragedy enacted
on most farms with perfect fidelity to the original script’ but the life-story-defining event of mortality itself. In Roald Dahl’s
macabre story ‘Pig’ (1960), we discover the speed with which pretensions to moral goodness can be distracted by desire as
the central character receives a sharp lesson in human rapaciousness on a slaughterhouse tour. In Patricia Highsmith’s ‘In
the Dead of Truffle Season’, from her wickedly satirical Animal Lover’s Book of Beastly Murder (1975), a French truffling
boar savours his just rewards shortly after his greedy owner gets his just desserts. These porcine stories of life and death
give a derisory snort to the self-absorption, pretension, naivety, ignorance, wilfulness, and self-interest that are properly
human.
Paul Halstead (Dept. of Archaeology, University of Sheffield): Livestock and landscapes in the high
Pindos Mountains of NW Greece: past, present and future
The Pindos of NW Greece, like other high mountains of the Mediterranean basin, is well known as the summer home of
transhumant or nomadic pastoral groups (in this case, the Vlachs and Sarakatsani), that overwintered their goats, horses
and especially sheep in adjacent or distant lowlands. The Pindos, again like other Mediterranean mountains, was until
recently also occupied year-round by numerous communities of mixed crop-livestock farmers. Which of these contrasting
montane lifeways is more ancient is the subject of debate, not least because Mediterranean historians and archaeologists
have tended to focus on the more familiar and accessible lowlands of the region. Pindos pastoralists and mixed farmers
alike created distinctive cultural landscapes that, in large measure, reflect the contrasting demands and effects of largescale seasonal and small-scale year-round animal husbandry. Both forms of cultural landscape are now rapidly being
obscured by progressive reafforestation. This presentation will illustrate some of the traces of these past cultural
landscapes that can still be found within the new forests, will consider their significance for improving understanding of the
history of these contrasting montane lifeways, and will optimistically suggest some tentative implications for the future
development of the high Pindos.
Sally Rodgers & Sarah Wild (Heeley City Farm, Sheffield): Rare, Heritage and Native Breeds at Heeley
City Farm
Heeley City Farm is a charity which seeks to engage all members of the community with farming and its various aspects,
whilst educating about the ethical and environmental issues involved. Raising rare breeds fits in with our philosophy as
they often have less of a footprint than their more commercial counterparts and we are also helping to preserve Britain’s
native breeds. Through trial and error we have discovered which breeds work well for us and developed a market to make
producing their meat worthwhile as well as finding some innovative ways to promote the breeds and make a little extra
money for the farm.
Angelos Hadjikoumis (Dept. of Archaeology, University of Sheffield)
The Iberian pig is one of few traditional European breeds that have remained unaffected by the introgression of Asian pig
breeds. This altered the genetic and consequently phenotypic, behavioural and reproductive characteristics of most
modern European breeds. Despite a common overall morphology and behaviour, the Iberian is a diverse breed consisted of
several ‘lineages’ with minor differences. In this presentation, the breed’s morphological and behavioural characteristics
are presented in the context of free- or semi-free-range systems in southwest Iberia. Only when viewed in the
environment in which it has been ‘moulded’ and is still managed in, the Iberian pig is appreciated in its uniqueness. The
dehesa, in which the Iberian pig is managed, is a unique agrosilvopastoral system (i.e. crop cultivation + woodland
management + animal husbandry) geared to enhance the productivity and sustainability of pig husbandry. Beyond the
presentation of the Iberian pig, the environment in which it is managed and the animal husbandry practices related to it,
this presentation stresses the importance of preserving the genetic, behavioural and cultural heritage that endures in such
traditional animal husbandry systems.
Jo Booth (Whirlow Hall Farm, Sheffield): Whirlow Hall Farm Trust – a classroom in the countryside
The presentation will: detail our current educational work linking children and young people with animals, farming and the
environment; outline the site’s 2000 year farming history; and consider opportunities for future development in
recreating our Iron Age farm. We will also include examples of the impact we achieve in raising awareness of where food
comes from, alongside development of vocational, personal and social skills.
Umberto Albarella (Dept. of Archaeology, University of Sheffield): Born to be free: pastoralism in the
Sardinian upland
Often perceived as a classic biogeography ‘laboratory’ in the middle of the Mediterranean, Sardinia has also been
characterised for most of its history by a peculiar form of pastoralism. Low densities of human population, accompanied by
a strong sense of insularity, have contributed to the creation of a natural and cultural landscape that is unique. Pastoralism
has been the main form of subsistence - in frequent competition and occasional cooperation with farming - in particular in
central Sardinia. In this area people have traditionally lived in very close contact with livestock – sheep, goats, cattle and
pigs. Communal lands, high mobility, free-range keeping of animals, and the development of sturdy and undemanding, but
also lowly productive, animal breeds are typical characteristics of husbandry strategies in central Sardinia. This lifestyle has,
however, been under threat for centuries and today is on the verge of vanishing. I will argue that that the potential
disappearance of the traditional forms of herding in Sardinia will represent a loss of a precious cultural heritage as well as a
threat to both the welfare of the animals and their environments.
Alasdair Cochrane (Dept. Politics, University of Sheffield): Born in Chains? The Ethics of Animal
Domestication
How should we conceive of the domestication of animals from an ethical perspective? Was the process, some 10,000
years ago, in which humans separated, tamed and bred certain animals for specific traits a great leap forward for humanity
that we should celebrate, or the terrible first step in a long catalogue of domination and oppression? And how should we
deal with the results of that process here in the current world? Very little attention has been paid to these questions in
animal ethics – or indeed in other disciplines. Nonetheless, this talk identifies and critically evaluates four positions that
can be found in the literature. First is the claim that domestication was and is wrongful because it turns natural entities
into man-made ‘artefacts’. Second, is the competing idea that the process of animal domestication was benign because it
resulted in important mutual benefits. Third is the abolitionist claim that domestication is wrongful and must be
eradicated because it necessarily turns animals into ‘slaves’. And finally is the more recent claim that domesticated
animals should not be eradicated, but are instead owed certain special obligations as a result of their dependency. The talk
finds all of these positions to be problematic. It argues that we have no duty to eradicate domestication or the captivity of
domesticated animals per se, but that we do have a duty to eradicate the suffering and deaths which contemporary forms
of domestication entail.