Our friends in Nature - natural born friends and enemies of late 19th century Danish agriculture

Description

Perceptions of animals and nature were highly contested subjects in the late 19^th century.

Through the foundations of animal protection movements, new methods for intensive animal breeding and the popularity of pets and zoos the concept of "Animal" became differentiated and more heterogeneous. This tendency was further increased by psychological and physiological animal research and the acceptance of kinship between man and animal which arose from the theory of evolution.

The same period was characterized by a shift in Danish farming practice from reliance on crops to emphasis on animal production, especially meat and dairy products.

The discourses on animals in Danish agricultural literature in the late 19th century reveals a differentiation between animals, not only as wild or domesticated, but also among the wild animals which were considered either harmful or useful. Thus insects, birds, rodents and also larger animals could be considered either friends or enemies of the individual farmer. One kind of animal could be a benevolent friend that attacked harmful animals, but could at the same time be an enemy who threatened the farmer's property.

As a consequence farming was not only a question of controlling nature, but also of taking advantage of nature and it's internal struggle for survival, and the farmer could for instance choose to support his natural friends in this struggle.

A closer scrutiny of the rhetoric and instructions of the agricultural literature illuminates both these and other central aspects on the perception of nature/culture, the environment and its animal inhabitants in this decisive phase of Danish agricultural history.

The paper is a part of a post-doc. research project: In Lion's Cage and Pig's Sty - animal rights and roles in Denmark c. 1850-1920. The project is funded by the Danish National Research Council for Communication and Culture.