Animals and Human Society in Asia

This edited collection offers a comprehensive overview of the different aspects of human-animal interactions in Asia throughout history. With twelve thematically-arranged chapters, this book examines the diverse roles that beasts, livestock, and fish — real and metaphorical– have played in Asian history, society, and culture.

Ranging from prehistory to the present day, the authors address a wealth of topics including the domestication of animals, dietary practices and sacrifice, hunting, the use of animals in war, and the representation of animals in literature and art.

Providing a unique perspective on human interaction with the environment, the volume is cross-disciplinary in its reach, offering enriching insights to the fields of animal ethics, Asian studies, world history and more.

Chapter 1. Introduction: Animals and Human Society in Asia: An Overview and Premises. Rotem Kowner, Guy Bar-Oz, Michal Biran, Meri Shahar and Gideon Shelach-Lavi.- Part I: Hunting and Domestication.- Chapter 2. When Elephants Roamed Asia: The Significance of Proboscideans in Diet, Culture and Cosmology in Paleolithic Asia. Ran Barkai.- Chapter 3. Hunting to Herding to Trading to Warfare: A Chronology of Animal Exploitation in the Negev. Steven A. Rosen.- Chapter 4. Domestication of the Donkey (Equus asinus) in the Southern Levant: Archaeozoology, Iconography and Economy. Ianir Milevski and Liora Kolska Horwitz.- Part II: Animals as Food.- Chapter 5. Spilling Blood: Conflict and Culture over Animal Slaughter in Mongol Eurasia. Timothy May.- Chapter 6. China's Dairy Century: Making, Drinking and Dreaming of Milk. Thomas David DuBois.- Chapter 7. Tuna as Economic Resource and Symbolic Capital in Japan's "Imperialism of the Sea". Nadin Heé.- Part III: Animals at War.- Chapter 8.Elephants in Mongol History: From Military Obstacles to Symbols of Buddhist Power. William G. Clarence-Smith.- Chapter 9. The Mamluk's Best Friend: The Mounts of the Military Elite of Egypt and Eurasian Steppe in the Late Middle-Ages. Reuven Amitai and Gila Kahila Bar-Gal.- Chapter 10. A Million Horses: Raising Government Horses in Early Ming China. Noa Grass.- Part IV: Animals in Culture and Religion.- Chapter 11: From Lion to Tiger: The Changing Buddhist Images of Apex Predators in Trans-Asian Contexts. Xing Zhang and Huaiyu Chen.- Chapter 12. The Chinese Cult of the Horse King, Divine Protector of the Equines. Meir Shahar.- Chapter 13. Animal Signs: Therimorphic Intercession between Heaven and Imperial Mongolian History. Brian Baumann.