Human

by Amanda Rees, Charlotte Sleigh

Overview

What does it mean to be human? And what, if anything, does it have to do with being a member of the animal species Homo sapiens? This dazzling book gets to the very heart of our rather unscientific motivations and prejudices, showing how they are of great use in resolving the world’s biggest problems. From beasts to aliens, this book explores widely discussed but often problematic links between humans and six other beings, tackling deep philosophical questions including humanity’s common purpose, life’s meaning, and what it means to be accepted as part of a community. Global in its outlook and illustrated with stunning pictures, Human is a powerful, funny, and iconoclastic antidote to post-humanism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781789142143
Publisher:	Reaktion Books, Limited
Publication date:	09/02/2020
Series:	Animal
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.40(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Amanda Rees is a reader in sociology at the University of York. She is the author of The Infanticide Controversy: Primatology and the Art of Field Science and coeditor of Presenting Futures Past: Science Fiction and the History of Science. Charlotte Sleigh is professor of science humanities at the University of Kent. She has published several books on the history, culture, and representation of animals including Ant and Frog, both published by Reaktion Books, as well as The Paper Zoo, published by the University of Chicago Press.

Table of Contents

Introduction

1 Beast
2 Hominin
3 Machine
4 She
5 God
6 Alien

Conclusion

Timeline
References
Further Reading
Acknowledgements
Photo Acknowledgements
Index

Editorial Reviews

"The history of humankind’s getting to know itself is a history of attempts to work out what makes us distinctive and where to draw the boundaries with the non-human. In Human, Rees and Sleigh bring sly wit and a staggering range of reference to the comparisons that have obsessed the distinction-hunters and boundary-makers down the ages. From animals to aliens, from gods to golems, from hominins to H. Rider Haggard’s 'She-who-must-be-obeyed,' Human surveys the most telling comparisons, revealing how, at every turn, human culture has imprinted itself on our evolving self-understanding."

Gregory Radick

"From beasts to aliens, this quirkily written and 'iconoclastic' book explores our links with six other beings, tackling such philosophical questions as humanity’s common purpose, life’s meaning, and what it means to be part of a community."

Bookseller

"A sparkling and original portrait of our species—tracing our cultural and natural history from the proto-human to the post-human. Lavishly illustrated and brilliantly written—this is a wonderful addition to the Animal series."

Thomas Dixon Jr

One of the best. . . . Rees and Sleigh’s Human is the rare Animal volume that refers to the series in which it appears. The authors imagine an encounter between a human and an extraterrestrial. ‘Having read the other books in Reaktion’s Animal series,’ they write, we would not 'have an answer to the question of how we differ from it.’ One reason is that no matter how good we are at defining other species, humans have a very hard time defining what it means to be human. Rees and Sleigh point out that whenever we try to approach a definition of who we are as a species, ‘the concept of humanity evaporates.’ It’s a category ‘that has been defined by many things, almost all of them what it is not.’ . . . In Human, they don’t try to define or even portray Homo sapiens. Instead, they explore the not-ness we have used to characterize ourselves.

New York Review of Books - Verlyn Klinkenborg

This is a rich, engrossing read that draws as comfortably from religious studies as it does from popular culture. The book is also a paragon of picture research—its carefully chosen images supporting and adding value to the text. A compact volume, yet brimming with ideas, Human brilliantly communicates leading-edge academic research in an approachable and engaging style.

Fortean Times

"The cultural perspective dominates. To reinforce that, the text is beautifully supported by art works that mostly relate to the subject matter. For that alone the book is highly enjoyable."

The Biologist

"A sparkling and original portrait of our species—tracing our cultural and natural history from the proto-human to the post-human. Lavishly illustrated and brilliantly written—this is a wonderful addition to the Animal series."

Thomas Dixon