Paper short abstract:

The paper will examine ways in which humans have been negotiating relationships with the natural world and deer, in various past and present cultural contexts. Focus will be on the notions of identity, animal-human boundaries and ways in which ideas about human and animal bodies have been created.

Paper long abstract:

Insights into our pre modern ancestral past offered by archaeological discoveries suggest that human relationship with deer has been a long and diverse one. Remains of deer, particularly their antlers, have been found in funeral and other archaeological contexts across Europe, often together with human osteological remains. Such finds recently encouraged interpretative approaches that challenge dominant Western notions of identities, bodies and human-animal boundaries. Today, in various modern global cultural contexts (such as urban parks deer population management strategies in European cities, deer farming and hunting in North America and China, and wildlife research approaches of individual scientists, such as Joe Hutto) specific forms of relationships between humans and deer have been created. They suggest notions of simple co-existence between the two species, human domination and violence, but also animal personhood and individuality, and thus actively negotiate specific personal and local identities and political practices, sometimes involving both animal and human bodies. Furthermore, images of deer, particularly of their antlers, are strongly present in contemporary popular and material culture where, for example, representations of women with antlers once again urge questions about human-animal boundaries, gender and identities. It will be interesting to examine ways in which our relations with the natural world are formed through different cultural practices and to what extent are animals considered merely objects of our consumerist culture or are seen as subjects in the creation of new, conscious cultural practices.