Call for Papers

Seventh International Conference on Urban History in Athens, 27.-30.10.2004

Special Session (Modern): Cats and Cities

Since the ancient times the relations between men and animals were an irritating aspect of cultural evolution which experiences in our days a genuine "Renaissance". Today social philosophers, anthropologists,
biologists, and last not least historians are again reflecting the differences and similarities of human and animal existence. The session will focus on one species - cats - because cats are the outstanding symbol of the conflict between mankind and its natural embodiment, representing the fears as well as the hopes of coexisting with the powers of nature. The place of this conflict was not the agrarian world, dominated by the economic value of animals. The place of the cultural side of this conflict was the city where animals gained a new role of representing men's perception of the nonhuman world. Cats were eaten, sanctified, demonized and today promoted to therapists - much the same happened to those people living in close connection to cats. The ambiguity between the wild and the domestic patterns of existence describe a fundamental theme of European urban history insofar as it were the cities which drew new limits between nature and culture.

Organisation: Prof. Dr. Clemens Wischermann, Universität Konstanz,
clemens.wischermann@uni-konstanz.de

Deadline: October 1, 2003