Contenu du sommaire : Mort et mise à mort des animaux

Immolating animals : On a Roman interpretation of sacrifice Among the texts interpreting Roman sacrifices, two excerpts from Ovid's writings are original in that they describe the slaying of the animal as the latter 's absolute subordination to mankind and the gods. This theme, which this poet from the start of our era borrowed in part from an old Pythagorean tradition, is also presented in certain Roman images. This meditation on the meaning of sacrifice focuses on the meaning of immolation in Rome and on ritual practices. It completes other interpretations by defining immolation as the setting up of an order wherein mortals and immortals find their respective places.

Did Christ die for animals ? Catholic conceptions about the death of animals (France, 17 -20th century) For the clergy and the immense majority of believers, the death of an animal, a creature possessing a material soul at most, is an ordinary phenomenon, which does not much call for attention and hardly raises questions. The few recommendations about the need for moderating violence (so that it does not rebound on people) did not modify this dominant conception. However, a minority, mainly lay, current has increasingly questioned this conception. After a long, latent existence, it emerged publicly in the 19th century. In its view, the suffering and death of animals at mankind's discretion are usually unjust ; and a form of survival in paradise will reward this life of torment.

Ritual slaughtering practices in Judaism : A symbolic process and textualization The Judaic rites (chekhita) for slaughtering animals and the Biblical and Talmudic laws about how to treat animals are placed in perspective. Although the persons involved and those who comment on the texts about the chekhita always mention the limitation of all suffering, the prohibition on blood stands out. Owing to its symbolism, it raises fundamental questions about purity and impurity, life and death. Consuming meat is lawful only if a ceremony raises the animal's status. By analyzing the issues arising out of the mad cow disease, Judaism's principles about treating animals are compared with modern practices in breeding and slaughtering livestock.

Bloody but just : Slaughtering animals in Islam Only God, the Creator of all living beings, can make decisions about death. To kill a person or animal is to take God's place. However, He allows people to kill animals in case of need, mainly for food or even in self-defense. A body of rules organizes the Muslim's relation with wild and domestic animals. Keeping to these rules, in particular the one about ritual slaughtering practices, socializes the animal's death by controlling human violence.

Suffering in the discourse of French animal protectors in the 19th century The animal protection movement was born in the mid- 19th century. By fighting against a form of popular violence, it aimed at improving public morals. From 1850 to 1880, the movement did not much address the issue of animal deaths. Exaggerated or abusive suffering was what called for action. After 1880, a radical, more repressive form of animal protection arose. Its advocates refused, at least for species close to humankind, any idea of death and suffering.

Between dis- and re-enchantment : Hunting in Chalosse, France In Chalosse (Landes, France), hunting has deeply changed given the strict bureaucratic rules that, under pressure from environmentalists, entail a moralizing discourse. «Disenchantment» with hunting, abetted by the lesser interest shown by young people, is reversed when one inquires into what is under way not in but through hunting. Hunting contributes to a festive sociability and crystallizes a sensorial experience of the commune's territory. The artificial managing of hunting opens several opportunities for tasting the pleasures of a transgression that, in turn, contributes to a « reenchantment » of everyday life.

Preserving the life of animals in order to program their death The attitudes of farmers toward, and their ideas about, their livestock depend on their expectations about production and on the species. Whether or not the livestock is to be slaughtered, the herd is to be kept in good health so that death occurs at the right time. However, excluding an animal that has lived in close relations with people from the herd necessitates creating a distance between one's self and the act. Whereas the raising of livestock on an industrial scale treats animals as mere means and denies their status as living beings, individualized animals with names are kept from the slaughterhouse and die a « natural death » ; others are eaten during a ritualized, communal meal.

Fish, a perishable foodstuff In the water environment, so different from our own, dwell beings whose flesh has long been considered less nourishing and better suited for penitence. The presence in water, the various activities related to fishing and fish-farming, the techniques for keeping fish alive out of water (especially during transportation), the way of imagining how they die, all these points shed light on practices and imagery involving fish. Whether as an undifferentiated mass or well- identified individuals, fish switch back and forth between the plant and animal realms as they are bred ; and their death is likened to a loss of freshness. The example of the carp in Dombes, France, serves to illustrate these remarks.

All flesh is not meat Our meat-eating habits accept the consumption not of all dead animals but only of slaughtered ones. Two situations of slaughtering serve to show that only animals at «the right distance» - neither too far nor too close to humankind - can be used as meat. Slaughtering does not produce an inedible carcase but a living substance. A counterexample confirms that human practices can set conceptual categories above ambiguous sensory appearances, and thus admit tuna, even though it bleeds, into the category of fish. In all cases, an implicit comparative physiology sets the realm of the living, as well as the concrete relations between people and animals, in order.