一個「全球的」寵物史會是甚麼模樣？

What Would a Global History of Pets Look Like?

近年，「寵物史」，或稱「同伴動物史」，已發展成為主要研究課題，但是我們的知 識版國卻仍存在巨大缺口。在這領域中，學者取徑各異，這也使得調和「演化生物學、 「人與動物關係學」（anthrozoology）以及「社會史」與「文化史」等研究成果，成為一 項重大挑戰。部分學術論述將寵物飼養視為可古不變的普世現象、人類生而有之的本能 使然。大眾通俗史也傾向強調人與其他動物彼此鏈結之久。其它作品則視寵物飼養文 化為晚近西方現象。一個真正全球的寵物史，必須直面這些當代問題。我們必須求取更 多對於非西方文化、地區與傳統的認識，並理解西方的寵物飼養曾經以何種方式增添、 乃至排據了其它類型之人與同伴動物關係。這工程極可能必須牽涉動物研究的「去殖民 化」，也將翻轉「人性普遍論」這過往預設。

Although the history of pets or companion animals has been a major topic for scholars in recent years, there remain major gaps in our understanding. At present, scholars have approached the topic from different directions, and the difficulty of reconciling work in evolutionary biology, anthrozoology, and social and cultural history is a major challenge. Some academic accounts universalise pet keeping, seeing this as a very ancient phenomenon, the product of hardwired human instincts. Popular histories of pet keeping also tend to stress the longevity of the bond between humans and other animals. Other work portrays the culture of pet keeping as a much more recent, and sees the modern conception of pets as primarily a Western development. A truly global history of pets will need to confront these contemporary problems. We need to know much more about non-Western cultures, regions, and traditions, and the ways in which Western forms of pet keeping supplanted or supplemented other kinds of relationship with animal companions. This process is likely to involve a certain ‘decolonisation' of animal studies, and to steer us away from assumptions about the homogeneity of the human species.