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When Animals Speak: Toward an Interspecies Democracy

Eva Meijer

4.30 · Rating details · 23 ratings · 6 reviews

Winner, 2020 ASCA Book Award, given by the Amsterdam School of Cultural Analysis

A groundbreaking argument for the political rights of animals

In When Animals Speak, Eva Meijer develops a new, ground-breaking theory of language and politics, arguing that non-human animals speak--and, most importantly, act--politically. From geese and squid to worms and dogs, she highlig ...more

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Paperback, 304 pages

Published November 26th 2019 by New York University Press

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Dec 22, 2019 Corvus rated it it was amazing

Shelves: nonhuman-animals-enviro, favorites

When Animals Speak by Eva Meijer is an extremely important academic contribution to animal studies and to the world at large. With an astute examination and interpretation of a vast amount of literature, case studies, experiments, philosophy, and other means, Meijer takes our current conceptions of others animals' abilities to communicate, behave, organize, and act to a new and very necessary level. I read a lot of books centering other animals from the more popular and political side to the ve When Animals Speak by Eva Meijer is an extremely important academic contribution to animal studies and to the world at large. With an astute examination and interpretation of a vast amount of literature, case studies, experiments, philosophy, and other means, Meijer takes our current conceptions of others animals' abilities to communicate, behave, organize, and act to a new and very necessary level. I read a lot of books centering other animals from the more popular and political side to the very academic and scientific sides and thus, am sometimes underwhelmed by newer books on these subjects. This one, however, brought a lot of new information into my psyche and has had me thinking hard about the topics therein ever since. While I am sure she is not the only person to come up with these ideas and conclusions, as she includes the words and citations of many others, she definitely collects quite a lot of information into one place.

Due to it's academic nature, this book can be really repetitive at times. It seems to be written with the intention that someone could possibly read one chapter alone and out of context from the rest. This is not unusual in academia, but since I read it cover to cover, I often found the same things said repeatedly which could get tedious. That said, it is very well structured and organized. We always know where Meijer is going before she tackles the details and she always summarizes where she ended up.

One of the features of this book that really stood out for me was Meijer's discussions of anthropomorphism. The idea of anthropomorphism is misused by people who cannot bear the idea than other animals are more than objects for their exploitation and is a frequent rallying cry of those with a direct relationship to nonhuman animal exploitation. Some animal researchers, for instance, will often claim that any attribution of emotion, suffering, cognition, communication abilities, etc to their research captives is the dreaded anthropomorphism phenomenon and that this somehow makes what they do to animals excusable. These same people are happy to discuss the ways other animals are similar to us when it fits their occupation and hypothesis, but that quickly goes out the window when their abuse of power is taken into consideration. Meijer uses the concept of anthropormorphism as a vehicle to actually center other animals rather than to erase them. She stresses the importance that we not assume other animals are like us in every way, nor should we assume that they are all like each other. Expanding on this point, she discourages thinking that forces other animals into a human box in order to grant them consideration. Instead, differences within and between species should be acknowledged and centered in order to improve our relationships with other animals. Other animals should not have to be "like us" in order to deserve appropriate treatment and consideration. I hate to say that this is one of the first times I have seen someone discuss it in this way.

The central topic of the book, evident in the title, is that of communication and interaction with and between other animals. I began this book believing other animals had sophisticated communication, but had always heard- even other animal advocates- claim that none of them had actual language. This always seemed unlikely to me, but since I am not a linguist I figured that maybe there are many rules for something to be considered a language and that perhaps I just did not understand that. Meijer includes a lot of literature and research that is showing that other animals do indeed have structured communication that can be called language and the problem is that we are not sophisticated enough to understand it. There are well-known instances of animals learning human language (Koko the gorilla, Alex the parrot, etc) and vice versa (Jane Goodall,) but I did not realize that there was so much new research showing language being present in other species. I also felt challenged in the best ways by how far these observations went. Meijer includes studies of nonhuman primates and birds (which many people are accepting have advanced cognitive abilities,) but also addressed the abilities of other animals like bees and even worms who people as far back as Darwin have observed the ability to learn and work together in.

Reading this book helped me realize how stuck in the past a lot of my thinking about animals was. One of the more interested ways this happened was how Meijer discussed ways that other animals can be political actors in that they can take intentional actions that influence policy and actions of humans. She included the works of Jason Hribal, Aph and Syl Ko, Sunaura Taylor, and other favorites of mine and then expands upon the wisdom they have offered. She encourages us to uproot many of the ways we interact with and think about other animals. Even in animal rights and liberation communities, there is a huge problem with the unacknowledged power dynamics between humans and other animals. This can even be reinforced in harmful ways through rescue efforts in which people see themselves as saviors of the animals rather than as people working in solidarity with them. For example, the phenomenon of a stray dog being taken off the street, only to die, "unadoptable" in a shelter when s/he was actually content with the struggles of the street. We must redefine our relationship with other animals from one in which we "save" them and they are one-dimensional, innocent, voiceless beings into one in which they are seen as complex beings with varying needs and desires like us.

Meijer encourages us to not only better communicate with other animals, but to use what she calls "interspecies deliberation" to negotiate relationships that work best for everyone involved. She encourages solutions that serve both humans and other animals best rather than those which only favor one group's needs and interests. Her main point is that we are going to have interactions and relationships with other animals no matter what. As a result, positive and mutually rewarding relationships will develop and also conflicts will arise that need to be resolved. Meijer encourages cooperative actions with other animals in ways that benefit both the humans and other animals. She uses a variety of means to offer ways how we can do this, but it of course will never be easy.

Overall, I really appreciate the knowledge this book gave me and I will continue thinking about it and hopefully implementing it in my life and relationships with other animals. I definitely think anyone could benefit from the information in this book, but I think it should be critical reading for those who have intimate or frequent interactions with other animals.

This was also posted to my blog. ...more

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Oct 13, 2020 Leanne rated it it was amazing

Of course animals speak!” says Eva Meijir, in her thrilling new book When Animals Speak: Toward an Interspecies Democracy.

According to the philosophical tradition since the time of Descartes, however, animals were not granted with language, which also meant they did not have minds or souls. Modern philosophy posited two distinct substances in the world: bodies, which obey the laws of physics and are mechanistic; and minds, which are non-physical and eternal. The soul-less bodies of animals were ...more

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Jun 05, 2020 Nadja rated it liked it

I loved the topic and the ideas presented, but it was a bit too theoretical and academic of a read for me.

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Dec 28, 2020 Roma rated it really liked it

Must read for every animal advocate - and for everyone who isn't yet. ...more

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Jul 19, 2020 Linda Widar rated it liked it

I denna bok finner man viktig kunskap om djurens kommunikation, hur den ser ut och fungerar. Otroligt intressant läsning som vidgar synen på djuren och deras inre livsvärld. Innehållet är vetenskapligt formulerat vilket inte är ett problem så länge man är bekant och bekväm med att läsa forskningsbaserade texter. Om man är obekant med ett sådant format kan nog boken uppfattas en smula torr. Något rörig i dispositionen och stundtals något repetitiv.
Klart värd att läsa i kunskaps utvidgande syfte!

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Dec 27, 2019 A rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, nature

This is an important book in our changing world. We have to learn to look at things differently, and this book is a step in the direction of how we think of non-human animals and how we should be less anthropocentric. What we really need to consider beyond the rights of animals is the rights of nature.

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About Eva Meijer

Eva Meijer

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Born in 1980, Eva Meijer is an artist, writer, philosopher and singer-songwriter.

She works in different media, ranging from performance art, music theatre, installations, video's, drawings and photographs to toys for pigs.

Eva released four albums and two EP's, and she played concerts in The Netherlands, England and the US (NYC, Texas, California). More information and music can be found here.

Her f ...more