A unique interdisciplinary challenge to assumptions about animals and animality deeply embedded in our own ways of thought, exposing sensitive and largely unexplored aspects of the understanding of our common humanity.

Chapter 1 Introduction, Tim Ingold; Chapter 2 Is humanity a natural kind?, Stephen R. L. Clark; Chapter 3 Beasts, brutes and monsters, Mary Midgley; Chapter 4 Animality, humanity, morality, society, Richard Tapper; Chapter 5 ‘Animal’ in biological and semiotic perspective, Thomas A. Sebeok; Chapter 6 Animals attitudes to people, Jennie Coy; Chapter 7 The animal in the study of humanity, Tim Ingold; Chapter 8 Organisms and minds: the dialectics of the animal–human interface in biology, Brian Goodwin; Chapter 9 The affordances of the animate environment: social science from the ecological point of view, Edward S. Reed; Chapter 10 Becoming human, our links with our past, Nancy Makepeace Tanner; Chapter 11 Human animality, the mental imagery of fear, and religiosity, Balaji Mundkur;

'... edited in masterly fashion.' - Anthropology Today'... a unique interdisciplinary challenge to the assumptions about animals and their nature which are deeply embedded in human ways of thought.' - British Archaeological News'For those with an interest in social biology, human ethology, and human evolution there are some interesting passages, well worth searching for...' - Journal of Biological Education'...shows us how deep rooted and diverse are our ideas about how to define and classify animals' - New Scientist'Diverse, provocative and controversial' - Anthrozoos'What is an Animal? will interest the general reader who is looking for a thorough review of current thinking on the subject of human/animal differences, similarities, and relationships. The book would also be appropriate for graduate seminars in anthropology, biology, philosophy, and the humanities concerned with animal and human evolution, the manner in which humans have conceptualized animals, what it means to be human, and the ethical treatment of animals' - American Anthropologist'What is an Animal? ...can only be commended for its interdiciplinary breadth and for the juxtaposition of critical essays written from the perspectives of philosophy and biology, with those of a more anthropological bent' - Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford