Animal Enthusiasms

Know about the book -

Animal Enthusiasms is written by Muhammad A. Kavesh and published by Routledge. It's available with International Standard Book Number or ISBN identification 1000329968 (ISBN 10) and 9781000329964 (ISBN 13).

Animal Enthusiasms explores how human–animal relationships are conceived, developed, and carried out in rural Pakistani Muslim society through an examination of practices such as pigeon flying, cockfighting, and dogfighting. Based on two years of ethnographic fieldwork carried between 2008 and 2018 in rural South Punjab, the book examines the crucial cultural concept of shauq (enthusiasm) and provides critical insight into changing ways of life in contemporary Pakistan. It tracks the relationships between men mediated by non-human animals and discusses how such relationships in rural areas are coded in complex ways. The chapters draw on debates around transformations of animal activities over time, the changing forms of human–animal intimacy and their impact on familial relationships, and rural Punjabi values attached to the performance of masculine honour. The book will be of interest to scholars of anthropology, multi-species ethnography, gender and masculinity studies, and South Asian studies.