Canis Africanis

The role of the dog in human society is the connecting thread that binds the essays in Canis Africanis, each revealing a different part of the complex social history of southern Africa. The essays range widely from concerns over disease, bestiality, and social degradation through gambling on dogs to anxieties over social status reflected through breed classifications, and social rebellion through resisting the dog tax imposed by colonial authorities. With its focus on dogs in human history, this project is part of what has been termed the ‘animal turn’ in the social sciences, which investigates the spaces which animals inhabit in human society and the way in which animal and human lives interconnect, demonstrating how different human groups construct a range of identities for themselves (and for others) in terms of animals. So instead of conceiving of animals as merely constituents of ecological or agricultural systems, they can be comprehended through their role in human cultures.

Lance van Sittert has a doctorate in history and is an associate professor in the Department of Historical Studies at the University of Cape Town. He is an environmental historian who works on the environmental impact of colonial and post-colonial societies in southern Africa with a particular interest in the shifting place of animals in those societies. Sandra Swart has a doctorate in history from the University of Oxford and is a Senior Lecturer in the History Department at the University of Stellenbosch. She is a socio-environmental historian who has published on diverse themes, including identity formation, social rebellion and horses in South Africa and Lesotho.