The relationship between medieval animal symbolism and the iconography of animals in the Renaissance has scarcely been studied. Filling a gap in this significant field of Renaissance culture, in general, and its art, in particular, this book demonstrates the continuity and tenacity of medieval animal interpretations and symbolism, disguised under the veil of genre, religious or mythological narrative and scientific naturalism.
Beyond the Brain: How Body and Environment Shape Animal and Human Minds
When a chimpanzee stockpiles rocks as weapons or when a frog sends out mating calls, we might easily assume these animals know their own motivations--that they use the same psychological mechanisms that we do. But as Beyond the Brain indicates, this is a dangerous assumption because animals have different evolutionary trajectories, ecological niches, and physical attributes. How do these differences influence animal thinking and behavior? Removing our human-centered spectacles, Louise Barrett investigates the mind and brain and offers an alternative approach for understanding animal and human cognition.
Unique coloring book focuses on 45 fascinating creatures that predated the well-known dinosaurs. Finely detailed illustrations depict such formidable creatures as nothosaur, a slender 10-foot-long animal that lived on land and in the sea; edaphosaurus, a large herbivorous reptile with a great sail on its back; and 43 other amazing animals. Fact-filled captions identify subjects portrayed in realistic habitats.
All but one of these stories feature and are about children or animals. They don't have a "story" structure--they're more the sort of slice of life that came into style in the first third of the 20th century, many years after Chekhov put them together. They show Chekhov's immense sympathy for the downtrodden, the off-the-gird, the under-the-radar. His kids look at the world in innocent confusion; his animals think not like humans (or like animals) but like isolated points of wonder. Psychologically, the child tales would hardly pass, but as examinations of the underlife that exists everywhere, largely unacknowledged, they are superb snippets.
