Great expectations: changing social,spatial and emotional understandings of the companion animal–human relationship

This paper examines the changing social, legal, spatial and emotional understandings of the companion animal–human relationship in Britain during the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, based upon in-depth interviews with pet owners and professionals involved in the pet industry. This period has seen rapid change in attitudes and practices towards companion animals, bringing benefits for both animal health and welfare, but also increasing social, emotional and financial expectations. Animals have become increasingly integrated into the human home and family, whilst simultaneously subject to increasing control of their behaviour and movements in public space. Such changes have brought a culture of ‘responsible’ pet ownership in which both animals and humans are subject to constant surveillance of their own and others pet-keeping practices. Such expectations are constantly changing and contested, with notions of human identity and status increasingly defined through human–animal relationships. These processes are ongoing and new forms of responsibility are continually evolving, providing new means for caretakers to express their love and care for their animal companions.     

Information obtained from the microscopic examination of cultural striations in human dentition

The surfaces of teeth from some fossil remains and archaeological samples have been examined by SEM, in order to study different types of cultural striations and to determine the archaeological information that these striations can provide. Different patterns of cultural striations are present in human samples from different sites and periods. Similar cultural striations can be interpreted in different ways, depending on the tooth in which they are present, their location in the tooth and their direction, regularity, number and width. The study of cultural striations can yield valuable information about different aspects of feeding behaviour, oral hygiene, patterns of cultural diffusion and manipulative work with teeth of past human groups. A close integration with other anthropological and archaeological data is needed and specific interpretations should be made in each case.