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list price: $14.00
edition:eBook
also available: Paperback
category: Social Science
published: Oct 2011
ISBN:9781553659808
publisher: Douglas & McIntyre
imprint: Greystone Books

Cow

A Bovine Biography

by Florian Werner, translated by Doris Ecker, foreword by Temple Grandin

tagged: agriculture & food, mammals
Description

""In Cow: A Bovine Biography, German musician and author Florian Werner delivers an in-depth and surprisingly thoughtful piece of non-fiction...Werner reminds us that bovines are inextricably linked to humans, and that thinking more deeply about our relationship with them can give us a new perspective on our own humanity." -- Winnipeg Free Press

The cow is everywhere: as a vehicle for both farmers and advertisers, as a subject for scientists and poets, or simply as a tasty sandwich meat. Yet after more than ten thousand years living alongside humans, the female of the bovine species remains a beguiling mystery. Combining entertaining anecdotes and illuminating discoveries, Florian Werner presents the curious cultural history of that most intriguing of animals: the cow.

Since evolving from the aurochs, an ungulate that grazed the Persian grasslands, the cow has embedded herself into virtually all aspects of our lives. Rigorously researched, Cow is the first book to look at the animal in its countless manifestations in cultures around the world. Werner examines cows' roles in commerce and their place on our plates and in our stomachs. He looks at how cows are worshipped in some circles, such as in Hindu mythology, and abhorred in others, today being vilified as an agent of climate change because of their methane production. And he waxes philosophic about the cow's rumination and cud chewing, as well as her simple but meaningful moo.

With a touching and personal introduction from leading animal welfare advocate, Temple Grandin, the book offers readers an eye-opening perspective on this commodified animal, whose existence is inextricably intertwined with ours and which we too often take for granted. Doris Ecker, a Vancouver-based translator and writer, provides the translation.

About the Authors

Florian Werner

Journalist and author Florian Werner studied American, British, and German literature in both Germany and Scotland and earned his PhD in 2007. His short-story collection Wir sprechen uns noch (We Still Talk) was published in 2005 by DTV. In 2007, he published the non-fiction book Rapocalypse, a study of millenarianist HipHop lyrics, and in 2011 a cultural history of human excrement, Dunkle Materie: Die Geschichte der Schei e (Dark Matter: The History of S***) When he is not writing, he tours with his band, Fön, and plays soccer for the German national team of writers' Autonama. Werner lives in Berlin.

Doris Ecker

A linguist by training, Doris Ecker is a full-time translator and writer based in Vancouver. After an eclectic career as a copy editor and linguistic adviser, senior researcher in machine translation, and bookbinder/conservator, she completed her Diploma in Translation at the British Institute of Linguists and started her own translation business. Ecker has worked as a translator mainly in the fields of travel, advertising, art and media for over thirteen years and has published travel articles in various English-language magazines. She is a member of the American Translators Association, the Northern Californian Translators Association, and the British Columbia Association of Travel Writers.

Temple Grandin earned her Ph.D. in animal science from the University of Illinois and is currently a Professor at Colorado State University. Dr. Grandin is one of the most respected individuals with high-functioning autism in the world. She presents at conferences nationwide, helping thousands of parents and professionals understand how to help individuals with autism, Asperger’s syndrome, and PDD. She is the author of Emergence: Labeled Autistic, Thinking in Pictures, Animals in Translation (which spent many weeks on The New York Times Best-Seller List), The Autistic Brain, and The Loving Push, co-written with Debra Moore, Ph.D. One of the most celebrated -- and effective -- animal advocates on the planet, Dr. Grandin revolutionized animal movement systems and spearheaded reform of the quality of life for the world's agricultural animals.

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