The Great Cat Massacre-Free-Samples for Students-Free-Samples

Question: How Does Darntons Discussion Of The Cat Massacre Exemplify His Exploration Of History In An Ethnographic Grain? What Does It Suggest More Generally About What Cultural History Is And How To Do It? Answer: The great cat massacre The starting of the modern age is marked by many scholars as the date when the printing revolution happened, and people started printing books. The Renaissance which gave rise to the age of logic reasoning and questioning, allowed men to understand things far beyond what they already have known for all these days. However, after the printing revolution had happened there were many entrepreneurs who were rich and took up printing as the business, the people who were working in these printing shops, were invariably discriminated and tortured by their owners as was the standard practice in the middle ages[1]. These workers were not given basic facilities for life and very little to survive on. The cats of the wives of the printing shop owners used to get better food to eat and lead a better life than the workers[2]. The workers had to eat the food which even the cats would not eat. However, as an irony the cats outside were considered as the representatives of the Devil and were hated by most of the people. In the narrative of Nicolas Contant who used to work in the printing shop of Jacques Vincent, has stated how the cats from the roads, who used to howl, were smashed by sticks, the half dead cats were brought together in a place, and it was pronounced that the cats were guilty of witchcraft and hence they were hung from the ceiling. However, when the wife of the shop owner screamed thinking it was her cat, she was told by the workers that it is not her cat and they have deep regard for their cat. The difference of the cats on road and the cat owned by the wife of the owner of the shop is the irony that reflected in the society as well. The worker class of men and who were not strong enough economically and politically were discriminated in many ways and the higher and lower strata of the people were celebrated by carnivals in which there were all immoral and discriminating practices followed. Cats played one of the most important roles in these carnivals where they were brought put into a container and burnt alive, which signified the killing of the power of the devil. The workers working with these printers lead a life so miserable that they have to laugh at the expense of each other. Usually a person is made the butt of practical jokes on whom all kinds of tricks are applied in order to generate some laughter among the workers. Ethnography is the study of people from different cultures and the differences in their customs and practices. In this essay the ethnographic difference lies in the fact that the social strata were divided into two very distinct section, the powerful section who had power and money and the section on whom they exerted their control[3]. This was the situation in all the regions of Europe especially before the period of industrialization when there was need of manual labor to a large extent[4]. The workers had no recognized rights and their life as portrayed in this essay was worse than the pets of their owners. They had an inferiority complex from even the cats who used to be pampered and hence there were plans to eliminate these cats just to have that inhumane satisfaction because mentally these workers were depressed and denied of their basic human rights. Another cultural difference that is very evident from the reading is, when the cats were killed that was a point of laughter and amusement for the workers of that time. However, in todays times it gives shivers to the reader to read such horrific accounts of animal cruelty. This is because in those days superstition made people believe that the cats were directly representatives of the devil[5], and apart from that the torture that the workers had to go through everyday made them inhuman and unstable in mind, and removed basic human qualities such as kindness and compassion. Therefore, they found it amusing that the cats which were witches were killed and burnt alive, or smashed and hanged. However, in todays times with awareness and education people have come to believe that compassion should be shown to all living beings, and they will find the narrative too much disturbing. The cats were believed to be form of witches, and women usually had sexualized and objectified position in the society which made the cats sexualized and related to witchcraft. The sexual slangs related to cats are still prevalent these days, The historian Robert Darnton who specialized in French history had expertly through this account has explained the degrading situation of the social order of the early 18th Century through the narration of the workers References: Darnton, R. (2009).The great cat massacre: And other episodes in French cultural history. Basic Books. Engels, D. W. (2015).Classical cats: the rise and fall of the sacred cat. Routledge. Erickson, P. A., Murphy, L. D. (Eds.). (2013).Readings for a history of anthropological theory. University of Toronto Press. Floud, R., Humphries, J., Johnson, P. (Eds.). (2014).The Cambridge Economic History of Modern Britain: Volume 1, Industrialisation, 17001870. Cambridge University Press. Walker, B. L. (2013). Animals and the Intimacy of History.History and Theory,52(4), 45-67 Darnton, R. (2009). The great cat massacre: And other episodes in French cultural history. Basic Books. Walker, B. L. (2013). Animals and the Intimacy of History.History and Theory,52(4), 45-67. Erickson, P. A., Murphy, L. D. (Eds.). (2013). Readings for a history of anthropological theory. University of Toronto Press. Floud, R., Humphries, J., Johnson, P. (Eds.). (2014). The Cambridge Economic History of Modern Britain: Volume 1, Industrialisation, 17001870. Cambridge University Press. Engels, D. W. (2015).Classical cats: the rise and fall of the sacred cat. Routledge