anthropozoological adventures
I never pretended to cultivate animal studies, as the new research field became fashionable. Rather, I was dragged into it around 2012 to 2016 by the dean of the Faculty "Artes Liberales", University of Warsaw, where I was employed at the time. The only reason why I was considered a person who might play a role in his animal projects was the fact that I was interested in falconry. Yet obviously, I treated it as a hobby, even if I published a couple of learned papers on this topic. On the other hand, the dilettantism that was more than clearly visible behind the Varsovian initiative made me keep my distance in relation to the field.
Be that as it may, it is not to be excluded that I am a person who actually could have a little to say in the field. In the first place, I have always been interested in science, at least as for a humanist. Those few publications, as well as my episodic participation in the doctoral program launched in Warsaw, my falconry seminar that may be quite a unique educational experience, as well as conferences and workshops in which I participated, make a small patrimony that may be developed in the future.
Be that as it may, it is not to be excluded that I am a person who actually could have a little to say in the field. In the first place, I have always been interested in science, at least as for a humanist. Those few publications, as well as my episodic participation in the doctoral program launched in Warsaw, my falconry seminar that may be quite a unique educational experience, as well as conferences and workshops in which I participated, make a small patrimony that may be developed in the future.
my essays in plant and animal studies
|
"Non-cultural morphogenesis: plants (with Emanuele Coccia)", Historia - Kultura - Globalizacja, no 26/2019, p. 111-120.
The essay is conceived as a presentation of the author's stance on the extra-cultural becoming of man, interwoven with the “metaphysics of mixture” recently proposed by Emanuele Coccia. Both insights coincide in the valorisation of the non-cultural paradigm of plant-like, pneumatic existence, as well as the notion of penetrability and interference between the organism and the world. Vegetable morphogenesis, that differs from human technique as a way of transforming matter, epitomises the cosmogonic immersion in which the organism creates its environment being one with it. Constant interpenetration of the self and the world, present in the primordial physiology of breathing, offers an access to the emergent, post-cultural stage of man, preserving and perpetuating his/her liminal position. 
| ||
“A falconry lesson. The experience of introducing falconry into a transdisciplinary curriculum”, Falconry – its influence on biodiversity and cultural heritage in Poland and Europe, Urszula Szymak and Przemysław Sianko (eds.), Białystok, Muzeum Podlaskie, 2016, p. 277-287. ISBN 978-83-87026-59-2
Polish version (on electronic support accompanying the printed volume): “Lekcja sokolnictwa. Doświadczenie wprowadzenia sokolnictwa do transdyscyplinarnego programu studiów”, Sokolnictwo – wpływ na bioróżnorodność i dziedzictwo kulturowe w Polsce i w Europie, Urszula Szymak and Przemysław Sianko (eds.), Białystok, Muzeum Podlaskie, 2016, p. 281-291.
The article deals with problems and open questions concerning the inscription of the falconry lore in the academic institution, teaching practice and production of knowledge, referred mainly to the emergent transdisciplinary field of anthropozoology (human/animal studies). It presents the experimental falconry seminar realized at the College of Liberal Arts, University of Warsaw, commenting on its concept, outcomes, the response of the academic public, as well as the perspectives and obstacles on the way toward the permanent presence of falconry at the university.
Polish version (on electronic support accompanying the printed volume): “Lekcja sokolnictwa. Doświadczenie wprowadzenia sokolnictwa do transdyscyplinarnego programu studiów”, Sokolnictwo – wpływ na bioróżnorodność i dziedzictwo kulturowe w Polsce i w Europie, Urszula Szymak and Przemysław Sianko (eds.), Białystok, Muzeum Podlaskie, 2016, p. 281-291.
The article deals with problems and open questions concerning the inscription of the falconry lore in the academic institution, teaching practice and production of knowledge, referred mainly to the emergent transdisciplinary field of anthropozoology (human/animal studies). It presents the experimental falconry seminar realized at the College of Liberal Arts, University of Warsaw, commenting on its concept, outcomes, the response of the academic public, as well as the perspectives and obstacles on the way toward the permanent presence of falconry at the university.
| a_falconry_lesson.pdf |
“From Agamben to Saville's bellies. Transgression into the animal condition in post-humanity, primitive humanity and contemporary art”, Dialogue & Universalism, vol. XXIV, no 1/2014, p. 121-129. ISSN 1234-5792
Reprinted in: The Animals in Us - We in Animals, Szymon Wróbel (ed.), Frankfurt am Main, Peter Lang, 2014, p. 163-172. ISBN 978-3-631-65039-4
Reprinted in: The Animals in Us - We in Animals, Szymon Wróbel (ed.), Frankfurt am Main, Peter Lang, 2014, p. 163-172. ISBN 978-3-631-65039-4
"Na uczcie mięsożerców. O transhumanistycznym potencjale relacji człowieka i ptaka" ["Meat-eaters' banquet. On trans-humanistic potential in the relationship of man and bird"], Jednak Książki, nr 2/2014, p. 25-37. ISSN 2353-4699
The main topic of this essay, Mediterranean traditions of falconry (highly valued both by the Christians and the Muslims), becomes a key to reconsider the awkward problem of man as a meat-eater, problem that opens – according to Agamben's suggestion – a double perspective of pre-humanity and post-humanity. The predatory nature of man brings him close to other predatory species, such as falcons and hawks. On the other hand, eating meat becomes object of manifold restrictions inside the boundaries of the cultured condition of man. While the religious orthodoxies establish qualitative and temporal restrictions on meat consumption (such as categories of kosher, halal, etc., as well as the required periods of fasting), the mystics seek the companionship of a falcon, possibly not only as a paradigm of ascension towards the heavens, but also of unstoppable, uncontrolled voracity that may lead beyond the cultured boundaries and guide the man longing for extra-cultural spontaneity, so highly prized in Zen, but also in Sufism. Falcon, that can be tamed, but not completely domesticated, remains a creature at the frontier between culture and nature, transcending both zones. At the same time it may become a spiritual companion guiding the man in his quest for the divine. This is why the relationship between man and bird may hide a trans-humanistic potential that still remains unexplored.
The main topic of this essay, Mediterranean traditions of falconry (highly valued both by the Christians and the Muslims), becomes a key to reconsider the awkward problem of man as a meat-eater, problem that opens – according to Agamben's suggestion – a double perspective of pre-humanity and post-humanity. The predatory nature of man brings him close to other predatory species, such as falcons and hawks. On the other hand, eating meat becomes object of manifold restrictions inside the boundaries of the cultured condition of man. While the religious orthodoxies establish qualitative and temporal restrictions on meat consumption (such as categories of kosher, halal, etc., as well as the required periods of fasting), the mystics seek the companionship of a falcon, possibly not only as a paradigm of ascension towards the heavens, but also of unstoppable, uncontrolled voracity that may lead beyond the cultured boundaries and guide the man longing for extra-cultural spontaneity, so highly prized in Zen, but also in Sufism. Falcon, that can be tamed, but not completely domesticated, remains a creature at the frontier between culture and nature, transcending both zones. At the same time it may become a spiritual companion guiding the man in his quest for the divine. This is why the relationship between man and bird may hide a trans-humanistic potential that still remains unexplored.
| na_uczcie_miesozercow.pdf |
"Falconry as Intangible Heritage: A Universe of Values", International Journal of Falconry, Summer 2012, pp. 38-43. ISSN 2080-6779
| falconry_as_intangible_heritage.pdf |
“Mediterranean Falconry as a Cross-Cultural Bridge: Christian – Muslim Hunting Encounters”, Birthday Beasts’ Book. Where Human Roads Cross Animal Trails, Cultural Studies in Honour of Jerzy Axer, Katarzyna Marciniak (ed.), Warsaw, Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies “Artes Liberales”, 2011, p. 161-170. ISBN 978-83-928972-9-3
| mediterranean_falconry.pdf |
FALCONRY SEMINARS 2014-2016
FALCONRY: MAN/BIRD RELATIONSHIP
spring semester, 2014
Experimental seminar realized at the College of Liberal Arts, University of Warsaw, in the framework of the project "Strategies of introducing and and evaluating transdisciplinary curricula and research projects in universities in context of the reform of higher education in Poland" (POKL.04.01.03-00-002/11, co-financed by the European Social Found – Human Capital, IV, 4.1.3.)
The seminar was dedicated to the history of a specific cultural practice: falconry is inscribed in the context of athrozoology (human/animal studies).
The seminar was dedicated to the history of a specific cultural practice: falconry is inscribed in the context of athrozoology (human/animal studies).
bibliography
1. Source texts
Adelard of Bath, „On Birds”, in: Conversations with His Nephew: On the Same and the Different, Questions on Natural Science, and On Birds, Cambridge University Press, 1998 (or Latin text).
Frederic II, De arte venandi cum avibus http://www.hs-augsburg.de/~harsch/Chronologia/Lspost13/FridericusII/fri_arsp.html
Pedro Lopez de Ayala, Libro de la caza de las aves http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra-visor/libro-de-la-caza-de-las-aves--0/html/fef8ab1a-82b1-11df-acc7-002185ce6064_1.html
Usama ibn Munkidh, Kitab al I'tibar (Księga pouczających przykładów , przeł. Józef Bielawski, Wrocław 1975, or any other translation).
2. Falconry as a cultural practice
Badyna, P., „Błądząc za sokołami”, Kultura-Historia-Globalizacja, nr 12/2012, http://www.khg.uni.wroc.pl/files/01_khg_12_badyna_t.pdf
Cieślikowski, M., Sokolnictwo, Warszawa 2009.
Lewicka-Rajewska, U., „Sokolnictwo w krajach muzułmańskich w X wieku w świetle Murug ad-dahab Al-Mas'udiego”, in: Milczarek, S., Kultura łowiecka w świecie islamu, Warszawa 2002.
Łukaszyk, E., “Mediterranean Falconry as a Cross-Cultural Bridge: Christian – Muslim Hunting Encounters”, Birthday Beasts’ Book, Warsaw 2011.
Mazaraki, M., Z sokołami na łowy, Warszawa 1977.
3. Human/animal studies (choice of texts)
Agamen, Giorgio, L' Aperto. Uomo e animale / The Open. Man and animal, Stanford University Press, 2004.
Allister, Mark Christopher, Eco-man: New perspectives on masculinity and nature. Charlottesville 2004
Deleuze, Gilles and Félix Guattari. 2007. Becoming Animal. In Linda Kalof and Amy Fitzgerald (eds.), The Animals Reader: The Essential Classical and Contemporary Writings , 37-50.
Haraway, Donna. 2003. The Companion Species Manifesto: Dogs, People, and Significant Otherness. Chicago, IL: Prickly Paradigm Press.
Kellert, Stephen R. and Edward O. Wilson (eds.). 1993. The Biophilia Hypothesis. Washington, DC: Island Press.
Kheel, Marti. 1995. "License to Kill: An Ecofeminist Critique of Hunters' Discourse." In Carol J. Adams and Josephine Donovan (eds.), Animals and Women: Feminist Theoretical Explorations, 85-125. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
4. Audiovisual material
"Eagle Hunter's Son", Renè Bo Hansen (Kazakhstan – Germany, 2009)
Adelard of Bath, „On Birds”, in: Conversations with His Nephew: On the Same and the Different, Questions on Natural Science, and On Birds, Cambridge University Press, 1998 (or Latin text).
Frederic II, De arte venandi cum avibus http://www.hs-augsburg.de/~harsch/Chronologia/Lspost13/FridericusII/fri_arsp.html
Pedro Lopez de Ayala, Libro de la caza de las aves http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra-visor/libro-de-la-caza-de-las-aves--0/html/fef8ab1a-82b1-11df-acc7-002185ce6064_1.html
Usama ibn Munkidh, Kitab al I'tibar (Księga pouczających przykładów , przeł. Józef Bielawski, Wrocław 1975, or any other translation).
2. Falconry as a cultural practice
Badyna, P., „Błądząc za sokołami”, Kultura-Historia-Globalizacja, nr 12/2012, http://www.khg.uni.wroc.pl/files/01_khg_12_badyna_t.pdf
Cieślikowski, M., Sokolnictwo, Warszawa 2009.
Lewicka-Rajewska, U., „Sokolnictwo w krajach muzułmańskich w X wieku w świetle Murug ad-dahab Al-Mas'udiego”, in: Milczarek, S., Kultura łowiecka w świecie islamu, Warszawa 2002.
Łukaszyk, E., “Mediterranean Falconry as a Cross-Cultural Bridge: Christian – Muslim Hunting Encounters”, Birthday Beasts’ Book, Warsaw 2011.
Mazaraki, M., Z sokołami na łowy, Warszawa 1977.
3. Human/animal studies (choice of texts)
Agamen, Giorgio, L' Aperto. Uomo e animale / The Open. Man and animal, Stanford University Press, 2004.
Allister, Mark Christopher, Eco-man: New perspectives on masculinity and nature. Charlottesville 2004
Deleuze, Gilles and Félix Guattari. 2007. Becoming Animal. In Linda Kalof and Amy Fitzgerald (eds.), The Animals Reader: The Essential Classical and Contemporary Writings , 37-50.
Haraway, Donna. 2003. The Companion Species Manifesto: Dogs, People, and Significant Otherness. Chicago, IL: Prickly Paradigm Press.
Kellert, Stephen R. and Edward O. Wilson (eds.). 1993. The Biophilia Hypothesis. Washington, DC: Island Press.
Kheel, Marti. 1995. "License to Kill: An Ecofeminist Critique of Hunters' Discourse." In Carol J. Adams and Josephine Donovan (eds.), Animals and Women: Feminist Theoretical Explorations, 85-125. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
4. Audiovisual material
"Eagle Hunter's Son", Renè Bo Hansen (Kazakhstan – Germany, 2009)
FALCONRY: A GLOBAL CULTURAL PRACTICE
seminar 2015-2016
|
topicsFalconry as a transcultural practice – its global spread;
Falconry and literacy – tradition of falconry treatises in different cultures; exchange of knowledge and manuscripts; Falconry and the origin of science; Relationship between man and bird: its biological basis and cultural values ascribed to it; Falconry and the protection of birds of prey; Importance of falconry as a common patrimony; its value for fostering ideals of tolerance and participation. |
description of the seminar
The seminar is dedicated to the study of history of falconry in a global perspective, as well as the analysis of its place in the contemporary world. Falconry shall be interpreted as an early form of transcultural practice, shared among different peoples and contributing to foster contacts and exchange between them. Special relevance will be given to the place of Poland in this landscape of exchange between cultures and civilization at the pre-modern and early-modern stage.
The seminar's aim is 1). to provide knowledge on falconry, fostering research on a wide range of topics related to it; 2). to build up the consciousness of the importance of falconry as a transcultural heritage, i.e. its potential in bringing together the ideas issued from different periods of history and different cultural background in order to create new forms of life and vital activity, as well as philosophies of coexistence for the globalized world.
The seminar will provide the participants with knowledge concerning falconry as a cultural practice, history in falconry in different cultures, elements of biology of the birds of pray as referred to their relationship with man. The proceedings of the seminar (such as texts, presentations, recordings, didactic material, comments, etc.) will be gathered in The Falconry Seminar Archive, available online in regime of Open Access, contributing to the study and preservation of falconry as a patrimony included on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2010.
The program of the meetings will be composed in such a way as to accentuate the advantages of a transdisciplinary approach to a single problem (the relationship between man and a bird of prey). It will combine history of ideas, textual criticism (reading and interpreting pre-modern texts, such as falconry treatises, literature concerning hunting with birds of pray, etc.), anthropozoology (human/animal studies, HAS), elements of natural sciences, focusing the biology of the birds of pray and the conditions of their relationship with man, the reflection on transcultural reality of the globalized world and the place of such a heritage as falconry in its context.
The participants will be invited to study and interpret forms of intangible cultural heritage and contemporary cultural practices, as well as the heritage of literacy associated to falconry across the history. In our reading and interpretation of the falconry treatises, a special attention will be payed to the role of falconry in the development of scientific attitude and paradigms based on experimentation and observation in the late Middle Ages.
The seminar's aim is 1). to provide knowledge on falconry, fostering research on a wide range of topics related to it; 2). to build up the consciousness of the importance of falconry as a transcultural heritage, i.e. its potential in bringing together the ideas issued from different periods of history and different cultural background in order to create new forms of life and vital activity, as well as philosophies of coexistence for the globalized world.
The seminar will provide the participants with knowledge concerning falconry as a cultural practice, history in falconry in different cultures, elements of biology of the birds of pray as referred to their relationship with man. The proceedings of the seminar (such as texts, presentations, recordings, didactic material, comments, etc.) will be gathered in The Falconry Seminar Archive, available online in regime of Open Access, contributing to the study and preservation of falconry as a patrimony included on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2010.
The program of the meetings will be composed in such a way as to accentuate the advantages of a transdisciplinary approach to a single problem (the relationship between man and a bird of prey). It will combine history of ideas, textual criticism (reading and interpreting pre-modern texts, such as falconry treatises, literature concerning hunting with birds of pray, etc.), anthropozoology (human/animal studies, HAS), elements of natural sciences, focusing the biology of the birds of pray and the conditions of their relationship with man, the reflection on transcultural reality of the globalized world and the place of such a heritage as falconry in its context.
The participants will be invited to study and interpret forms of intangible cultural heritage and contemporary cultural practices, as well as the heritage of literacy associated to falconry across the history. In our reading and interpretation of the falconry treatises, a special attention will be payed to the role of falconry in the development of scientific attitude and paradigms based on experimentation and observation in the late Middle Ages.
participation
Participants: undergraduate and postgraduate students of the University of Warsaw, effectuating their inscription through the University system (USOS). Researchers in history of falconry and falconry activists were invited as guests.
Meetings were hold on Fridays at 3 pm, every two weeks, from beginning October 2015 till end Mai 2016. Participation might be realised either physically at the premises of the Faculty "Artes Liberales", University of Warsaw or virtually. Sufficient competence in English was required.
9th October 2015: What do I mean by "global"? The Book of Falconry by Khushal Khan Khattak
23rd October 2015: Falconry and the birth of science: Adelard of Bath
6th November 2015: Falconry as a cross-cultural bridge in the Mediterranean. Reading "The Book of Learning by Example" by Usama ibn Munkidh
Meetings were hold on Fridays at 3 pm, every two weeks, from beginning October 2015 till end Mai 2016. Participation might be realised either physically at the premises of the Faculty "Artes Liberales", University of Warsaw or virtually. Sufficient competence in English was required.
9th October 2015: What do I mean by "global"? The Book of Falconry by Khushal Khan Khattak
23rd October 2015: Falconry and the birth of science: Adelard of Bath
6th November 2015: Falconry as a cross-cultural bridge in the Mediterranean. Reading "The Book of Learning by Example" by Usama ibn Munkidh
bibliography
Khushal Khan Khattak, The Book of Falconry, transl. Sami Ur Rahman, Islamabad 2014.
Adelard of Bath, Conversations with His Nephew: On the Same and the Different, Questions on Natural Science, and On Birds, Cambridge University Press, 1998.
Frederic II, De arte venandi cum avibus http://www.hs-augsburg.de/~harsch/Chronologia/Lspost13/FridericusII/fri_arsp.html
Pedro Lopez de Ayala, Libro de la caza de las aves http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra-visor/libro-de-la-caza-de-las-aves--0/html/fef8ab1a-82b1-11df-acc7-002185ce6064_1.html
Usama ibn Munkidh, Kitab al I'tibar (Polish trans.: Księga pouczających przykładów, trans. Józef Bielawski, Wrocław 1975).
“Falconry, a living human heritage” (UNESCO dossier): http://www.unesco.org/archives/multimedia/?s=films_details&pg=33&id=1659
Adelard of Bath, Conversations with His Nephew: On the Same and the Different, Questions on Natural Science, and On Birds, Cambridge University Press, 1998.
Frederic II, De arte venandi cum avibus http://www.hs-augsburg.de/~harsch/Chronologia/Lspost13/FridericusII/fri_arsp.html
Pedro Lopez de Ayala, Libro de la caza de las aves http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra-visor/libro-de-la-caza-de-las-aves--0/html/fef8ab1a-82b1-11df-acc7-002185ce6064_1.html
Usama ibn Munkidh, Kitab al I'tibar (Polish trans.: Księga pouczających przykładów, trans. Józef Bielawski, Wrocław 1975).
“Falconry, a living human heritage” (UNESCO dossier): http://www.unesco.org/archives/multimedia/?s=films_details&pg=33&id=1659
The Book of Falconry by Khushal Khan Khattak
Well, when I say "global", I actually mean global. This is why I chose such a "peripheral" text as The Book of Falconry by Khushal Khan Khattak for the opening session of this cycle of seminars. This text appears very far from any cultural center in the middle of the 17th century, when the use of fire arms turned falconry obsolete in Europe and even across the Mediterranean. Yet this collection of poems, or a falconry treatise in verse, appears as a sum of collected knowledge that is transmitted in such a surprising form. Actually, it's a good question to ask, why did Khushal Khan Khattak write it in verse? I think we should situate this text at the frontier of the falconer literacy. Verse is easier to memorize than prose. This versified compendium of the falconry expertise is destined to be studied and learned by heart by those who have little habit of carrying libraries around.
But who was Khushal Khan Khattak? The translator of this book, Sami Ur Rahman, sketches a summarized portrait of this author: a grandson of a chieftain of the Khattak tribe, somewhere in Pakistan, appointed by the emperor Akbar as a guardian of a section of the highway from Delhi to Kabul. Enough to imagine the author's beginnings in the middle of nowhere, where a long-distance route gives the only coordinates. But also there is a direct connection to the great Mughal civilization, to the Shah Jahan, the builder of Taj Mahal. After all, we are not as far as we believed, it's easy to bring Khushal close to things that are familiar to us.
Also the content of this book is very familiar to those who already came across the Mediterranean tradition of falconry treatises. There is a familiar structure in all what Khushal knows about the falcons. We deal with the same range of problems we could find, much earlier, in Adelard of Bath, and very similar ways of dealing with them. Lice, frounce... - of course, this range of problems is given by the common reality; falcons get sick in the same way worldwide. But there is also a trace of circulating human knowledge to be found here. This is in fact the aspect that appears as particularly interesting to me: the way how specialized knowledge cross the frontiers between cultures and civilizations.
But who was Khushal Khan Khattak? The translator of this book, Sami Ur Rahman, sketches a summarized portrait of this author: a grandson of a chieftain of the Khattak tribe, somewhere in Pakistan, appointed by the emperor Akbar as a guardian of a section of the highway from Delhi to Kabul. Enough to imagine the author's beginnings in the middle of nowhere, where a long-distance route gives the only coordinates. But also there is a direct connection to the great Mughal civilization, to the Shah Jahan, the builder of Taj Mahal. After all, we are not as far as we believed, it's easy to bring Khushal close to things that are familiar to us.
Also the content of this book is very familiar to those who already came across the Mediterranean tradition of falconry treatises. There is a familiar structure in all what Khushal knows about the falcons. We deal with the same range of problems we could find, much earlier, in Adelard of Bath, and very similar ways of dealing with them. Lice, frounce... - of course, this range of problems is given by the common reality; falcons get sick in the same way worldwide. But there is also a trace of circulating human knowledge to be found here. This is in fact the aspect that appears as particularly interesting to me: the way how specialized knowledge cross the frontiers between cultures and civilizations.
Falconry and the birth of science: Adelard of Bath
With the story of Adelard of Bath, I continue circling the topic of transmission of knowledge. Deliberately, I chose to advance against the flow of time, because my intent is to discover the origins and to give the listeners the perception of how deep in time we can find the roots of those things, like science and globalization, we often consider as "modern" and specifically "Western" or European in their origins. Yet those things only became possible as a fruit of an interaction.
The figure of Adelard of Bath illustrates the Mediterranean origins of science very well. Falconry was in fact a tiny fraction of his interests. For sure he didn't travel across the Mediterranean for birds; he did it in search of knowledge, and his impact isn't due to falconry treaties, but to his translation of Euclid's Elements. Yet there is much to be deduced also from his short text of falconry: little more than 8 pages, dense with observation, criticism and scientific mind much ahead of his time.
The figure of Adelard of Bath illustrates the Mediterranean origins of science very well. Falconry was in fact a tiny fraction of his interests. For sure he didn't travel across the Mediterranean for birds; he did it in search of knowledge, and his impact isn't due to falconry treaties, but to his translation of Euclid's Elements. Yet there is much to be deduced also from his short text of falconry: little more than 8 pages, dense with observation, criticism and scientific mind much ahead of his time.
other research activitiesLISBON, FEBRUARY 2015
I've been studying the Portuguese falconry treatises. The fact that they come so late to this shows that their peripheral condition may be traced as early as in the late Middle Ages. Yet the Portuguese falconry is very persistent in time. They have, as I already mentioned on this blog, an interesting book on this topic produced in the first half of the XVII century. Even later on, they have an important center of falconry in Salvaterra de Magos, where the Portuguese king is among the last European monarchs to receive the falconry masters from Valkenwaard in Brabant and where he gladly stores the gyrfalcons offered as a present by the king of Denmark, proud of his dominion over Iceland. What I would like to know is the relationship between the treatise of Pero Menino and the knowledge gathered from the Mediterranean travels of Adelard of Bath. The character of his treatise, concentrated on the illnesses of the birds, comes very close to the concise program of Adelard's text, yet the philological traditio of this text (given mainly by Carolina Michaëlis de Vasconcelos and by its not less illustrious editor, Rodrigues Lapa, in the beginning of the 20th century) apparently doesn't put in evidence such a connection. Lesser commentators, such as Mário Martins, try to find a suitable context for Pero. Nonetheless, perhaps because of a general lack of erudition, he doesn't manage to come closer to the matter than just evoking Speculum by Vincent de Beauvais or Albertus Magnus. (There is nonetheless a more recent, English speaking study by Carlos Almaça, I didn't manage to find it yet). Apparently, the Portuguese didn't need to travel as far as Adelard for their Arabica studia or to enter in contact with the Islamic falconer expertise. Yet the cultural frontier between them and the Moroccans seems impermeable. There is hardly any falconry to break through this frontier, except for the appreciation given to falcão tagarote or falcão-da-berbéria, a smaller subspecies of Falco peregrinus. The Portuguese crusade on the western shore of Africa didn't provoke the same phenomena of exchange that marked either the European presence in Syria or the Sicilian court of Frederic the Great. There is no Portuguese Fulk to call any Usama ibn Munkidh "his brother" - or is the Syrian context simply better known than this one? The previous knowledge, the contacts that must have preceded such an event as the Portuguese intervention in the Battle of the Four Kings ("a jornada de África" or "desastre de Alcácer Quibir" as it is called here, with no attention payed to its importance or consequences in the history of Morocco) became completely obliterated from the national memory. Or am I somehow wrong in this interpretation? WHY DOES FALCONRY MATTER?
The debate on human/animal relationships and the quest for post-human culture What is falconry, if we regard it in the global landscape of the contemporary culture? What is its real value? Why does it really matter? What can it bring to the relevant debates in the present day's intellectual context? How can we, as the falconer community, contribute to the enrichment and the diversification of the world culture of our times? |
eventsInternational Conference "Falconry – its influence on biodiversity and cultural heritage in Poland and Europe", Supraśl, 16-17.10.2015.
My comment on this event: Falconry: from cultural heritage to biodiversity and vice versa. My presentation at this conference: A falconry lesson. The experience of introducing falconry into a transdisciplinary curriculum of studies Presentation of the experimental transdisciplinary seminar „Falconry: man/bird relationship” realised at the University of Warsaw in 2014. I'll speak about the problems and open questions concerning the inscription of the falconry lore into the academic institution, teaching practice and production of knowledge. Is it possible to actually teach falconry at the university? In what sense? To what kind of curriculum of studies could it contribute? What academic frameworks can admit such an initiative? What kind of outreaching activities could accompany it? (f.ex. involving secondary schools, institutional, social and entrepreneurial partners, general public, etc.). The presented experience has been realized in the college of liberal arts; I'll thus discuss the possible connection between falconry and the concept of liberal education. It has been financed in the framework of a pilot transdisciplinary program fostered in the institutional context connected essentially with the humanities. The target is thus to transform such an experiment into a permanent element of the academic institution. Such a task rises several questions and requires addressing several issues in agonistics (the art of dealing with the confrontation between opposed ideological stances and groups of interest, such as f.ex. hunters vs defenders of the animal rights), logistics and transdisciplinary collaboration (forming transdisciplinary teams among students, professors, researchers). Falconry Festival, Abu DhabiInternational Conference on Falconry, organized by the New York University Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, 13.12.2014. In the framework of the 3rd International Festival of Falconry.
My key-note: Falconry and the birth of science between East and West: Adelard of Bath
| ||
