Front and Back Covers, Volume 23, Number 2. April 2007

Front cover caption, volume 23 issue 2 Front cover ‘The greatest predators on earth’, writes the anthropologist Alan Macfarlane in his advice to his granddaughter, Letters to Lucy: On how the world works (Profile Books), ‘munch their way through the animal kingdom. We are caught in a dilemma. For we are a meat‐eating species, which gains much of its protein from consuming other animals. It is almost impossible to imagine that we will change, but we may, with sufficient will, find ways to minimise the pain we inflict on our fellow species.’ Our front cover photo is taken from a publicity poster produced by SARC, the Southern Animal Rights Coalition, which is organizing the Southampton Cruelty Free Festival on 12 May (see www.crueltyfreefestival.com). In this issue of ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY, Jonathan Benthall asks why it is that, while anthropologists have studied most other social movements including environmentalism, little attention has been focused on the animal liberation and rights movement. The movement is underpinned by serious philosophical reflection and by its acknowledgment of Darwinism. This suggests that the shock caused by Darwin's discoveries is still being worked through nearly a century and a half later. Benthall's guest editorial outlines the ideological manifestations of the movement and also considers the implications of taking it seriously. Macfarlane's view, meanwhile, is that ‘perhaps it will not be until some new and superior species emerges on earth, some computerised android, which breeds humans in tiny cages, force‐feeds them, drains their bile, eats them, that we will seriously begin to crusade for the abolition of animal‐on‐animal cannibalism.’