What does it mean to be out of place? How does being deemed out of place influence the inhabitants and scenery of a landscape? Who determines what/who is out of place? I kept these questions in mind while reading Keely Boom’s “’Pest’ and ‘Resource’: A Critical History of Australia’s Kangaroos” and Alec Brownlow’s, “A wolf in the garden: Ideology and change in the Adirondack landscape.” The kangaroo piece discussed the history of the animal in Australia and its influence on the landscape of the country. Brownlow’s piece on the Adirondack landscape references wolves coming in and out of place across history in America. I noticed in both pieces that species are considered undesirable if they do not serve as an economic resource for humans at that given moment in time. Furthermore, I noticed that both the kangaroos and the wolves were explicitly viewed as pests after colonizers or white settlers inserted themselves in the landscape. The kangaroos, just like the wolves, “have frequently been labeled as ‘pests’ that need to be eradicated” (419). What is even more upsetting is that these elite groups of humans went so far as to categorize groups of people with the species labeled as pests. For example, the category of pest or vermin crossed the border to entrap non-human animals and a human group within its borders when wolves were linked with Native Americans. This thought can be and was dangerous to both groups because it labeled both as a cross between two things that “should not exist” (Lecture 11/07). It is a justification used to not only remove the wolves from the landscape, but also the Native Americans. This example demonstrates how vulnerable the category of human truly is if it can so easily be picked apart and linked to other non-human animals. Humans need to begin to think of themselves as not so separate from other species and beings because life does not begin and end with their skin. One of the questions I posed earlier about authorship in terms of landscape should be considered when legislation is created to define borders, boundaries, and landscapes. Why are humans arrogant enough to think they are the only beings in control of determining what a landscape looks like and who/what inhabits it?
An Exploration of Animality: Men, Women, and Other Animals 