A New Zealand Book of Beasts: Animals in Our Culture, History and Everday Life

All cultures attach important meanings and values to animals, often without being aware of it. In opening New Zealand's book of beasts, then, we are also opening the book of our culture. Touching on Maori relationships with moa and Pakeha attitudes to sheep, the iconography of whales and dolphins, the problems of pest-control and the pleasures of pet-keeping, this modern-day bestiary is a fascinating study of human-animal relations. In the book's four parts, Annie Potts, Philip Armstrong and Deidre Brown unravel the contradictory ways New Zealanders nurture and eradicate, glorify and demonise, cherish and devour, portray and imagine animals. The authors bring together insights from New Zealand's arts and literature, popular culture, historiography, media and everyday life to describe and interrogate our interactions with nga kararehe and nga manu, the animals and birds of this land. In doing so, they illuminate fundamental aspects of our society: how we understand our own identities and those of others; how we regard, inhabit and make use of the natural world; and how we think about what we buy, eat, wear, watch and read. Rich, multifaceted and engaging, A New Zealand Book of Beasts satisfyingly explores how our culture both shapes and is shaped by the 'beasts' of Aotearoa