How dominant culture—from sexism and homophobia to racism capitalism ableism and more—has
limited the science of animal behavior and how we can free ourselves from these limited
perspectives. In Feminism in the Wild Ambika Kamath and Melina Packer reveal how scientists
studying animal behavior have long projected human norms and values onto animals while seeking
to understand them. When scientific studies conclude that these norms and values are natural in
animals it makes it easier to think of them as natural in humans too. And because scientists
historically and to this day largely belong to elite powerful segments of society the norms
and values embedded into animal behavior science match those of the already powerful. How can
animal behavior science escape this trap of naturalizing dominant culture? Drawing from
decades of feminist antiracist queer disability justice and Marxist contributions—including
those of biologists—Kamath and Packer break down persistent assumptions in the status quo of
animal behavior science and offer a multitude of alternative approaches. Core concepts in
animal behavior science and evolutionary biology—from sex categories and sexual selection to
fitness adaptation biological determinism and more—are carefully contextualized and
critically reexamined. This unique collaboration between an animal behavior scientist and a
feminist science studies scholar is an illuminating and hopeful read for anyone who is curious
about how animals behave and anyone who wants to break free from scientific approaches that
perpetuate systems of oppression.
