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Affective Animal: Bataille, Lascaux and the mediatization of the sacred

This chapter draws together research from interdisciplinary work on visual cultures, film studies, and philosophy to analyse the imagery and filmic and anthropological narrative presented in the use of cattle in different cultural realms. From prehistoric cave art, to the dancing cows used to sell diary products today, the chapter explores how this animal and its products perform a particular catalytic role for human cultures. The research extends an application of the notion of affective material and visual culture in order to question the role of the sacred in contemporaneous cultures. Examining why the animal occupies this role leads me through a study of Bataille’s work and a thesis proposing a philosophy of consumption as a way to engage with the complexities of the affective relationships between human and animal. Chapter reviewed in Culture Machine Reviews July 2012, p.6 (http://www.culturemachine.net/index.php/cm/article/viewDownloadInterstitial/460/480).