ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the history of emotional attachments to animals reveals that changing attitudes towards human–animal bonds were rooted most strongly in early modern debates about animals' ability to experience complex, social emotions. It focuses on ideas about dogs, the species most critical to these changing perceptions. The chapter discusses some of the key shifts in thinking about animals' emotional capacities and the ways that dogs were used to exemplify those capacities. The Christian tradition offered a specific view of the relationship between 'man' and 'nature'. According to the dominant reading of the Bible that was handed down to the modern period, God had granted Adam dominion over the natural world, including all the animals in creation. Moreover, the Cartesian understanding of humans and animals opened the way to seeing humans as utterly separate from the natural world.
