The Anarchist Bestiary is an ongoing project which shares stories that enable us to learn with and from other species, with the aim of building a world together in which all can thrive.
Open call: If you have an idea for this bestiary, please let us know in the form below and we will research your suggestions or publish your entry with due acknowledgements.
History of the bestiary: Bestiaries emerged as a literary form in the UK around 1200CE and were popular for the next 300 years or so. They were lavishly illuminated manuscripts that contained illustrations and information about animals and birds, insects, trees and even rocks, some real and some mythical. The illustrations would be accompanied by a story to inform the reader about the natural history of the beast concerned and lesson based on Christian morality that the reader could apply to their life. The medieval bestiary was underpinned by hierarchies: the belief that humans are above the rest of the natural world, and the assumption that there is a hierarchy of value and power within humanity based on race, wealth, ability, gender and class which the natural world discloses and reinforces. When bestiaries waned in popularity from the 1500s on, modern, Western scientific thinking was heavily influenced by these same hierarchical assumptions.
The bestiary undone: The Anarchist Bestiary is a co-creational project that reimagines the problematical aspects of the bestiary, focusing on a non-hierarchical interdependent relationship between humans and all living beings. It looks for practices and examples that show the connectedness and creativity of the natural world of which humans are a part and that promote futures in which the whole planet can thrive. The two principles that underpin the Anarchist Bestiary are conviviality– the commitment to futures in which all species thrive, and commonality– a resource open to all, committed to opposing all coercion and oppression.
The Anarchist Bestiary: Introduction and entries
Two podcast/essays form the introduction to the bestiary, followed by individual entries.
Punk Ethnography 