A Cultural History of Animals is a multi-volume project on the history of human-animal relations from ancient times to the present. The set of six volumes covers 4500 years of human-animal interaction. Volume 1: Antiquity to the Dark Ages (2500BC - 1000AD) Volume 2: The Medieval Age (1000-1400) Volume 3: The Renaissance (1400-1600) Volume 4: The Enlightenment (1600-1800) Volume 5: The Age of Empire (1800-1920) Volume 6: The Modern Age (1920-2000, including a discussion of animals of the future). Each volume shares the same structure, with chapters analyzing the same issues and themes for each time period. In this way, the volumes can be read individually to cover a specific period and individual chapters can be read across volumes to follow a theme across history. Each volume explores: the sacred and the symbolic (totem, sacrifice, status and popular beliefs), hunting; domestication (taming, breeding, labor and companionship); entertainment...