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Social Structures Of Western Society Essay

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“A Ratty Western World”

When searching for “rats” on the internet; pests control services, campaigns of eradicating rodents, media reports on rat infestation and diseases, outnumbers the various other search results. This widespread negative image of the rat, according to Edelman (2002), can be traced back historically in the Western world. However, after rat-sporting became prohibited by English law in 1870s, the Western culture began to interact with the animal differently (Edelman 2002).By the end of the nineteenth century, the rat was classified in Western contexts as: detestable pest, a lovable pet, and laboratory subjects (Edelman 2002). In this essay, I aim to show their cultural meaning and social structures to Western society, by analysing the human-rat relations and classifications in the Western world. In the West, the diverse contexts we encounter and interact with the rats have transformed their cultural meanings and social structures in our society. Rats as detestable pests
Historically, rats have been viewed as disgusting, categorised as detestable pests and associated with negative images in Western contexts. Edelman (2002) reveals how westerners tend to despise and demonise rats with examples of from the media, such as films and advertisements which act as enhancers of disgust. Consequently, the rat has become a symbol of “dirt, disease and evil aggression” (Edelman 2002:6). This presents a cultural understanding in Western societies of cleanliness and

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