Lyons and Tygers and Wolves, Oh My! Human Equality and the “Dominion Covenant” in Locke’s Two Treatises

Abstract

This essay reads John Locke’s Two Treatises through its nonhuman animal presences, especially the emblematic figures of cattle and “noxious creatures” like “lyons,” “tygers,” and wolves. It argues that the real ground of Lockean human equality is an ongoing practice of subjugating nonhuman animals, and not any attribute of the human species as such. More specifically, the Lockean social compact founded on this equality relies on a “dominion covenant,” an existential “agreement” in which God lends the power of dominion to man and any threats to this order require punishment. This dynamic enables violence toward humans, in the name of their humanity, if they do not properly exert their power of dominion. Critics have connected Locke’s theory of property to indigenous dispossession and his theory of punishment to carceral systems; both processes, I argue, intimately rely on the dominion covenant. Lockean racism is the fulfillment of, and not a deviation from, his account of human equality.

Animalization and dehumanization concerns: Another psychological barrier to animal law reform

“…With respect to race specifically, it fails to grasp that animalization and how we treat animals is at the root of Western forms of racism, slavery, and colonialism (Boggs, 2013;Cohen, 2017;Deckha, 2020;Kim, 2015). It also overlooks the possibility that the Lockean vision of human equality that underpins the common law depends on subordinating animals, and further, that this dynamic is a vector for racism (Guha-Majumdar, 2021).…”

On land, life, and labour: Abundance and scarcity in Locke, Smith, and Ricardo

“…In fact, as various commentators have noted, though not developed in detail, Locke's commentary hints at a notion of the development of societal subsistence in distinct stages. Recent scholarship has helped to reveal this by stressing the central role of animal life in Locke's text (Guha‐Majumdar, 2020). Such work captures something essential about Lockean property rights: They are expressed first and foremost not merely in terms of the relations between humans that they necessarily imply, but, more fundamentally, in terms of how they articulate modes of relation between humans and a broader web of life on earth.…”

“…66Guha‐Majumdar (2020), for example, while noting the relevant passage, does not reflect on the extent to which this might be seen to represent a distinct stage of property in its own right.…”

Everyone Poops: Consumer Virtues and Excretory Anxieties in Locke’s Theory of Property

“… 5. The partition of the digestible operates as a branch of what Guha-Majumdar (2021) calls the “dominion covenant,” in which God grounds human equality in the subjugation of nonhuman animals. …”