Rabid dogs, roaming pigs and excommunicated ants

Coexistence between men and animals under the Old Regime law

Abstract

Throughout the Modern Age, the notion of law, as a set of norms to be followed to ensure order, was not fixed in a single statute or normative system, which was particularly important in the genesis of a colonial law. The various laws emanating from this modern legal pluralism served to adjust the behavior of both men and animals, the same way in European kingdoms and in European overseas. Taking as a background the various legal mechanisms that referred to animals, this article aims to understand the conflicts arising of relations between humans and animals in the Portuguese empire between the 16th and 19th centuries.