Every Twelve Seconds : Industrialized Slaughter and the Politics of Sight

by Timothy Pachirat

• ISBN13: 9780300152678
• ISBN10: 0300152671
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-11-18
• Publisher: Yale University Press

Summary

This is an account of industrialized killing from a participant's point of view. The author, political scientist Timothy Pachirat, was employed undercover for five months in a Great Plains slaughterhouse where 2,500 cattle were killed per dayone every twelve seconds. Working in the cooler as a liver hanger, in the chutes as a cattle driver, and on the kill floor as a food-safety quality-control worker, Pachirat experienced firsthand the realities of the work of killing in modern society. He uses those experiences to explore not only the slaughter industry but also how, as a society, we facilitate violent labor and hide away that which is too repugnant to contemplate. Through his vivid narrative and ethnographic approach, Pachirat brings to life massive, routine killing from the perspective of those who take part in it. He shows how surveillance and sequestration operate within the slaughterhouse and in its interactions with the community at large. In a deeply thoughtful analysis, he also considers how society is organized to distance and hide uncomfortable realities from view. With much to say about current issues ranging from the sociology of violence and modern food production to animal rights and welfare, Every Twelve Seconds is an important and disturbing work.

Author Biography

Timothy Pachirat is assistant professor, Department of Politics, the New School University. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Hidden in Plain Sight	p. 1
The Place Where Blood Flows	p. 20
Kill Floor	p. 38
"Es todo por hoy"	p. 85
One Hundred Thousand Livers	p. 108
Killing at Close Range	p. 140
Control of Quality	p. 162
Quality of Control	p. 208
A Politics of Sight	p. 233
Division of Labor on the Kill Floor	p. 257
Cattle Body Parts and Their Uses	p. 271
Notes	p. 275
Index	p. 293
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