Renaissance animal things

This article uses thing theory to explore the uses of two animal things common in Renaissane culture: leather and civet. It argues that, even as the animal is dismembered and its parts used in the manufacture of commodities - gloves, perfume - those objects have a power to change the world in which they are used: that animal things are not inert, and are not simply evidence of human dominion, but are themselves active presences in culture.