Ovine invasion: sheep as protest objects and animal agents in the Larzac campaign

Abstract: In their posters and in their protests, the peasants of the Larzac deployed sheep to help them fight back against the French Army’s plans to expropriate them from the land as part of the expansion of a local military base. In Paris, as in regional courtrooms, sheep served as a visible and disruptive contrast to urban modernity, emblematized in ovine invasions which invited animals to make themselves heard (and smelt) in courtrooms, townhalls and even beneath the Eiffel Tower. This article considers sheep as objects and agents of protest in the Larzac campaign, showing how they embodied contested visions of rural modernity, offered both opportunities for and shaped new methodologies of protest, and came to characterize the way in which this pacifist campaign resonated internationally.