Deeper meaning of stuffed animals

In their unassuming ubiquity, stuffed animals have proliferated in our everyday, postindustrial lives. But their ascent to this status depended largely on the processes of industrialisation, urbanisation and commodification. They embody important aspects of the colonial and post-colonial encounter in their material, psychological and geo-political roles. Ideologically, stuffed animals defy historicization: While they, as a commodity form, have a discernable history, which Walter Putnam imparts in the following, individually, stuffed animals are inscribed with meaning by their owners and in their act of acquisition. They are, Putnam argues, a fetish of our own making, and a fixation that provides no easy solutions.

Source: http://reconstruction.eserver.org/033/putnam.htm

History of stuffed animals

A stuffed animal is toy animal stuffed with straw, beans, cotton or other similar materials. Some stuffed animals are very old – home made cloth dolls stuffed with straw go back to at least the 1830s, perhaps much older. Stuffed animals are also known as plush toys and soft toys and of course the teddy bear.

Stuffed animals in the past were frequently produced by stuffing the evacuated skins of hunted animals. The phrase is still sometimes used to refer to examples of taxidermy. However, with modern technology it is now possible to produce them with synthetic materials. For this reason, plush toy or plushie may be a more appropriate name for a modern synthetic stuffed animal.

The first commercial concern to create stuffed toys is apparently the Steiff company that was founded in 1880 in Germany.

Among the most popular types of classic stuffed animals are teddy bears and sock monkeys.