Human-animal relations are a well-established subject of anthropology. This is because numerous human communities share their living environment with animals; animals are the foundation of certain modes of subsistence (hunting, fishing, pastoralism, barn rearing etc.); people tell stories about animals that can also be stories about people.
Often, interspecies relations are permanent, creating a feeling of closeness and coexistence techniques in people and animals. This is why anthropology uses the term “multispecies society”.
This focus is particularly relevant today, when we are constantly faced by examples of excessive human interference in animal ecological niches and of the ever-decreasing physical closeness of species all over the planet.
In the current circumstances, there are frequent discussions about interspecies conflicts, risks due to disease transmission etc., but the times also call for a reflection on the possibilities for the coexistence of species as the foundation of their survival.
This is exactly what certain contemporary orientations of anthropology are about. Through the method of interspecies ethnography, anthropology focuses not exclusively on humans, but on interspecies relations, exploring views of the world (ontologies) that see animals not as subordinate to humans, but rather as their equals.
Coordinator: Miha Kozorog, PhD, Faculty of Arts
