Navigating the Human-Animal Boundary

Abstract

Animals have long figured in anthropology, but human-animal relations have come into focus in recent decades. The topic links anthropology's sub-disciplines by exploring the biological and cultural nature of both humans and animals in the past and present, as well as articulating with similar concerns in other disciplines. While anthropology is defined in terms of the separation of humans from animals, this exploration exposes the permeability of the human-animal boundary, transcended by thinking animals, bestial ancestors, and trans-species empathy. This forces a rethinking of the nature of personhood: is it only for people?

KEYWORDS:

• animal consciousness
• classification
• embodiment
• human-animal relations
• personhood

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am grateful to Roger Lohmann for inviting me to write this essay, and to him, as well as Joseph Alter and Patricia K. Anderson, for their helpful comments that improved it.