Fur, Feathers, and Scales of Identity: Awarding the Non-human Animal His Own Identity Theory

• In Event: 2112 - Section on Animals and Society Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 02. Animals and Identities

Abstract

The Animal Turn is a recent trend of papers, conferences, and programs focused on better understanding our (humans’) relationships with other animals. As sociologists, scholars of the social world, we have not been exempt from this turn. Actually, we have found ourselves in the thick of it. One “human” attribute after another has fallen to research, showing that non-human animals are able to use tools, have language, and even develop cultures. Gone are the days of Descartes and others who championed humans as having immortal souls in comparison to non-human animals’ mechanical existences. Now, one of the pinnacle characteristics of sociological research – selfhood – has caught the attention of human-animal scholars. Today’s sociological understanding of identity and selfhood is largely credited to the work of symbolic interactionist theorists, like Mead and Blumer. Sanders (2007) took this understanding at face value when he presented an argument for animal selfhood. Ten years later, I answer Bekoff’s (2000) call to be open to the true depth of non-human experiences in my own call for using the newer qualitative methodology, multi-species ethnography, to explore non-human identity both empirically and from the non-humans’ perspectives.

Author

• Marie Carmen Abney, Michigan State University