Difference matters: A new approach in the study of human-animal interactions

• In Event: 40462 - Section on Animals and Society Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 2: Animals and Meaning

Abstract

This work has two main objectives. First, it aims to show that it is possible to draw empirically sound conclusions regarding human-animal interactions by using a descriptive method that produces acceptable descriptive statements about actions—particularly those of animals—regardless of the theoretical perspective on mind, cognition, and action. Second, this paper uses this method of description to show that complex animal agency manifests in a set of interactional phenomena that has largely been overlooked in research. Research has largely focused on interactional adjustments of traits shared by humans and animals (or non-human animals)—as meaning, project, competence, self, expectation, or action. This article investigates the interactional adjustment of traits—notably projects (Jerolmack 2009), expectations and actions— that are different and sometimes even contradictory, yet that coordinate in the course of interactions. The present work proposes to demonstrate the value of this approach through the analysis of a corpus drawn from videos of interactions between a pet dog and its human owner, on the one hand, and between a wild monkey and a tourist at a Moroccan tourist site, on the other.

Author

• Dominique Guillo, CNRS