Afterlife Companion Species: Thinking Human-Dog Relations from the South Andean Region
No. 36 (2019-07-01)Author(s)
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Marina Weinberg
Abstract
Objective/context: This article explores human-dog relations in the valleys of the province of Jujuy, Argentina. In particular, it pays attention to how these interspecies relations are intertwined and transformed throughout life and in the journey to the world of the deceased, exploring the existential challenges presented by death in the ontological plots and intercrossing involved in the being with others. The article deals with different aspects of what I call dog-relationship, as an attempt to understand as yet little explored terrains in correspondence with the existing human-human, human-dog, and dog-dog interweaving that forcefully traverse different dimensions and temporalities in the southern region. Methodology: The event that brings this article to life took place in the most peaceful day-to-day life between 2012 and 2014 in Tilcara (Jujuy, Argentina). In this respect, although it is explored from an ethnographic approach, there was no prefixed methodology in the framework of an investigation, but rather - conversely to the way in which we are strongly disciplined -, from concrete experiences, concepts are developed which cling to theoretical sensitivities, to analyze an event so loaded with significance in the Andean ritual world, and on a purely personal level. Conclusions: To consider the dog-relationship as a partial connection and to reflect on the divergences that arise in the experience of both life and death is what may possibly make it conceivable to overcome the modern subject-object bifurcation. Originality: Supported by contemporary anthropological discussions, the article explores frameworks of analysis that exceed human representation of animals when daily interactions are at stake. Furthermore, the article explores the ways in which the human-dog relationship is intertwined and ontologically transformed in the being with others, not only in life-long experience, but also in the journey into the world of the deceased.
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