Marcie Griffith, Jennifer Wolch,
and Unna Lassiter
Animal Practices and the Racialization of Filipinas in Los
Angeles
Many factors contribute to the racialization of minority
groups in the United States. Some individual characteristics,
such as skin color or phenotype, are an obvious holdover from
colonial times. Cultural differencesC in representational
practices, customs and rituals, and belief systemsC are now
more significant in racialization. Although not typically
a focus of academic scrutiny, some of these differences involve
contrasts in nature-society relations, and more specifically,
nonhuman animal-society relations. In order to examine the
relationship between culturally based animal practices and
racialization, we organized and conducted a focus group consisting
of low-income inner city Filipinas living in Los Angeles,
California. Analysis of focus group data reveal that Filipinos
in southern California are subject to racialization by Anglos
because of their culturally based animal practices, in particular
the traditional Filipino practice of treating dogs as food
animals. The experience of racialization appeared to engender
cultural relativism and tolerance toward the animal practices
of other non-Anglo groups.
Sue-Ellen Brown
Ethnic Variations in Pet Attachment among Students at an American
School of Veterinary Medicine
This study explores ethnic variations in animal companion
(“pet”) attachment among 133 students enrolled in a school
of veterinary medicine. The 57 White and 76 African American
participants completed surveys that included background information,
several questions about their animal companions, and a pet
attachment questionnaire (PAQ). White students had significantly
higher PAQ scores than did African American students (p<.001).
White students also had significantly more pets (M=4.05 vs.
2.18, p<.001) and more kinds of pets (M=2.30 vs. 1.57,
p<.001) and were more likely to allow pets to sleep on
their beds (70% vs. 53%, p<.05). Although keeping pets
is a universal cultural phenomenon, how that attachment is
expressed may vary from culture-to-culture. This study explores
possible explanations and implications for these variations.
Michael W. Allen,
Mathew Hunstone, Jon Waerstad, Emma Foy, Thea Hobbins, Britt
Wikner, and Joanne Wirrel
Human-to-Animal Similarity and Participant Mood Influence
Punishment Recommendations for Animal Abusers.
Studies of observer responses to human-to-human abuse have
found that both an observer’s mood and the similarity of the
victim to the observer affect the observer’s desire to help
the victim and punish the offender. The present study examined
the extent to which similarity and mood also shape observer
responses to human-to-animal abuse. We first manipulated participants’
mood by giving non-contingent feedback on a hidden word task
(positive, negative, or no feedback). Participants then read
a scenario describing an instance of animal abuse (using four
different specific kinds of animals and six general species
categories). Results showed that participants in a better
mood recommended harsher punishment for the offender. They
also recommended harsher punishment for the abuse of animals
more similar to humans. Similarity and mood interacted on
fine recommendationsC better mood accentuated the similarity
effect. Empathy for an animal positively correlated with punishment
recommendations for the offender. The study discusses directions
for future research and theory development.
Nerissa Russell
The Wild Side of Animal Domestication
This paper examines not the process but the concept of nonhuman
animal domestication. Domestication involves both biological
and cultural components. Creating a category of domestic animals
means constructing and crossing the boundaries between human
and animal, culture and nature. The concept of domestication
thus structures the thinking both of researchers in the present
and of domesticators and herders in the past. Some have argued
for abandoning the notion of domestication in favor of a continuum
of human-nonhuman animal relationships. Although many human-animal
relationships cannot be neatly pigeonholed as wild or domestic,
this paper contends that the concept of domestication retains
its utility. There is a critical distinction between animals
as a resource and animals as property. Domestication itself
had profound consequences for the societies and worldview
of the domesticators and their descendents. In addition to
the material effects of animal wealth, domestic animals provide
both a rich source of metaphor and a model of domination that
can be extended to humans.
Katherine Perlo
Marxism and the Underdog
Marxism has defined its key values in opposition to animals
other than human in order to promote the interests of the
most downtrodden human beings. Although it has characterized
itself as a scientific historical and economic theory, sympathy
for human suffering has provided its most powerful motivation
as a political force. This capacity for sympathy, causing
in modern times an extension of Marxist concerns beyond “class”
in the original sense, is beginning to accommodate animals
as are the theoretical concepts of alienation, surplus value,
and historical materialism. Marxism’s inconsistencies are
being resolved in favor of the side that, for human as well
as animal benefit, favors individual sentience and other pro-animal
values. So, in a truly dialectical progression, the same quality
of sympathy that at first caused Marxism to denigrate animals
is now coming out in their support.
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