Multispecies Ethnography

Human-Animal Relationship ANTH 2301 Multispecies Ethnography Poetry and art critic John Berger, an Englishman, states in his article "Why Look at Animals? "That to assume that animals came into human consciousness as meat, leather, or horn is to project a 19th century mindset backwards over millennia." Originally, people saw animals as promises and messengers ([1980] 1991, 4). Current developments in anthropological research aim to communicate with these messengers and comprehend the bond between people and animals. Interactions between different species are referred to as polyspecific. Our ancestors formed the first connections between humans and other creatures millions of years ago. Anthropology's specialisation in human-animal relations offers new avenues for inquiry that consciously depart from anthropocentrism, the view that humans are the only species that matters. Studies involving humans and animals provide insight into various perspectives on what it means to be human. Multispecies ethnography is one way within the field that closely examines how humans interact with other species in their shared environment, whether those other species be microbial, fungal, animal, or plant. The study of symbiosis—a mutually beneficial interaction between species—is a primary emphasis of multispecies ethnographies. When performing multispecies ethnographies, researchers adopt a comprehensive, allencompassing methodology that considers issues including the location and mode of humananimal interactions. This method is more complicated than standard ethnography since it necessitates that the researcher consider nonhuman actors' viewpoints as well as their responsibilities in shaping our perceptions of who we are. Kirill Istomin and Mark James Dwyer (2010), cultural anthropologists and ecologists, carried out multispecies ethnographies between two distinct herding communities in Russia: the Nenets in western Siberia and the Izhma Komi in northeastern European Russia. The two groups herd the same subspecies of reindeer all year round, and their habitats are similar in terms of topography, average temperatures, and precipitation. However, their approaches of herding are entirely dissimilar. The Izhma Komi split their reindeer into two sizable groups: a byk, which is made up of castrated males used for carrying and transportation, and a kör, which is a family group made up of females, calves, and non-castrated males. During the day, the herders lead the two groups to different grazing areas, and at night, they return to the camp. The reindeer do not stray from their specific groups when they are looking for food. The Nenets, on the other hand, let their reindeer roam about freely during the day and only sometimes check on their general whereabouts and well. The Nenets animals graze in smaller groups; at night, when they return to camp on their own for safety, they reassemble as a single herd, unlike the Izhma Komi herds, which remain in their two huge groupings. In contrast to their wild counterparts, which do not habitually reside in and around human settlements, these herds have a mutually beneficial relationship with their herders. The reindeer give the humans meals, some milk, and leather for clothes, shoes, and trade goods; in return, the herders provide the reindeer with extra food and shelter at the campground. The study by Istomin and Dwyer covers social learning among the herds in addition to behaviours that the reindeer have picked up from their human herders. Both Izhma Komi and Nenets herders described to the researchers in their interviews the challenges they encountered when adding additional, supposedly uncontrollable animals to their herds. The herding customs of the new group these animals were joining were not yet familiar to them. Before they could acclimatise to the unique herd culture, a few of them strayed off and became lost. As young reindeer follow and learn from their moms and other adult reindeer, Istomin and Dwyer come to the conclusion that the animals themselves transmit behavioural information to one another across generations. The idea that animal behaviour is only innate and genetically determined is called into question by this finding. One of the main goals of multispecies ethnography is to broaden ethnographies to include a knowledge of what animals are doing and thinking. The multispecies concept is not a new idea in anthropology; it has been around for a while. One of the most analytical and observant studies on the species is still Lewis Henry Morgan's amateur anthropological investigation on the North American beaver (1868), which contains information on the beaver's adaptability to and contact with people. Furthermore, an ethnographic picture of the social and economic interdependence of the Nuer people of Africa was produced by British anthropologist Edward Evans-Pritchard's 1930s research on the interaction between the Nuer people and their cattle. In his 1981 article "Wasps, Warriors, and Fearless Men," cultural anthropologist Darrell Posey employed a multispecies ethnographic technique. The relationships of interest in this instance are those between people and insects. Posey explores how the Kayapó people of central Brazil relate to native insects and how this influences their understanding of themselves as human beings via the perspective of ethnoentomology in her work. Posey describes how Kayapó warriors use the "secret" of the venom to increase their strength by purposefully provoking a local type of wasp to sting them: The fighters chant and dance at the base of the scaffolding, sharing the hidden strength that the wasps gave them to take down the enormous beetle. The ladies let out ritualistic, heartfelt cries as the warriors, two by two, climb the platform and attack the enormous swarm with their bare hands. They repeatedly pound the hive to feel the wasps' stings until the agonising agony renders them partially unconscious. One of the most significant ceremonies for the Kayapo is this one, which serves as a connection with the past, a declaration of their place in the cosmos, and an assertion of their humanity.