Animal ethnography

Proposing A multi-disciplinary method to better understand non-human animals

Members: Brenda de Groot (project 1), Julia Espinosa (project 2), Christiana Tsiourti (project 2), Zbigniew Słuszkiewicz (project ?); Adrianna Chorąży (project 1); Affiliated artist: Jianan Qian.

The past decades of research have presented us with ample evidence and reasons that humans are not the only animals with complex minds. Nonhuman animals' (hereafter simply "animals") lives, thoughts, feelings and behaviours are shaped by their evolutionary history, developmental trajectory, past and present physical environments, social relationships, cultures and personality. As a result of this new knowledge, both the academic and non-academic world increasingly more often call for that we take non-human animals seriously, as the complex conscious beings they are.

The scientific fields that study animal behaviour and their minds nowadays mostly applies quantitative data collection methods, and the publication of valuable qualitative data is on its decline (e.g., Ramsay & Teichroeb, 2019). Yet qualitative data (i.e. ethnographies , anecdotes, images, etc.) can provide valuable information that can inspire new research questions, help explain quantitative findings, and has the potential to help resolve the replication crisis in animal studies.

We propose a multi-disciplinary method that embraces the collection and publication of high-quality qualitative data alongside the existing quantitative data collection methods, enriching ethology with ethnographic methods, to create a better holistic understanding of animal lives, cultures, behaviours and minds.

Suggested Readings & Citations (key articles are bolded)

Andrews, K., & Monsó, S. (2021). Animal Cognition. In E. N. Zalta (Red.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2021). Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2021/entries/cognition-animal/

Bates, L., & Byrne, R. (2007). Creative or created: Using anecdotes to investigate animal cognition. Methods, 42(1), 12–21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ymeth.2006.11.006

Bateson, P., & Laland, K. N. (2013). Tinbergen's four questions: an appreciation and an update. Trends in ecology & evolution, 28(12), 712-718. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2013.09.013

Baynes-Rock, M. (2012). Hyenas like us: Social relations with an urban carnivore in Harar, Ethiopia. Macquarie University, Faculty of Arts, Department of Anthropology.

Baynes-Rock, M. (2015). Among the bone eaters: Encounters with hyenas in Harar. Penn State University Press.

Emerson, R. M., Fretz, R. I., & Shaw, L. L. (2011). Writing ethnographic fieldnotes. University of Chicago Press.

Hartigan Jr, J. (2014). Aesop's anthropology: A multispecies approach. University of Minnesota Press.

Kirksey, S. E., & Helmreich, S. (2010). The Emergence of Multispecies Ethnography. Cultural Anthropology, 25(4), 545–576. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1360.2010.01069.x

Kret, M. E., & Roth, T. S. (2020). Anecdotes in animal behaviour. Behaviour, 157(5), 385–386. https://doi.org/10.1163/1568539X-00003600

Laslett, B. (1999). Personal narratives as sociology. Contemporary Sociology, 28(4), 391–401. https://doi.org/10.2307/2655287

Lestel, Dominique. (2006). Ethology and ethnology, the coming synthesis: A general introduction. Social Science Information Sur Les Sciences Sociales - SOC SCI INFORM, 45, 147-153. https://doi.org/10.1177/0539018406063632

Locke, P. (2013). Explorations in ethnoelephantology: Social, historical, and ecological intersections between Asian elephants and humans. Environment and Society, 4(1), 79-97.

Locke, P. (2017). Elephants as persons, affective apprenticeship, and fieldwork with nonhuman informants in Nepal. HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 7(1), 353-376.

Locke, P., & Keil, P. (2015). Multispecies methodologies and human-elephant relations. Engagement A blog published by the Anthropology and Environment section, American Anthropological Society, 27.

Madden, R. (2014). Animals and the Limits of Ethnography. Anthrozoös, 27(2), 279–293. https://doi.org/10.2752/175303714X13903827487683

Malone, N., Wade, A. H., Fuentes, A., Riley, E. P., Remis, M., & Robinson, C. J. (2014). Ethnoprimatology: Critical interdisciplinarity and multispecies approaches in anthropology. Critique of Anthropology, 34(1), 8–29. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308275X13510188

Packer, M. J. (2017). The science of qualitative research. Cambridge University Press.

Panksepp, Jaak (2015): A truth diagram of anthropomorphism.. PLOS ONE. Figure. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0021236.g001

Ramsay, M. S., & Teichroeb, J. A. (2019). Anecdotes in primatology: Temporal trends, anthropocentrism, and hierarchies of knowledge. American Anthropologist, 121(3), 680–693. https://doi.org/10.1111/aman.13295

Small, M. L. (2011). How to conduct a mixed methods study: Recent trends in a rapidly growing literature. Annual Review of Sociology, 37, 57-86.

Smuts, B. (2001). Encounters with animal minds. Journal of consciousness studies, 8(5-6), 293-309.

Weisman, K., & Luhrmann, T. M. (2020). What anthropologists can learn from psychologists, and the other way around. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 26(S1), 131–147. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.13245

Wentworth, K. (z.d.). Writing/Power/Story: Why and How to Do Ethnography of Nonhuman Beings and Things. Society for Cultural Anthropology. Retrieved from https://culanth.org/fieldsights/writing-power-story-why-and-how-to-do-ethnography-of-nonhuman-beings-and-things

Presentation

In progress