Abstract
I explore Val Plumwood’s account of more-than-human agency in the context of human-dog relations in Cusco, Peru. I use Plumwood’s concept of an intentional recognition stance to consider how intentionality operates in both subjective and unintentional acts. Discussing my fieldwork on street dog agency in Cusco, I show that the city’s street dogs co-construct the political possibility of a multispecies city. I focus on the concept of “perro comunitario” or “community dog,” recognized under Peruvian law 31311 and defined as a dog who does not belong to anyone or have a home. This law also recognizes the humans who feed and support the community dog and maintain coexistence with them. This legal definition builds on an existing reality about daily human interactions with street dogs. Despite the human-controlled legacy of dogs, this is a recognition that some dogs are not owned. Rather, community dogs are recognized as being independent and autonomous. They demonstrate their autonomy in through daily choices outside of direct human control, and their coexistence is maintained through communal relations of care, feeding, and other interactions with humans. Community dogs thus demonstrate themselves as what Plumwood (2002) refers to as “independent centre(s) of value” and “originator(s) of projects” demanding our respect. Such recognitions stand in contrast to domesticated dogs living in much of the Global North, who are generally understood as lacking proper care without an official caretaker. The lives of Cusco’s community dogs profoundly demonstrate who dogs can be in ways that radically differ from dominant narratives.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2024 Special Focus—Traveling Concepts: The Transfer and Translation of Ideas in the Humanities
KEYWORDS
Street Dogs, Animal Studies, Multispecies Studies, Animal Ethics, Ecofeminism
