Tags
animal behavior, Barbara Smuts, consciousness, human-animal relationships, interspecies communication, interspecies relationships, intersubjectivity, mutuality
In part one, I touched on the tremendous insight into animality in Barbara Smuts’ article “Encounters with Animal Minds.” However, the main themes of her narrative revolved around interspecies relationships and the concept of intersubjectivity. Using personal narratives to describe her research experience with a baboon tribe in Africa and her intimate experience with dog companion Safi, she creates a theory of interspecies relationships based on direct experience. Despite her focus on direct experience and phenomenological insight, she doesn’t stray too far from her scientific roots. She concludes the paper with seven concrete stages she discovered in building interspecies relationships. Continue reading