On Others’ Emotions, and Ours. A Reflection on Narratives, Categories, and Heuristic Devices

Abstract

This article reflects on some epistemological and methodological tenets of cultural anthropology such as the informants’ role in ethnographical research, the relation between collective phenomena and individuals, and that between case studies (individual level) and abstraction (generalization). These tenets will be addressed focusing on the lack of recognition of animals’ individuality and agency in social relations, and on the related humans/animals opposition. With the topic of the emotional lives of animals as a starting point, the essay sets out to reflect on how the narratives we use to interpret and describe them inform our enquiry within an anthropocentric and essentialist view, consequently biasing our understanding of diversity.

Keywords

• Emotions
• humans
• animals
• individuals
• interspecific relations
• ethology
• ethnography
• anthropology
• microhistory
• informants
• subjectivity.