Time, Species, and Human–Animal Relations in Modern Latin America
A Response to Éric Baratay
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.52537/humanimalia.28275Keywords:
species, temporalities, Latin America, modernity, human-animal relationsAbstract
This short essay examines Éric Baratay’s argument that Western cultures have generally ignored intra-species variations over time and thereby ejected nonhuman animals from dominant versions of history. Drawing on the modern history of Latin America, it argues that Baratay’s interpretation is compelling but incomplete. Species categories were an important aspect of the culture imposed on the Americas by the Spanish and Portuguese, and helped structure various social practices and discourses. However, many Latin Americans have thought about how species behaviour varied over time. This was because of various cultural traditions in which the boundaries and behaviour of species were considered mutable, and the close association between notions of animal domestication and progress. Indeed, some people — farmers, ranchers, soldiers, conservationists, scientists, environmentalists — were closely involved in engineering intra-species variations and managing nonhuman animals’ own rhythms and agendas. In sum, the essay suggests that the relationship between temporalities and human–animal relations is a promising line of historical enquiry, promising insights into notions of modernity, comparative history, and the articulation of different ways of relating to nonhuman animals.
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