Human and Other-Than-Human Companions

An Essay on Cross-Species Interactions, Relations, and Connectedness

Authors

  • Jon Dag Rasmussen

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7146/pl.v44i2.151593

Keywords:

ethnographic fieldwork, interspecies sociality, companion species, connectedness

Abstract

Based on a series of ethnographic studies, this essay thematises the meaning of other-than-human, more-than-human, and cross-species relationships that emerge in these research works. The essay provides empirical insights and descriptions and analyses how relationships between humans, non-human animals, and other forms of life are of decisive importance in everyday life among people followed in the ethnographic research. In the contribution, empirical examples of different cross-species interactions and relationships that are initiated, developed, and maintained in both public and private spaces are analysed and reflected upon. As argued, the other-than-human domain possesses important and often unacknowledged or unnoticed meanings in everyday life, which manifest and become accessible when people are followed during ethnographic fieldwork. In the essay, insights, specific
examples, and empirical findings from one’s projects are related to the growing field of so-called multispecies research, which is currently being carried out and published. 

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Published

2023-12-31

How to Cite

Dag Rasmussen, J. (2023). Human and Other-Than-Human Companions: An Essay on Cross-Species Interactions, Relations, and Connectedness. Psyke & Logos, 44(2), 85–108. https://doi.org/10.7146/pl.v44i2.151593