furry family

8/14/2019 Furry Family

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Furry FamiliesBe(a)ware of the dog


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Ideology Maps of meaning that form the basis of a

political, economic, social or other system.

An ideology can be thought of as a way of looking at things, proposed by the dominantclass of a society and adopted by allmembers of this society.


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Ideology of the family The ideology of the family consists of all

those values and norms that instruct us onhow ideal family life should be lived.


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Origins The concept of the family dominant at the

present time arose during the late 18thcentury. The ideology was devised by and served to

mark the middle class off from thedecadence of the upper class and theimmorality of the working class.


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Ideology in action


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Ideology in action


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The home Geographies of the home show that the

house is a complex space that both shapesand is shaped by the individual inhabitants,and the society in which they live.


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Dog house


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Dog house


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Humans and other animals Within the Judaeo-Christian philosophical

tradition the earth and all within it wascreated to serve man.

Human / animal divide with humansbelieved to be superior to animals.

Aristotle saw reason as separating humans

from other animals.


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Humans and other animals Aquinas asserted that the souls of animals

did not survive their death, unlike those of humans.

Descartes argued that animals were no morethan machines having no mind and beingunable to feel pain.


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This binary divide between animals and

humans was not universal.

Some enlightenment thinkers, includingsome within the major western religions, likeFrancis of Assisi, valued nature andkindness towards others.


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God and his dog


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Dog evolution An early theory on the domestication of dogs

explained that hunters of about 12,000 yearsago brought home wolf pups which theytamed.

Recent research suggests that dogsdomesticated themselves, in that wolveshanging around human camps developedbehaviours that were rewarded. Thishappened around 130,000 years ago.


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The domestication of creatures that were

once wild was seen as evidence of humandomination over the animals.

However, recent evidence suggests thatwolves influenced the evolution of humans

just as much as humans influenced thedevelopment of dogs from wolves.


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Species barrier

Close relationships between humansand animals has been seen asunnatural .


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Post-human world Some theorists argue that we live in a post-

human world, in which the absoluteboundaries between humans and non-humans, wildness and civilization, natureand society have been broken down and all

beings are connected in a series of overlapping webs of activity.


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Donna Haraway

Companion Species Manifesto

Exposes the permeability of the species

barrier which has been defended by scienceand religion and supported by legal systemsand economic regimes.


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Kinship diagrams

Self

Family

Network


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Statistics 88% of pet owners in Australia see their pet

as part of the family (49% in the USA)


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Ambivalence Currently the majority of pet owners see their

pets as like us.

1950s popular dog names: Rover, Spot, Lassie, Buddy, Daisy

2008s popular dog names: Max, Jake, Lucy and Molly


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Ambivalence Dominant ideology sees them as other

Laws excluding them from family spaces Laws treating them as property Economic exclusion (no puppy bonus). Education is optional

Animal cruelty treated separately


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Pack animals This ambivalence is reflected in the

widespread practice of producing the multi-species family using a pack model, with ahuman dominated hierarchy .

Leadership is coded through spatialdynamics and the ordering of social activity,based in a belief that dogs are sensitive tothe symbolic meanings of these things tohumans.


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Power relations

Pack leadership as a model for human -dog interaction.The pack model bridgesthe divide betweenoutsider and family.


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Dog needs and preferences

Dogs do have agency in contemporaryfamilies.


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Pack relations are understood as an interaction

between humans and dogs-as-species.Dog owners report developingrelationships with particular individual dogs.


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Pets occupy a liminal position Pets exist on the boundaries between

human and animal

Pets are seen by their human companionsas both human and animal.


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Bad dog!Dogs that deviated from the perceived

norms were likely to have their familymembership questioned.


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Inter-relationships. Dogs are shaped to fit within the

expectations of appropriate family and homebehaviour.

The concept of family is broadened bypeoples efforts to include dogs -as-dogs, andby the agency of individual dogs whichshapes the way that family is experienced.


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The family as institution The family, constituted as two parents and

two or more children, is often viewed as aninstitution that is naturally given, and thus isautomatically viewed as socially and morallydesirable.


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Family ideology Family ideology has been a vital means of

holding together and legitimating the existingsocial, economic, political and gender systems.

Challenging the ideology thus meanschallenging the whole social system.

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