Rethinking political communication with animals:

Greeting as a political practice

Eva MeijerUniversiteit van Amsterdam

Communication in Zoopolis• Animals as political actors (Donaldson and Kymlicka)• New view of both animals and politics• Humans and other animals communicate • We need a non-anthropocentric view of language• To conceptualize existing encounters and as a

foundation for new relationships

Language-games and greeting

• Language as a collection of language-games (Wittgenstein)

• Human-animal language-games• Interspecies greeting

Greeting as a political practice• Greeting as a social practice in human-baboon

relations (Smuts)• Greeting as political act and condition for

political communication (Young)• Greeting as a political practice in human-

macaque border conflicts (Yeo and Neo)

E.R.Meijer@uva.nl