----4 Worksheet: More-than-human care

Week 5 – Interactive Activities

1. More-than-Human Care & Sacrifice

Theme: Love, obligation, and loss across species boundaries

Learning Goals

• Understand how care operates across species boundaries
• Analyse how emotional bonds coexist with sacrifice
• Reflect on non-verbal communication, kinship, and personhood in more-than-human relationships

Pigs as Kin in Vanuatu

Based on Margaret Jolly, "Pig Love"

In Vanuatu, pigs are not just livestock. They are kin, often named and lovingly raised. They are fed, talked to, and treated as persons:

" In some places a woman's relation to her pigs becomes frankly maternal as in the reported instances of lactating women suckling [breastfeeding] piglets." 

 These pigs often die in rituals marking births, marriages, or deaths. So although raised with care and affection, they are eventually sacrificed. Jolly shows this is not a contradiction, but an example of reciprocal obligation.

“She is my daughter, and I will let her go”

Govindrajan explains that in Uttarakhand, northern India, people raise goats not as property but as children. The women who care for them call themselves “mothers.” They understand the goats’ needs and moods through sound, movement, and bodily signs—just as they do with their human children.

In this article, sacrifice is as theorised as family (kindred) closeness (intimacy). Govindrajan writes:

"kinship between humans and animals is created and sustained through everyday practices of intercorporeal engagement and care. I contend, in fact, that animal sacrifice is itself constitutive of interspecies kin relations. The spectacular act of violence at the heart of sacrifice—the beheading of the sacrificial animal—is crucial to the constitution of kin solidarity between human sacrificer and animal victim."

But these relationships are not free of pain. Goats are sometimes sacrificed to the gods. This isn’t a casual killing: it’s deeply emotional. The goats, people say, must agree to be sacrificed. The decision is mutual. Sacrifice, then, becomes a form of ultimate reciprocity: the goat gives herself to protect the family, and is remembered not just as an animal, but as a daughter.

Ojibwe reciprocal relations with other-than-human persons

For the Ojibwa, humans are merely one kind of person. Non-human persons, such as animals, exist. Moreover, persons frequently transform, e.g. from an animal form to a human form. Hallowell writes:

The Ojibwa are hunters and food gatherers. Since the various species of animals on which they depend for a living are believed to be under the control of "masters" or "owners" who belong to the category of other-than-human persons, the hunter must always be careful to treat the animals he kills for food or fur in the proper manner. It may be necessary, for example, to throw their bones in the water or to perform a ritual in the case of bears. Otherwise, he will offend the "masters" and be threatened with starvation because no animals will be made available to him. Cruelty to animals is likewise an offense that will provoke the same kind of retaliation. And, according to one anecdote, a man suffered illness because he tortured a fabulous windigo [cannibalistic spirit / monstrous being] after killing him. A moral distinction is drawn between the kind of conduct demanded by the primary necessities of securing a livelihood, or defending oneself against aggression, and unnecessary acts of cruelty. The moral values implied document the consistency of the principle of mutual obligations which is inherent in all interactions with "persons" throughout the Ojibwa world.

Could we say that the Ojibwa care for the animals they hunt? If so, why? If not, why not?

Discussion Questions

• Can care include sacrifice? Why or why not?
• Are these relationships similar to, or different from, pet ownership in your society?

2. Pet love

Warm-Up Prompt

Have you ever cared deeply for an animal? Has an animal ever comforted you or shown affection?
Was that care different from human care—or just another version of it?

Reflection

Reflect on a time when you experienced more-than-human care. This could involve a pet, a wild animal, or even a plant.

• What made it feel like care?
• Was it one-way or reciprocal?
• What happened when the relationship ended?