5. More-than-human care: Caring for animals (loving pigs)
Welcome to Module 5 of Transforming Lives through Care. This is part of a course in Anthropology at La Trobe University. In previous modules, we analysed care through the lens of: kinship (Module 2) the Gift (Module 3) gender (Module 4) Now that you’ve explored how care operates among humans you're ready to extend those insights beyond human relationships. This week, we ask what happens when care crosses species lines. How do we care for animals and how do they care for us? 🎯 Learning Goals By the end of this week, you should be able to: Analyse how care for animals expresses broader social, gendered, and spiritual dynamics Reflect on how ritual, emotion, and power are entwined in human-animal relations Compare the Melanesian "pig complex" with pet care in Australia and other industrialised societies Begin to de-centre Western ideas of “animal care” by engaging with ethnographic evidence 🚦 Introduction Care for 'animals' is a crucial part of many cultures. Th...