Ethics, Hunting Tales, and the Multispecies Debate: The Entextualization of Nonhuman Narratives

• Published in: Society for Visual Anthropology review 2015-05, Vol.31 (1), p.94-103
• Main Author: Rentería-Valencia, Rodrigo F.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anthropology; Biodiversity; Conservation; Discursive Practices; Ethics; Human ecology; Hunting; interspecies; Morals; Narratives; nonhumans; Semiotics; Seri (concaac) people; Wildlife; Wildlife conservation
• ISSN: 1058-7187; 1053-7147; 1548-7458
• DOI: 10.1111/var.12066

As an object of anthropological inquiry, trophy hunting occupies a marginal position at best—due in part to the pronounced moral assessments it seems to provoke. Questioning this lack of attention, the present article interrogates the role that hunting, as a discursive practice, may have in what has been defined as the “species” turn in anthropology. Overall, the article argues that the type of narratives promoted under the multispecies ethos and the discursive renditions that hunters produce of their experiences share a similar semiotic mechanism in the way both genres incorporate nonhumans as active (even if tacit) coauthors of said narratives—via the works of a semiotic process defined as entextualization. In consequence, this analogous structuring allows for the recognition of a common ethical ground toward nonhumans in practices that may intuitively read as having radically divergent ethical agendas: an important lesson not only for wildlife conservation efforts, but also for the overall multispecies approach.