Thesis
Cross-cultural perspectives on canine personhood: A qualitative-quantitative analysis
Washington State University
Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
05/2020
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7273/000004234
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/124872
Abstract
Humans and dogs share a globally widespread yet varied relationship, the product of both coevolution and culture. Dogs' utility to humans varies across socio-ecological contexts, and much ambivalence surrounds dogs' position in human cultures. Because definitions of animality and humanity vary cross-culturally, notions of dogs as "persons" reflect broader ontological perceptions of human-animal boundaries. This study investigates cultural perceptions of dogs as persons, by applying both qualitative and quantitative methods to the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample (SCCS) drawn from the Human Relations Area Files' (HRAF) ethnographic collections. Cultures may alternately 1) explicitly categorize dogs as a type of person, 2) draw sharp distinctions between dogs and humans, or 3) construct personhood as a liminal status afforded to individual dogs, through close interactions with individual human beings. Multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) of 151 cultures indicates 10 variables that underly peoples' perceptions of dogs as "persons," viable as a unidimensional scale (Cronbach's alpha = 0.79). This variation in ontological perspectives reflects humans' and dogs' shared nature as highly social species with mutual capacity to form close, cooperative bonds.
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Details
- Title
- Cross-cultural perspectives on canine personhood
- Creators
- Jaime N. Chambers
- Contributors
- Marsha Bogar Quinlan (Advisor) - Washington State University, Anthropology, Department ofRobert Joseph Quinlan (Advisor) - Washington State University, Anthropology, Department of
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Anthropology, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University
- Identifiers
- 99900896424101842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis