A diffractive reading of sacrifice, (negative) reciprocity, and more-than-human animal resistance

Abstract

Starting from the premise that what is (said to be) animal or human does not preexist the relations in which such categories emerge, research has been conducted to explore how these are produced in situated ways. From this investigative framework and critical animal studies, the notions of sacrifice, reciprocity, and resistance are analyzed by examining how animal domination operates. The methodology is based on multi-sited ethnography in antispeciesist contexts and indigenous struggles, taking Barad's agential realism and a diffractive approach as theoretical framework. Given that different sacrificial practices (rituals, hunting, livestock farming) are signified within frameworks of reciprocity claiming the consent that more-than-human animals would give to their own death, negative reciprocity is proposed to account for coercion, manipulation or violence, and methodologies oriented toward understanding animal experiences beyond human significations. Perceiving another, animal or animalized, as incapable of intentional resistance can legitimate their domination. In turn, recognizing animal intentionality when they disobey or resist conditions of exploitation can be presented as evidence of their collaboration with the systems that exploit them.