The anthropo-zoo-genetics of animal agency

Abstract

From the field of animal studies, the objectives of this article are, first, to present a conceptual approach to the term anthropo-zoo-genesis and, second, discuss four circumstances in which this category is materialized and reveals the phenomenon of animal agency. The study seeks to respond to several questions: what is an anthropo-zoo-genetic practice?: how is the relation between human beings and animals manifested?; and does this practice makes it possible to speak of animal agency? The answer to these questions assumes that relations between human beings and animals contain an implicit communication based on the capacity of both to affect each other mutually through gestural, muscular, visual, sensory, and emotive interaction. This would raise the possibility of modifying current practices and actions that, consciously or unconsciously, impact the accords and terms in which relations between these two beings are realized and that form the trigger of animal agency.