TY - JOUR
T1 - The flight of the self: Exploring more-than-human
companionship in rural Pakistan
AU - Kavesh, Muhammad
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - The construct of multispecies anthropology has helped
explain some of the ways through which humans develop sensory and embodied connectedness with the more-than human. Yet there is a need to fully comprehend how such connectedness leads to the discovery of the inner self. Through an ethnographic study carried out with rural South Punjabi pigeon flyers in Pakistan between 2008 and 2018, this paper argues that companionship with pigeons allows people to generate a meaningful relationship with their animals, explore their inner emotions and achieve a deeper understanding of the self. This paper takes inspiration from Donna Haraway's critique of Jacques Derrida's cat encounter, and philosophical thoughts of a 12th-century Muslim mystic poet, Farid ud-Din Attar, to examine how becoming with pigeons enables the flyers to structure their lifeworlds, develop entrenched companionship and shape their social choices to achieve wellbeing despite everyday social troubles and emotional anxieties.
AB - The construct of multispecies anthropology has helped
explain some of the ways through which humans develop sensory and embodied connectedness with the more-than human. Yet there is a need to fully comprehend how such connectedness leads to the discovery of the inner self. Through an ethnographic study carried out with rural South Punjabi pigeon flyers in Pakistan between 2008 and 2018, this paper argues that companionship with pigeons allows people to generate a meaningful relationship with their animals, explore their inner emotions and achieve a deeper understanding of the self. This paper takes inspiration from Donna Haraway's critique of Jacques Derrida's cat encounter, and philosophical thoughts of a 12th-century Muslim mystic poet, Farid ud-Din Attar, to examine how becoming with pigeons enables the flyers to structure their lifeworlds, develop entrenched companionship and shape their social choices to achieve wellbeing despite everyday social troubles and emotional anxieties.
U2 - 10.1111/taja.12384
DO - 10.1111/taja.12384
M3 - Article
VL - 32
SP - 42
EP - 57
JO - Australian Journal of Anthropology, The
JF - Australian Journal of Anthropology, The
ER -