Key Term
- Feminist inquiry: “understanding how things work, who is in the action, what might be possible, and how worldly actors might somehow be accountable and love each other less violently” (7).
Haraway argues that the cyborg no longer meets the functions she desired in her last manifesto and moves, instead, to the idea of the companion species. For her, companion specifies refers to the idea that “there are no pre-constituted subjects and objects, and no single sources, unitary actors, or final ends” (6). Likewise, “subjects, objects, kinds, races, species, genres, and genders are the products of their relating” (7). This is an important concept for her because she looks at the relations between dog and human. Another important idea is that of significant otherness, which signifies “emergent practices; i.e., in vulnerable, on-the-ground work that cobbles together non-harmonious agencies and ways of living that are accountable to both their disparate inherited histories and to their barely possible but absolutely joint future” (7). Haraway argues that dogs and humans co-evolve, both biologically and culturally. They train each other, learning how to communicate, respond to and respect each other. There is no preconceived hierarchy between them nor a preconceived way of communicating or acting. These must be learned through interaction with a specific animal and specific human. She also maintains that we should value histories; for instance, we should acknowledge the history of particular breeds in thinking about what jobs the dogs would be best suited for (herding versus protecting sheep, for example). In this book, then, Haraway breaks down binaries of human/animal and nature/culture.
Key Term
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