Zoonotic diagrams: mastering and unsettling human-animal relations
| Category | Journal Articles |
|---|---|
| Abstract |
This article approaches interspecies relations through an examination of the prevalent visual device employed in the representation of animal-human infection in the life sciences: the zoonotic cycles diagram. After charting its emergence and development in the context of bubonic plague, I explore how this diagrammatic regime has been applied in two distinct practical contexts: a plague warning sign on the Grand Canyon National Park hiking trail; and the on-line public information campaign launched by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the wake of the Ebola outbreak of 2014-16. The article demonstrates the principal ontological and biopolitical operations of these diagrams, arguing that, far from simply summarizing epidemiological narratives of animal-human infection, they function both as pilots of human mastery over human-animal relations and as crucial sites of unsettlement for the latter. |
| Date | 2017 |
| Translated Title | Diagrammes zoonotiques : maîtriser et perturber les relations entre humains et animaux |
| Publication Title | Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute |
| Volume | 23 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 463-485 |
| ISBN/ISSN | 13590987 |
| Publisher | Blackwell Publishing Ltd. |
| DOI | 10.1111/1467-9655.12649 |
| Language | English |
| Author Address | Department of Social Anthropology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife, UK ; Department of Social Anthropology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife, UK |
| Additional Language | English |
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