Domesticating Practices: The Case of Arabian Babblers

The “Arabian babblers” are observed in the Neguev desert for more than 40 years. These birds live in cooperative groups. They offer presents to feed each other, they endanger themselves by mobbing raptors or by coming to the rescue of group members. They play and they also often dance together. All these behaviors have received various and controversial interpretations in the scientific literature. Following the actual field’s work, one may observe that these interpretations are closely linked to the way scientists observe the birds, or even deal with them. Different practices not only construe but actually “produce” different birds. Roughly said, some of the observers take a “subjectivist” stance and interact with the birds, the other one takes an “objectivist” stance, and keeps distance from them. Each of these practices has different effects, on the birds, and on the theories. These birds therefore appear just at the edge of the categories of wild/domesticated/feral, their identity seeming to change accordingly to the ethologist who observes them.