[en] The paper presents the result of an ethnographic preliminary enquiry about the experience of meeting an animal. Six adult females have answered a micro-phenomenology interview about “an encounter with an animal that meant to them”. None of them were animal communicators, nor did they have training in it. Three accounts were about dogs and three were about horses. Only the horse encounter experiences met the criteria of being about a “suspended” or “enchanted” moment, and will be the subject of this presentation. It should be emphasized that these “suspended” moments happened in an everyday situation (i.e. in a barn), while the human beings were not riding the horse. These moments “happened from nowhere”, were surprising, and left long-lasting and vivid memories. They were lived as intense body communication with the horse and a renewed sense of the self. The paper will provide descriptions of the lived experiences and discuss the concept of “pathic communication” as a possible useful concept for their understanding.
Disciplines :
Anthropology
Author, co-author :
Servais, Véronique ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des sciences sociales > Anthropologie de la communication
Language :
English
Title :
Animal encounters and the sense of self
Alternative titles :
[fr] Rencontres animales et sentiment du soi
Publication date :
25 May 2022
Event name :
International Multispecies Methods Research Symposium
