Paper short abstract:

This paper focuses interspecies solidarity, taking up the case of cattle and the Macoushi, a Carib-speaking people on the Guianese shield. In delineating a gradient of social distance toward the bovines, it intends to question Macoushi conceptualization of cattle’s autonomy and non-ownership.

Paper long abstract:

This paper focuses interspecies solidarity, taking up the case of cattle and the Macoushi, a Carib-speaking people on the Guianese shield, Brasil/Guiana border. The Macoushi has been raising cattle for more than two centuries, since cattle was introduced by Portuguese colonizers in the end of 18thcentury. This is an extensive cattle-raising, which follows not only seasons, but also social mobility. The presence of cattle was also a powerful tool in the struggle for land, besides its land degradation and biodiversity loss. At first glance, this pattern of human-animal relationships can be said to be present in all pastorialist peoples. However, this paper seeks to explore the peculiar sociality that emerges from such interspecies relationship, in particular the gradient of social distance and how it affects Macoushi conceptualization of cattle’s autonomy and non-ownership.