Paper short abstract:

From an inquiry into the political, ethical, technological, and vital modes emerging from the interaction between bovine and human societies, I propose reflecting on how we produce a more concerned science in multispecies relationships under political ethology.

Paper long abstract:

Research on the coexistence between cows and humans raises the opportunity to reconsider how we create the world, transcending human centrality in our understanding and acting. Based on a study examining various dimensions of this relationship, focusing on the role of cows in shaping Uruguayan society and the state, I propose an epistemological reflection on the configuration of a situated field that emerges by considering rumination as a method. This field is political ethology: an epistemic space that not only allows the convergence of traditions such as Science, Technology, and Society (STS) studies, biopolitical studies, critical animal studies, and multispecies studies, among others but also facilitates the creation of new starting points without the intention of consolidating an autonomous disciplinary field. Political ethology represents the modern way knowledge about animal behavior has developed, addressing their psychological and social behaviors about human behavior. Contrary to the ontological notion that separates humanity from animality, the study of various species' social behavior has suggested animal politics within their existential communities. These analyzed political and social behaviors allow us to outline non-human politics based not on language and reason but on an affective and corporeal regime. Despite the marked distinction between human and animal politics, this difference does not act as a divider but as a key to placing the political sphere on a symmetrical plane.