Paper Short Abstract:

In this paper I analyze the cultural aspects of palliative care for pets, focusing on social narratives on their dying and death. I propose the concept of „empathetic pathographies” and discuss different aspects of building anthropological knowledge about companion animals experience of illness and dying.

Paper Abstract:

This paper, based on ethnographic research among companion animals caregivers, analyzes the cultural aspects of palliative care for pets, with particular emphasis on social narratives on their dying and death. It presents multispecies ethnography perspective, which involves extending the field of interest of anthropology to animals, understood as social actors, and their inclusion in the research process.

Disease, aging, physical suffering and death are natural elements of life, common to both human and non-human animals. However, animals’ dying is an experience to which humans, due to their limited ability to communicate with them, have limited access. This condition creates both ethical and methodological problems. Animal suffering is an experience that cannot be directly expressed or can be distorted by language; before it reaches human consciousness, it must overcome a number of "filters", including cultural ones. This fact, however, leads us to the methodological question: are we, and if so, to what extent, able to present the subjective reality of the animal, or can we only reach social interpretations of their experience (e.g. caregivers’ view)?

Therefore, I propose concepts of „empathetic pathographies” and „reading disease” understood as caregivers’ narratives and methods to learn about companion animals' experience of illness and death. I argue that the knowledge derived from empathetic pathographies arises within the framework of human-animal relationships, based largely on the social perspective of caregivers, which allows us for partial insight into the animal's experience itself.