Reflections on (our Research on) Human-to-Animal Communication (in Africa): Anthropocentrism, Posthumanism, and White Crisis
Alexander Andrason & Haile Matutu
Abstract: This article is dedicated to one aspect of human-to-animal communication – the category of conative animal calls (CACs) or: lexicalized constructions bestowed with phonic substance that are addressed to non-human animal species, entertain a directive function and, apart from functioning as words, are used as self-standing non-elliptical utterances. The authors review the history of CAC scholarship and contextualize it within the intellectual currents of the relevant epochs, arguing that the historical marginalization of CACs in linguistics is related to the anthropocentrism of the 20th century while the recent growth of CAC studies reflects the posthumanism flourishing in the 21st century. Despite the benefits of the current posthumanist context visible in the explosion of CAC research, the authors problematize this shift in philosophy and linguistics: When evaluated from an African perspective and through a decolonial lens, the posthumanism appears as yet another manifestation of whiteness and a reaction to a ‘white crisis’.
Keywords: Human-to-animal communication, conative animal calls, anthropocentrism, posthumanism, decoloniality, whiteness, white crisis