Just like humans

Mezzenzana, Francesca (2023): Just like humans. Similarity, difference and empathy towards nonhumans in the Amazonian rainforest. In: Mezzenzana, Francesca und Peluso, Daniela (Hrsg.): Conversations on Empathy : Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Imagination and Radical Othering. London ; New York: Taylor&Francis Group. S. 197-215

Abstract

In this chapter, the author draws on the phenomenological distinction between empathy and sympathy, since she finds it useful to advance some claims about Runa ways of experiencing nonhuman others – yet, she does not believe that people can distinguish between “empathy” and “sympathy” at all times and in all contexts. In shedding light on Runa “empathic-like” processes towards nonhumans and specific cultural understandings about humans’ relationship with animals, the author constantly contrasts her ethnographic materials with research done in Western countries on human–animal relationships. This comparative material “closer to home” comes from research in developmental psychology and the cognitive sciences, as well as from the author's observations of foreign visitors in Runa villages. If empathy consists of the recognition of others as minded creatures like people, a question which needs to be addressed regards the nature of this perceived “alikeness”.

• Dokumententyp: Buchbeitrag
• Fakultät: Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaften > Department 3
• Fakultätsübergreifende Einrichtungen: Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society (RCC)
• Themengebiete: 300 Sozialwissenschaften > 300 Sozialwissenschaft, Soziologie ; 800 Literatur > 800 Literatur, Rhetorik, Literaturwissenschaft
• ISBN: 978-1-003-18997-8 ; 978-1-032-01915-4 ; 978-1-032-03966-4
• Ort: London ; New York
• Sprache: Englisch