Revelo La Rotta 1 Fernando Revelo La Rotta K.

Rudy WST 366 November 6th, 2012 Animal Studies: A Gaze on the Animal Other Throughout this entire course, we have been introduced to the basic tenets and ideas of an emerging field of study called Animal Studies. This emerging field marks a turn to the object of the animal for theoretical and research worth throughout many fields, such as anthropology, womens studies, literature, etc. As a result of this interdisciplinary nature of this field, Animal Studies employs different theoretical perspectives, such as feminism and queer theory, to understand the imaginary boundary that separates humans from other animals and that results in the establishment of a dangerous mentality of human exceptionalism or human supremacy. One of the many arguments of Animal Studies is that this boundary that establishes the human/nonhuman dichotomy has allowed for human exploitation of those considered non-human, and along with them the entire world. Animal Studies tries to de-stabilize and eventually deconstruct this boundary by looking for potential futurities and solutions in the different organizational structures and representational figures (mainly Apes) from the animal world. Human/Non-Human Boundary The main theoretical target of Animal Studies is the deconstruction of the Human/NonHuman Animal boundary. The goal is to understand this intricate relationship between humans and what we term non-human animals for through this relationship we embody our subjectivity as humans or masters of the natural world. By exposing this binary opposition that exists in Western ideology, Animal Studies allows us to show how the category of human has also been historically used to exclude other subjectivities and identities to the culturally devalued

Revelo La Rotta 2 category of animal for in this dichotomy animal become synonymous with irrational, primitive, and barbaric. As a result, this binary conceptualization of the world allow us, humans, to exploit and control what we deem to be animal or sub-human. One of the main elements or products of this binary is the category of human and its exclusionary characteristic. Human has always been a blurry category for it has be re-defined multiple times throughout history to include different groups. Whoever has the privilege of identifying as human can then exploit those who are not seen as human. For example, during the slave trade, Africans were kidnapped from their homes by European colonizers for they were not seen as human, but instead as sub-human. This dehumanization has allowed for the massacre and exploitation of many groups throughout history and is engrained within the dichotomous structure of the human/non-human animal binary. The second element produced by this binary is the exclusionary characteristic of the category human or human exceptionalism. This imagined exultation of the human category is what informs the social narrative, which states that we as human have the right to explore anything that is sub-human for we are masters of nature. We have stepped out from the natural cycle of life and learned to extend our life expectancy, but every action has a reaction and our life extension has been at the expense of the world we live in. We have learned to manipulate our surroundings for our benefit without a critical analysis of the effects of our actions. We have created globalization and colonialism not only of people around the world, but of the natural resources and non-human inhabitants of the world. The world is our playground and we have gradually destroyed it with our exponential growth in population. This destruction is the danger of human exceptionalism to think that we are better than the world we depend on.

Revelo La Rotta 3 Solutions: A Gaze towards the Apes The goal of our class has been to expose the flaws of human exceptionalism and the human/non-human animal boundary with the hope of visualizing a futurity or solution to our cultural narrative and the subjectivity that it created that is destroying the Earth. As a result, our theoretical and strategic move has been a turn of our gaze towards the animal world, specifically the Great Apes. The Great Apes serve as the optimal object for theoretical turn for they share anywhere from 97-99% of the genetic makeup of humans.1 Their societal organization, along with their physical form, also seems to closely resemble our own. As a result, we turn to the Apes to help us visualize what a new way of living could resemble. Our main guides through this journey are the Chimpanzees and Bonobos; our closest relatives and the perfect prosthesis or theoretical crutch for our imagined futurities. Through the Apes, especially the bonobos, we are then able to visualize or imagine potential solutions of how to re-orient our way of life.2 The many texts we have read through our class have grappled with this challenge. Ishmael by Daniel Quinn presents us with a fictional dialogue between a gorilla, named Ishmael, and a human regarding the theme of captivity.3 Ishmael then argues that humans are captive to a specific narrative (read human/non-human dichotomy and human exceptionalism) that has gradually destroyed the world we live in. Ishmael argues that through our conceptual separation from the natural world we have produced this destruction. His solution: re-orient our subjectivity away from masters of nature and accept our place within nature and stop trying to extend our own lives. However, if we embrace Ishmaels

Savage-Rumbaugh and Roger Levin. Kanzi: The Ape at the Brink of the Human Mind. (New York: John Wiley and Sons Inc., 1994). 24 2 Bonobos are matriarchal and their communities seem to be conflict free. Instead, their societies are filled with casual sexual relationships. They dont seem to have an oppressive hierarchical organization in comparison to Chimpanzees. Bonobos also do not hoard belongings or food for their natural environment is resource rich. 3 Quinn, Daniel. Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit. (New York: Bantam/Turner, 1995

Revelo La Rotta 4 suggestion only a specific group of people will diethe so called third world people. If we stop trying to save people from starvation and disease, only those without access to such human needs will die. How would our world look like then, if only the privileged ones survive? Another visualized solution was introduced by Laurence Gonzales through his novel Lucy.4 This novel tells the story of a genetically modified being that is half-bonobo and halfhuman, Lucy. She looks entirely human, for all of her bonobo genes manifest mainly in her behavior and senses. She is extraordinary for she can hear storms coming before any human, and has super hearing. She has access to the stream or a form of non-verbal communication that links her to her surroundings. Throughout the novel, Gonzales is trying to show that this connection to nature is what humans lack, and suggests that maybe interbreeding with humans would be a way of gaining access to the stream. Lucy seems to provide another suggested solution for our produced subjectivity from the human/non-human boundaryturning to the animals and taking from them what we lack. However, after reading Lucy many more questions arise. Why does Lucy look so human? Could we accept an altered version of ourselves that does not physically resemble us? Is this uncanny human resemblance the reason Animal Studies so heavily relies on Apes as the optimal prosthesis for the development of these theoretical futurities? If so, we are falling in the theoretical trap of anthropomorphizing our theoretical escape object and clinging to its human aspectsa product of our own human exceptionalist subjectivity. Animal Studies: Another Type of Colonialism? Through the theoretical gaze on the animals that Animal Studies provides, we, humans, are able to explore what we feel is lacking in us: a connection to nature (represented through the

Gonzales, Laurence. Lucy.

Revelo La Rotta 5 stream or Ishmaels law of limited competition).5 However, as with any gaze, it is always a product of a power relationshipin this case one informed by a history of exploitation and colonialism.6 Animal Studies is a product of the system that privileges humans within the human/non-human binary, and the gaze as a product of this asymmetrical power relation become a tool of exploitation. If we follow the line of though in which we look towards animals for the aspects that we lack and as our theoretical escape object from our destruction of the world, we then further exploit animals for their theoretical worth. Animals become an object of our colonizing human gaze and of our theoretical experimentation, again in our own terms and without their consent. Havent the animals already been exploited enough through years of scientific experimentation? Do we need to continue their exploitation through theoretical experimentation again for our benefit? Thus, Animal Studies become a new form of colonization of animals that further strips them of their agency. Octavia Butlers Dawn provides us with a visualization of what Animal Studies would look like if it engages critically with the dangerous harm its colonial gaze can create.7 Butler, through this science fiction novel, pushes us to think that maybe we as humans cannot escape the cycle of destruction that we have created through the social narratives of human exceptionalism. In Dawn, the world has come to an end as a result of a human-created war, and a group of Aliens the Oankali have saved the remaining humans while at the same time attempting to restore the Earth from human damage. The Oankali are an alien species that its members can be one of three genders: male, female and ooloi. They have a special connection to their surroundings for they create what they need from a trade with other beings. For example, the ship they live in is a

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Quinn, Ishamel. I am indirectly referencing the colonial gaze that has exoticized, eroticized, and objectified colonial subjects. See Orientalism, and the colonial gaze upon Latin America. 7 Butler, Octavia. Dawn. (New York: Waner Books, 1987).

Revelo La Rotta 6 living organism and so are the trees that compose their houses. The one of the meanings of the word Oankali is trade and its greater meaning resembles the natural cycle that Ishmael and Lucy both make reference to. Oankali do not take what is not theirs, but instead perform an exchange. For example, they took Liliths cancer to cure her. Their trade is a cycle and does not involve hoarding or accumulation. It is a form of mutualism or mutually beneficial relationship. Butler through Dawn provides a different solution to the problem of world destruction by humans. Instead of us taking from animals what we need, animal-like alien creatures save us and colonize us to teach us the proper way to live without destroying the Earth. And, unlike Lucy, these creatures (captors and saviors) do not resemble us at all with their tentacle-covered bodies and their odd shape.8 Their faces have no sensory organs, such as nose, eyes, mouth, etc, but instead their tentacles serve as their sensory organs providing the Oankali a different way of understanding the world.9 Through this creation of a savior being that does not resemble our human physical shape, Butler allows us to surpass the theoretical bind that Lucys human physique creates. Conclusion: Re-Evalution towards Re-Volution If we want the Earth to continue spinning and sustaining our existence, we must reevalutate the way that relate to it. For this type of revolution to come, we must critically rethink our social narratives that allow us to destroy the world. However, this revolution that is immediately needed for the plant will not arrive from within ourselves and we cannot continue to take what is not ours, even if we think it might save us from eminent destruction as Animal Studies suggests. If our only salvation is to wait to be colonized by other beings, then we will have to wait, but through self-reflective and critical imagination we can envision a futurity that
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Butler 11 Ibid.

Revelo La Rotta 7 disrupts our current intellectual captivity. However, it is important to note that liberation must be inclusive of all groups for their oppressions are interrelated. We need a bold and critical not only theoretical but also practical approach towards this revolution of behaviors and mentalities as not liberate one group at the expense of others.10 Authors like Butler, through their works, allows us to envision what the ideal world or solution might behopefully one that excludes all form of restricting binaries and asymmetrical systems of power. These imagined futurities allow us to envision solutions and work towards them. There is no step-by-step manual to liberation.

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As occurred with the Womens Rights movement that allowed women (read: white) access to the workplace, at the expense of Women of Color maintaining the domestic sphere of the whit e womens household.