Horses and animality policies

Reflections on a contemporary ethnography

Abstract

In “El caballito de Boedo y el cartonero sin nombre: un abordaje crítico de los derechos animales” [The little horse of Boedo and the charioteer without name: a critical approach to animal rights], text published in Las Fronteras de lo humano [The Boundaries of the human], the anthropologist María Carman (2017) presents some basic concepts of animal rights, animal ethics, biocentrism and rights of nature in conjunction with her observations regarding some groups of animal activists that are against equine blood traction. Around the critical analysis formulated by Carman, I would like to report myself to this essay by elarging the theoretical-practical issues mentioned and by articulating a response to these. My proposal is that the question referring to the non-human animal oppression should be made fundamentally from the ethics and the critical studies – despite Carman’s opinion about the anthropology. Without ceasing to thank her for making us reflect on the possible discursive insufficiencies and mistakes concerning the groups of animal activists, I would like to point out the (neo) speciesism bias which underlies her work by highlighting the fact that she denies the existence of the non-human animal when she ignores its intentionality and the state of submission of the individuals that constitute this group called “animals” or this entelechy named “species”.