Co-being and intra-action in horse-human relationships: a multi-species ethnography of be(com)ing human and be(com)ing horse

Maurstad, Anita; Davis, Dona Lee; Cowles, Sarah

doi:10.1111/1469-8676.12029

Cited by 135 publications

(89 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…The interesting thing here is that it seems as if the riders' percept of the boundary between their own bodies and the body of the horse is somewhat fuzzy. The changes in the horse's body can be perceived both through one's own body and in one's own body, something that certainly evokes the notions of transcendence and co-being, as well as the use of the centaur metaphor, prevalent in much of the literature in the HAS tradition (Game, 2001;Argent, 2012;Maurstad, Davis & Cowles, 2013). This ambiguity is a recurring theme in the interviews, and would be very interesting to analyze further.…”

Section: Equestrian Feelmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…Evans and Franklin (2010) describe "floating harmony" between rider and horse as moments where rider and horse are in rhythmic synchronization with each other. Similarly, Maurstad, Davis, and Cowles (2013) describe horse and human as "co-beings" who move in synchronization. Sometimes riders describe that they can experience, and look for, "a centaur feeling" of the two bodies moving as one.…”

Section: Research On Equestrian Communicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…HAS-oriented researchers emphasize the sharedness of riding and the qualities of interspecies relation (like, for instance, Maurstad, Davis, & Cowles, 2013). Researchers oriented toward the ES paradigm instead tend to discuss riding more as the transfer of signals from the rider to the horse, and the horse as a being who can be successfully or less successfully manipulated to behave in the intended way (ISES, 2016).…”

Section: Research On Equestrian Communicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Riders’ Perceptions of Equestrian Communication in Sports Dressage

Blokhuis

Lundgren

2017

SOAN

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The aim of this study is to enhance the understanding of how sport dressage riders describe rider-horse communication when riding, and to relate these descriptions to current research on human-horse communication. Interviews with 15 amateur dressage riders were analyzed using a qualitative approach. The study shows that the interviewed riders describe the communication with the horses partly in a behavioristic way, applying concepts based on learning theory, which deviate from the description of riders as lacking understanding of these concepts put forth by some researchers. The riders connect the timing of their aids to equestrian feel, which they describe as the most difficult yet the most awarding aspect of the interspecies communication that riding is. Simultaneously, they acknowledge that horses are fully capable of choosing to listen to and cooperate with their requests.

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Section: Equestrian Feelmentioning

confidence: 94%

Section: Research On Equestrian Communicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Research On Equestrian Communicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Riders’ Perceptions of Equestrian Communication in Sports Dressage

Blokhuis

Lundgren

2017

SOAN

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“…Recent discussions have indicated the importance of understanding horse riding in general and human/ animal relationships in particular in terms of a shared sense of co-being and becoming, transcending nature/ culture, subject/ object, active/ passive dualisms in social thought (Argent 2012;Birke 2009;Brandt 2006;DeMello 2012;Haraway 2003;Hunn 2012;Marvin and McHugh 2014;Maurstad et al 2013;Davis and Maurstad 2016). Horse riders and their horses actively participate in each other's being as part of an embodied relationship that is both physical and mental.…”

Section: Relationship With Other Usersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Riding always involves a relationship between the person and the horse, their mind and that of the animal: it is a constant dialogue that may be relaxed and harmonious or become tense and difficult (cf. Maurstad et al 2013;Brandt 2006). Riding a horse involves a synaesthetic engagement between their bodies, textures and surfaces, sight and sound and smell.…”

Section: Relationship With Other Usersmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Anthropology of Landscape

2017

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PrefaceThe research for this book took place from 2008 to 2012. It ran in tandem with an archaeological project involving a fieldwork survey of the entire heathlands, and excavations of multiple sites during the same time period directed by Chris Tilley. It is important to acknowledge this in terms of the discussion of this being a contested landscape. After moving to the area and having decided to visit all the prehistoric cairns, Chris went walking on the heathlands with Tor, his dog. These became walks with a purpose. After seeing all the cairns he decided to walk between them in order to study their relationship to each other and the unique Pebblebed landscape in which they are situated. He quickly became fascinated with the pebbles and how these bright and rounded objects transform what otherwise might appear, to the casual observer, to be a quite monotonous landscape. Realizing that this was unlikely to be just a contemporary appreciation, he then initiated the project. From an archaeologist's perspective he is trying to create a story of the past in the present: a story involving the topography; a story involving the pebbles, the land, the sea, the sky, the sun; and integrate these things into some kind of sense of how it might have been, all the time trying to link past and present. And so the anthropological project investigating the meaning and significance of the contemporary heathland and its pebbles arose. All the research was carried out by Chris and Kate Cameron-Daum. It was very much a collaborative exercise in which both of us were engaged in participant observation and interviews with over one hundred informants. Chris and his family were living in the research area and Kate was staying with them: this had definite advantages in that the field site was quite literally entered when leaving the front door of the house. This permitted sustained engagement with both the heathland landscape and those working there or visiting it throughout the years and in all weathers and seasons. This facilitated, we believe, something of an intimate 'insider's' (the punctuation marks to be emphasized) knowledge of the landscape and the establishment of ongoing personal contacts and relationships. During the course of the archaeological research and the An AnThropology of lAnDsCApe viii viii viii anthropological research discussed here the landscape has become a powerful element in the formation of our own biographies and identities. We both wanted to study anthropology as students because we were interested in the lives of others and how an understanding of them might lead us to reflect on our own lives and experiences. Although the two cannot be separated, we did not choose to study anthropology to learn about the anthropologists conducting the research, their lives, trials and tribulations in the field. We take it as axiomatic that it is from the ethnographic self that accounts arise, that self-reflexivity in research is fundamental and that all our findings are subjective (Clifford and Marcus 1986; Clifford 1...

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Conceptualizing the multispecies triad: Toward a multispecies intersectionality

Petitt

2022

Feminist Anthropology

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Feminist and multispecies anthropologies have decentered those most visible to appreciate the perspectives of those othered in society—but also to better understand society at large. This article goes beyond decentering the human toward decentering another analytical focus: the species dyad. Building on previous work on gender–species intersectionality and multispecies ethnography, as well as drawing on a set of five ethnographic and multispecies fieldwork studies involving gendered relations between humans, cattle, and horses on three continents, this article offers a conceptualization of the multispecies triad by outlining a multispecies intersectionality theory. This entails acknowledging the intersectionality of five sets of relations: (1) species as a power relation beyond biology; (2) intersecting power relations of humans (such as gender and ethnicity as well as local categories); (3) humans’ organization of nonhumans into intraspecies categories (by for example sex, breed, age as well as local categories); (4) nonhumans’ own intraspecies power relations; and (5) nonhumans’ relations to intraspecies groups of other species (including human subgroups). By situating a multispecies triad in this multispecies intersectionality, the article shows how relations of power intersect within and across species with consequences for individuals and groups of all species involved. Multispecies intersectionality can thus be of interest even to scholars primarily interested in humans.

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Co-being and intra-action in horse-human relationships: a multi-species ethnography of be(com)ing human and be(com)ing horse

Cited by 135 publications

References 15 publications

Riders’ Perceptions of Equestrian Communication in Sports Dressage

Riders’ Perceptions of Equestrian Communication in Sports Dressage

An Anthropology of Landscape

Conceptualizing the multispecies triad: Toward a multispecies intersectionality

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