FRIEND OR FOOD: THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF ANIMALS AND CHILDHOOD SOCIALIZATION

Апстракт

Starting from the contemporary cultural artefact of representing animals simultaneously as friends and as food—most visibly in fast-food “happy meals” that juxtapose cheerful animal characters as toys or images with the dismembered body parts of animals served as food—this article examines the role of such dissonant cultural discourses and practices directed toward children. These processes function primarily as mechanisms for normalizing and reproducing dominant human–animal relations in Western societies. The analysis illustrates that animals are largely defined through their forms of relation to humans, which depend on their perceived (dis)utility to human purposes. In this sense, animals are socially constructed in ways that legitimate their instrumental use by humans. The article draws on a Foucauldian framework that links knowledge and power relations, combined with an interpretation of Weberian typology of social action,both within the context of childhood socialization. This indicates the need for a specifically sociological analysis of what and how children learn about animals. Accordingly, the article offers a sociological contribution to the emerging interdisciplinary field of animal studies and to the sociology of childhood.