Charles, Nickie and Davies, Charlotte Aull. (2009) My family and other animals : pets as kin. Sociological Research Online, Vol.13 (No.5). Article: 4. ISSN 1360-7804

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Abstract

The title of this paper gives a family-like character to animals and an animal-like character to the idea of family. It emphasises the close, family and friend-like relationships that can exist between human beings and the animals who share their domestic space. This type of relationship between humans and their pets emerged during a study of families and kinship and in this paper we draw on 193 in-depth interviews conducted in four contrasting areas of a South Wales city. Although our interview schedules did not explicitly ask about animals, a significant proportion of our interviewees spontaneously included their pets as part of their kinship networks. There were two points during the interview when the significance of pets became apparent: when interviewees were asked who counted as family and when they were asked to complete a network diagram. In studies of kinship it has been said that pets are substitutes for children, providing emotional satisfaction. Here we explore some of the other ways in which animals are constructed as kin and discuss whether such constructions confound the (socially constructed) boundary between nature and culture.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
Divisions:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Sociology
Journal or Publication Title:	Sociological Research Online
Publisher:	Sage Publications Ltd.
ISSN:	1360-7804
Date:	30 September 2009
Volume:	Vol.13
Number:	No.5
Number of Pages:	17
Page Range:	Article: 4
Identification Number:	10.5153/sro.1798
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Restricted or Subscription Access
Funder:	Economic and Social Research Centre (Great Britain) (ESRC)
Grant number:	R000238454
URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/17190

Data sourced from Thomson Reuters' Web of Knowledge

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