Bestiality: Animal Cultures

Abstract

Multinaturalism shouldn’t be viewed solely as the paradigmatic existence of multiple natures in different cultures – or “ontologies” as Descola refers to them – but also and most importantly as the syntagmatic presence, and the resulting contrast, of various ontologies within the same culture. From a semiotic point of view, then, the so-called ontologies are considered to be effects of meaning derived from precise discursive dispositifs. Describing such dispositifs is the aim of this paper.