Olin Eugene Myers

No longer the lonely species: a post‐mead perspective on animals and sociology

Society’s relations to animals pose possible blind spots in sociological theory that may be revealed and illuminated by studying systems of human‐animal interaction. By investigating whether and how animals enter into key processes that shape self and society we may determine the ways in which animals might be included in the core subject matter of sociology. An earlier discussion of the role of animals in sociology initiated by Weber is reviewed. Issues that debate raised about the extent of linguistically‐mediated human‐animal intersubjectivity are updated. It is in principle difficult to rule out animal languages, and some animals have acquired human language. But sociology may follow a more fecund empirical route by examining successful human‐animal performances produced by enduring interspecies relationships. Following this route, this paper specifically argues that the human self should be seen to take root in the available mixed species community. To show this, the work of G.H. Mead is revisited and corrected in light of recent work on early human development, and conceptual analyses of language, the body, and the self. The formation of the self is not dependent on only linguistic exchanges; a nonverbal nonhuman other can contribute to the self‐reflective sense of being a human self. Based on this reasoning, examples of studies of humans with wild and domestic animals illustrate the potential for a human‐animal sociology.

Conflicting Understandings of Wilderness and Subsistence in Alaskan National Parks

ABSTRACT The role of past and present subsistence cultures and activities in wilderness and other strictly protected areas has sparked contentious debate about meanings associated with wilderness. To inform this debate empirically, recreationists were interviewed at Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve (GAAR) in Alaska to determine how they cognitively structure potential conflicts between the parks management mandates to provide for wilderness recreational experiences and to allow for subsistence uses. Using structural developmental theory as a framework and by employing semistructured, in-depth interviews with hypothetical scenarios, it was found that a large majority of respondents maintained conflicting moral judgments when subsistence and wilderness values were juxtaposed. This suggests the existence of cognitive disequilibrium around these sets of values. Respondents coordinated their conflicting judgments in ways that can be described as overriding, contradictory, and contextual. No respondent hierarchically integrated subsistence and wilderness values within one coherent conceptual structure. Implications are discussed.