Humanimales

What do we have in common and what separates us from the animals? Are we just another animal? The classical humanities, based on human exceptionalism, have given way to posthumanities, which include animal studies, as well as other perspectives that challenge the traditional notion of the human subject, such as gender, postcolonial and decolonial studies, ecocriticism or the queer theory. Thinking about our relationship with animals has philosophical consequences in areas such as science, affections, work and the development of specific health and food policies; all of them, contact zones between humans and animals. On these encounters, although we never notice it, we build our world. This essential essay brings together part of the knowledge developed so far by those who have approached the human-animal relationship, and links it with history, political and social movements, new conceptions of gender, science and knowledge. The arguments, contradictions, contexts and even taboos that this interdisciplinary debate embraces help to imagine and nuance possible ethical assumptions on which to rethink our relationship with animals and, ultimately, with ourselves.