Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Later, she added that her son was staying with his grandmother at her ranch, and
had recently been traumatised by the sight of neighbours slaughtering a goat, and
maintained that:
If you seen them kill an animal and take the meat out and skin it and all that,
I swear to you, you would never want to eat another hamburger, you would
never want to eat another steak. It sound good, it smell good, but you would
never want to eat another one because that is so awful.
The neighbours who killed the goat happened to be Mexican. In a fascinating
discursive move, Susan used a specific series of strategies to avoid racialisation of this
Mexican family: '[S]ome Mexicans that live next door,
not being funny or
nothing,
but they had
sacrificed
a goat…' (emphasis added). By saying that she is 'not being
funny or nothing', she may be warning listeners against making racist assumptions
about these neighbours (or at least not in front of a group of white liberal
academics!), and she softened the act of slaughter by using the term 'sacrifice'. These
strategies may have been used to keep listeners focused on how the goat's death
created a negative emotional impact on her son, and thus on her rationale for
vegetarianism.
Other anthropocentric attitudes: negativism and spiritualism
Less often, two other sorts of anthropocentric attitudes were expressed: negativism,
or the fear, dread, contempt and animosity towards animals; and spirituality, in
which animals are viewed as agents or possessors of supernatural powers, to be
respected, avoided or placated. Norma, for example, had some starkly negative
sentiments, despite her assertion that animals were just like people and deserved
assistance if they were in some sort of trouble (see above). In response to questions
about who might be responsible if someone's boa constrictor escaped and ate a
neighbour's pet dog, her expression turned mischievous, and she repeatedly
proclaimed,
sotto voce,
'death penalty!'—presumably implying that the snake should
be killed. And, in discussing how to handle wildlife in the suburbs, her position was
'some animals deserve to die, honey.'
Similarly, negative attitudes were expressed towards the beach and associated sea
life. Three participants (Bernadette, Vivian, Laura) revealed an aversion to visiting
the beach, two of them describing the beach as 'nasty'. Frankie and Irene each
hinted at a sense of fear towards sea life that is unknown or out of sight (under
water), with Irene claiming that 'I can't stand them seaweeds, honey! My Mom used
to scare me with them things…. When I'd see 'em I screamed.' Similarly, Frankie
provided a narrative about the drowning of a young boy due to entanglement with
seaweed, while Irene revealed anxiety over her children 'playing with' sand crabs.
Seagulls, however, were the primary target of negative perceptions and feelings
among these women, demonstrated by the following discussion:
