Quando morrem os pets: sobre humanos, animais de estimação e novos mercados funerários

Abstract

Situated between the fields of the Anthropology of Death and the Anthropology of Humans and Non-Humans, this research aims to discuss funeral rites for pets. Through fieldwork carried out in Rio Grande do Sul, it seeks to problematize the expansion of the supply of products and services in the so-called pet market, a niche market focused on the consumption demands of human guardians based on the relationships of affection they establish with their pets. With a focus on the possible links between the pet market and the funeral market, this ethnography aims to give visibility to sensitive issues that mark the consolidation of lasting bonds between people and pets. In this way, it discusses certain categories of thought - such as “love”, “friendship”, “life”, “death”, “mourning”, “anticipated mourning”, “delegitimization of mourning”, “welcoming” and “longing” - which shape and give meaning to the experiences lived in the interaction between human and non-human animals. Developed mainly in the Rio Grande do Sul cities of Pelotas, Gramado, Nova Petrópolis and Rio Grande, this ethnography is aligned with contemporary anthropological debates that refute the dichotomous separation between the categories of thought “nature” and “culture”, configuring a research aligned with the epistemological presuppositions of the ontological turn in Anthropology.