Abstract

This paper examines the Nature-Culture dichotomy, describing it as the outcome of a construction of the “Humanµ based on the opposition to the category of the “Animalµ and oriented towards the justification of our domination practices. Cultural ethology offers a rethinking of this speciesist circle, restoring a complex image to animals and allowing cultural phenomena to be investigated in an empirical and historical perspective freed from preconceived identifications. Nonetheless, even in ethological studies there remains a risk of being tempted by forms of anthropochauvinism, where non-human animals are understood and judged in a privative light compared to the touchstone of human cultures, deemed as supremely symbolic, cumulative and artistic. I argue that the discovery of some features usually deemed to be unique to our specie in non-human cultures forces us to reflect on our conceptions of what the Human is and the oppositional logic that underlies our way of thinking about it.