Animal Metaphors. Dog as a Creative Representation of the Interspecies Experience

https://doi.org/10.25058/20112742.n40.08

David Figueroa Serrano
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2092-381X
Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México
davdatura@hotmail.com

Alma Esli Bernal Valdés
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4012-8282
Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México
aebv14@hotmail.com

Abstract:

In this article, we aim to provide documentary evidence of relations between two companion animals (humans and dogs), which were forged not only in a functional and emotional sphere, but also in the existence of trans-natural conditions strengthening the links between species. This not only leads to family similarities, but only the creative need to be rendered in various art languages, so that they are part of culturally rooted social imaginaries. This is intended to help us answer the following questions: What is the significance of dogs both in the Alebrije art metaphor and the daily lives of Zapoteco communities in Oaxaca? What representations and imaginaries feed the close relations between these two species?

Keywords: interspecies relations, animal metaphor, dogs, social representation, indigenous peoples.