Actions Speak Louder than Words: Close Relationships between Humans and Nonhuman Animals

Abstract

Symbolic interactionism and other sociological perspectives traditionally have not attended to a significant form of close relationship—that which exists between people and the companion animals with whom they share their everyday lives. After a brief presentation of a portion of the relevant literature that deals with how humans understand and interact with their animal companions, I present the process by which caretakers come to define the unique identities of their animals and the ways in which the human‐animal couple identity shapes public interaction. Since play, mutual gaze, and “speaking for” animals are key elements of friendly human‐animal interaction, I discuss these activities as central to the process by which caretakers establish and express intersubjective connections with their animals. Finally, I maintain that attention to human‐animal relationships holds promise for advancing an appreciative understanding of how personhood, mind, and culture are constructed in the process of interaction. Of special significance to the broadening of the interactionist perspective is that the understandings and emotional connections that bind people and their animals are created and maintained in the absence of a shared body of linguistic symbols.