Figuring companion species consumption: a multi-site ethnography of the post-canine Afghan hound.

Abstract

In her recent publication, Haraway (Haraway, D., (2003). The companion species manifesto: dogs, people, and significant otherness. Chicago, Prickly Paradigm Press.) extends her concept of the cyborg to explore how the figure of ¿companion species¿ can rethink the models of reality that traditionally underpin cultural research. This paper investigates the kind of consumption worlds and consumption relations the ontology of companion species suggests and what it offers in terms of understanding consumption in a post-human (and post-canine) consumer-behavior landscape. Following this, it proposes the concept of ¿companion-species consumption¿ (CSC) as a new ontology to extend interpretive research on consumers and their pets (Hirschman, E. C., (1994). Consumers and their animal companions. J Consum Res, 20 (3), 616¿632.; Holbrook, M.B., Stephens, D.L., Day, E., Holbrook, S.M. and Strazar, G., (2001). A collective stereographic photo essay on key aspects of animal companionship: the truth about dogs and cats. Academy of Marketing Science Review 1; AMS.; Belk, Russell W., (1996). Metaphoric relationships with pets Society & Animals: Social Scientific Studies of the Human Experience of Other Animals, vol. 4 (2), 121¿145.) and to reflect current theory of the consumer¿object relation. This research explores the potential of CSC through multi-site ethnography (Marcus, George E., (1995). Ethnography in/of the world system: the emergence of multi-sited ethnography, Annu Rev Anthropol 95¿117.) of a trans-national, highly-networked community of Afghan hounds and their exhibitors. The paper examines how companion species emerge across a range of cultural sites and documents the consumption practices stemming from the dichotomies between them. The conclusions inform dog-related marketing activity, advance consumer-research insights into the practices of dog-related avocational consumer groups, and extend existing theory of the consumer¿object relation.