ABSTRACT
Before pursuing the question of possibility of a nonviolent coexistence between human and nonhuman animals in a hypothetical cosmopolis of the future, this chapter will first address the question why, in spite of more than a century of welfarist campaigns, interspecies relationships in the Westernized world are still marked by violence. As will become clear in the course of the argument, an effort to imagine an interspecies community based on equality and justice for all must start with the questioning of human supremacy and the subsequent dismantling of the ontological difference. This should be done in dialog with traditional tribal cultures that have lived in intimate relation with more-than-human worlds for thousands of years. The second part of this chapter will search for nonanthropocentric ethics capable of providing ontological and epistemological grounding for Indigenous peoples’ kin-centric relations with animals. Brian Burkhart's Indigenizing Philosophy Through the Land will be the chief reference point in this respect. As traditional peoples’ knowledges are gradually entering the academic world and Linda Hogan has played an active part in the ongoing dialog between Native and Western science, her essays and nonfiction writings will be used to position her within a wider, cutting-edge conversation on sustainable futures, the Anthropocene, and the sixth great extinction.
