Social representations of animal diseases: anthropological approaches to pathogens crossing species barriers

Frédéric Keck (1) , Nicolas Lainé (2) , Arnaud Morvan (1) , Sandrine Ruhlmann (3)

1 LAS - Laboratoire d'anthropologie sociale
2 PALOC - Patrimoines locaux, Environnement et Globalisation
3 CCJ - Chine, Corée, Japon

Debates about emerging infectious diseases often oppose natural conceptions of zoonotic reservoirs with cultural practices bringing humans into contact with animals. This article compares the representations of cross-species pathogens at ontological levels below the opposition between nature and culture. It describes the perceptions of distinctions between interiority and physicality, between wild and domestic, and between sick and dead in three different contexts where human societies manage animal diseases: Australia, Laos and Mongolia. Our article also argues that zoonotic pathogens are one of the entities mobilized by local knowledge to attenuate troubles in ordinary relations with animals, and shows that the conservation of cultural heritage is a tool of mitigation for infectious diseases emerging in animal reservoirs.

Mots clés: Zoonoses; Biosecurity; Local knowledge; Cultural heritage; Mongolia; Laos; Australia

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]; Sciences de l'Homme et Société

Frédéric Keck, Nicolas Lainé, Arnaud Morvan, Sandrine Ruhlmann. Social representations of animal diseases: anthropological approaches to pathogens crossing species barriers. Parasite, 2021, 28, pp.35. ⟨10.1051/parasite/2021032⟩. ⟨hal-03194933⟩