Categories of animality and canine abuse - Exploring contradictions in Nuaulu social relationships with dogs

This paper explores concepts of animality found among the Nuaulu of Seram, eastern Indonesia, with special reference to the position of dogs. It argues that it is insufficient to say that dogs are simply a preeminent case of the class "domesticated animal," as this is weak in Nuaulu representations and practice. The relationship between humans and dogs is qualitatively unique, confounding symbolic generalisations. Nuaulu dogs are economically critical, companionable, and objects of sentiment, but when they underperform they are rejected and abused. Such contradictions indicate a tension between dependency (reflected in physical intimacy, anthropomorphization, naming, caring, prohibition on eating) and callousness (reflected in the manner of both their birth and death), which is linked to competing conceptions of animality.