The Ecological Citizen: Confronting human supremacy
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Long article
Serpents, raptors and other liminal beings: The symbolic decentring of anthropocentrism
The Ecological Citizen Vol 9 No 1 2026: epub-144-1 to 7
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ACCESS PDF OF ARTICLEFirst published: 25 October 2025 | PERMANENT URL | DOWNLOAD CITATION IN RIS FORMAT
Abstract
Modern Western thought constructs non-human animals as Other – as lacking all the supposed marks of the human, such as subjectivity, reason, language and morality. Snakes, raptors and other liminal animal figures disrupt this dominant anthropocentric worldview, and a comparison with non-modern cosmologies shows how, in many cultures, non-human animals are recognized as legitimate interlocutors, endowed with their own subjectivities and agency. A reflection on a biocentric and intercultural ethics of interspecies communication, capable of overcoming extractive logics and mending the symbolic bonds severed with the non-human, shows how we can symbolically decentre anthropocentrism, and open spaces for these non-human agencies.
Keywords
Ecological empathy, Human-nature dualism, Worldviews
