Beyond zoonotic disease transmission: Bushmeat, ontology, and human-animal-nature relations

Transmissions of infections from wild animals is the most significant threat to global health. Activities related to the handling of bushmeat has been related to virulent disease outbreaks.

This anthropological project seeks to generate new and more holistic ways of understanding and addressing zoonotic disease risk.

It examines ideas and practices regarding disease transmission in relation to hunting, trade, preparation, and consumption of meat from wild animals with a focus on (1) socio-economic and socio-political conditions and (2) human animal-nature relations.

Through this approach, based on an understanding of the interrelation between global processes and local conditions, with a focus on people’s own worldviews, risk is understood in a socio-economical/-political and ontological perspective.

In this approach, species’ boundaries and Western categories are contextualized and questioned, and humans, animals and the environment are seen as entangled.

The four-year project seeks to gain knowledge that can contribute to theory building and global health policy, regarding bushmeat and zoonotic disease risk, with the overall aim of reducing the risk for future pandemics.

Fieldwork, including participant observation and interviews, will be carried out in a hotspot for emerging zoonotic diseases: The area that consists of the Danané region in Côte d’Ivoire and the Nzérékoré region in Guinea, West Africa.