Losing an animal companion: rituals and practices of grief and mourning

Abstract

What are the social dimensions of grief in face of the loss of a companion animal? How is such a loss lived in daily life, through practices and rituals? And how does grief for a companion animal contribute to the definition of the human-animal boundary? Drawing on contributions from both Animal Studies and the Sociology of Personal Life, this article proposes a three-fold interpretation of pet grief. First, by looking at the place of companion animals in the personal networks of the Portuguese people, and the relationality of contemporary life. Second, by looking at specific rituals and practices that, after the loss of an animal, continue to weave a thin cobweb that keeps them within the lives of humans. Third, by considering the inequalities that crosscut the grief process, according to species, and that contribute not only to perpetuating the exceptionality of the human but also that certain species are regarded as more grievable than others.