Canis Obscura: The Social Construction of New Guinea Singing Dogs at the Intersection of Wild and Domestic

<p dir="ltr">This dissertation is an in-depth qualitative study of the lives of New Guinea singing dogs (NGSDs) and their humans in North America. NGSDs are often described as unique among canids, viewed by some as ‘wild’ animals, and by others as ‘domestic’ companions. The research and analysis conducted for the thesis demonstrates that when viewed through a framework of social construction, NGSDs are shown to sit in a liminal ontological space between wild and domestic, revealing the epistemological and political scaffolding that underpins classification systems and shapes multispecies lives. This study incorporates a multimodal interpretive and qualitative approach, combining hermeneutics, discourse analysis, multispecies ethnography, digital ethnography, and autoethnography. Across these approaches, this study investigates how beliefs about NGSDs are formed, justified, and enacted in both scientific literature and owner practice, and how categories such as ‘wild’ and ‘domestic’ function as technologies of control, legitimacy, and exclusion. Findings show that dominant discourses, especially those rooted in biological determinism and conservation rhetoric, obscure the lived realities of NGSDs as companion animals and reify colonial hierarchies of knowledge. Owners draw on, resist, or reinterpret these narratives in ways that materially shape care, cohabitation, and emotional relationships. The study reveals that care nor classification is ideologically neutral but mediated by belief systems that carry real consequences for both animal and human lives. This dissertation challenges dominant paradigms in domestication science and animal studies, calling for a more reflexive, situated, and politically accountable understanding of classification. It argues that multispecies relationships demand epistemologies capable of including ambiguity, resisting reduction, and honoring relational complexity.</p>

Author dc:creator

• Molly Sumridge (21040799)

• new guinea singing dog
• domestication
• discourse analysis
• multispecies ethnography
• ideology

Statement dc:rights

• All rights reserved
• Open Access after 2031-01-19

Identifier

10779/exe.31079521.v1

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:figshare.com:article/31079521