New insights into gender dynamics Horses have long been used to help herd cattle, and still today there are many places where a horse is essential to moving cattle across rough or steep terrain. We spoke to Dr Andrea Petitt about her research into how gendered human-animal relations of the American West are influencing the growing interest in Western horse and cattle practices in Sweden. With growing interest
in Western horse sports world wide, and with horses engaged in herding livestock on all continents, there is a clear need to understand the local implications of contemporary gender relations in this globalized equine culture, believes Dr Andrea Petitt, post-doc at the Centre for Gender Research at Uppsala University. Her project, funded by the Swedish Research Council, explores how gender relations are renegotiated through human-horse relations in Western style equestrian sport, tourism and agriculture at their origin in the USA and how they inspire the human-horse relations of the Western riding boom in Sweden. “The ideals and practices of communication between species are shaped by local multispecies cultures, including how horses are taught to communicate with cattle,” she explains. “So gendered ideas about communication also shape the lives of horses and cattle.”
Equestrian cultures There is a difference in perception and culture here, with horse activities in Sweden often Global horse cultures in change: new gender relations emerging from Western riding Funded by the Swedish Research Council and the Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography. Andrea Petitt Centre for Gender Research, Uppsala University, Engelska Parken, Box 527, 751 20, Uppsala E: andrea.petitt@gender.uu.se W: https://gender.uu.se/forskning/projekt/ global-equestrian-cultures-in-change/ Andrea Petitt
thought of as a feminine pursuit, at least outside the professional or elite arena. By contrast, horse-riding in rural North America is commonly associated with the macho cowboy, and the two cultures are now mixing to a greater extent, not least in Sweden. “What happens when this sub-culture with a macho icon gains traction – what happens to gender and species relations?” asks Dr Petitt. The project involves multispecies ethnography, with observations of Western style equine sport, tourism and agriculture that focus on cattle. Dr. Petitt spent a full year living and working on an all-female working
One of her major aims is to develop a multispecies triad approach, as opposed to a dyadic approach. “If we look at human-animal relations in the literature, it often focuses a species dyad – human-horse, or human-cow for instance. In the emerging field of equestrian social science, the focus is very much on the human-horse dyad,” explains Dr Petitt. “A triadic approach will help us learn new things, for example by looking at what happens to human-horse relations when a cow enters the scene. This will take us beyond a binary approach to understanding species relationships, and that is something that I want to contribute to. I also aim to produce
A triadic approach will take us beyond a binary approach to understanding species relationships, and that is something that I want to contribute to. cattle ranch in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, as well as seven months at different places all around Sweden. “In Sweden lots of horses are used in sport, while in the States there’s a long tradition of equine facilitated cattle-ranching,” continues Dr Petitt. “There is also cattle-ranching in Sweden, but pastures and herds are much smaller. Here in Sweden, you might be able to move the cows in a few hours, there might be a herd of maybe 50 pairs of mothers and calves, whereas we could move hundreds in Colorado, where we had to cover much bigger distances in tough terrain.” A further aspect of Dr Petitt’s research involves looking at how people involved in equestrian activities relate to each other and how this helps to shape local practices.
more knowledge about the working cowhorse, as there is relatively little literature on the horse as a working animal in agriculture.” The analysis of triadic human-animal relations can also lead to new insights into gender dynamics, which is a core theme in Dr Petitt’s research. A particular species may be associated with either feminine or masculine characteristics, and Dr Petitt is keen to apply a multi-species triad approach in research that takes into account the embodied and situated experiences and knowledges of different individuals of a particular species. “I’m developing a multispecies intersectionality that I think will be useful in multispecies ethnography and gender studies, not least in looking at agriculture in a variety of countries on different continents.” she says. Bringing pairs back to home ranch.
Andrea Petitt is a post-doc at the Centre for Gender Research (CfGR) at Uppsala University. Her main research interests are gender and multispecies relations in agriculture. She has an M. Sc. in Anthropology from Université de Montréal and a Ph. D. in Rural development from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.
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