ANIMAL RIGHTISTS AND NORTHERN NATIVE HUNTERS - THE DISCURSIVE CONTEXTS TO THE DISPUTE

The article attends to a neglected dimension of the animal rights disp ute, namely the discursive contexts in which it is set. Animal Rightis ts and northern North American Native hunters are independently engage d in discursive exchanges with the wider mainstream society in terms o f which they seek to uphold their respective desired identities. For e ach side, their stance in the animal rights dispute is metaphorically appropriate in relation to such definition of identity. Here the metap horic ally potent ideas, concerning animals, are notions of ''rights'' and ''respect.'' The discussion also touches on the implications, par ticularly for Animal Rightists, of some current anthropological argume nts about deeper notions relating to a possibly universal conceptualiz ation of human identity: these arguments emphasize the experience of a nimal slaughter.