From Resource to Relational Being: Rethinking Human–Animal Relations through Regenerative and One Health Lenses

Abstract (English)

This paper investigates human–animal relations through the lens of relational ontologies and regenerative epistemologies, bridging anthropology, political ecology, and ecological intelligence. Framing the Anthropocene as a crisis of relationship, the analysis challenges dominant dualisms that position animals as either exploitable resources or symbolic others, and instead emphasizes their role as co-actors in socio-ecological systems.

Drawing on case studies such as the legal personhood of the Whanganui River, the constitutional rights of Pachamama in Ecuador, Andean cosmologies of reciprocity, and regenerative governance models emerging in the maritime sector, the paper demonstrates how non-human beings are increasingly recognized as legal, ecological, and cultural subjects across diverse cultural and institutional landscapes.

A central contribution of this paper is the introduction of Applied Ecological Intelligence, a transdisciplinary methodology integrating indigenous knowledge systems, systems ecology, and relational governance frameworks. This approach supports the emergence of regenerative models grounded in the One Health paradigm, which acknowledges the intrinsic interdependence between human, animal, and environmental well-being.

By addressing the structural paradoxes embedded in contemporary food systems, industrial practices, and land use ideologies, this research is in line with the need to redefine anthropological knowledge and it calls for a renewed ethics of coexistence and multispecies governance as foundational elements of both cultural resilience and planetary health.