Man’s best friend: affections and dogs in brazil from a sociological perspective

Abstract

The article analyzes the Reader’s Digest Magazine in order to problematize the effects of discourse from the idea of correct or heroic behaviors taking dogs as mediators. The magazine highlights human qualities in animais while separating those who enunciate (or compile) from those who are the object of discourse. With a section dedicated to animais, we observe the comparison between Americans and South Americans expressed by the behavior of animais, mainly the dog as part of the family. Dogs are mobilized as mediators between the idealized urbanized American model and the quiet and wild South America to be domesticated. The magazine introduced an animal point of view by exploring their anthropomorphization as a counterpoint to the South American way of acting. This exercise takes place in the context of the tensions of World War II and post-war.