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Eating my Best friend : Empty Icon and Competing Discourses on Dog Meat Consumption in the Philippines

Lacbawan, Macario LU (2014) p.622-628
Abstract
This paper explores how dog-meat consumption in the Philippines serves as an empty icon for varied social discourses. By utilizing structural hermeneutics of the Strong Program and Ernesto Laclau's concept of empty signification, this research locates dog and dog eating as empty signifiers that function as a battleground for competing discourses about Philippine identity, tradition and culture. The debate, however diverse, is informed by a cultural code that positions dog eating in a polarized image as a 1) pollutant of legal system or marker of basic rights, and 2) symptom of past culture or signifier of 'authentic' contemporary Filipino identity. This paper also notes how binary codes could work as an analytic tool that is socially... (More)
This paper explores how dog-meat consumption in the Philippines serves as an empty icon for varied social discourses. By utilizing structural hermeneutics of the Strong Program and Ernesto Laclau's concept of empty signification, this research locates dog and dog eating as empty signifiers that function as a battleground for competing discourses about Philippine identity, tradition and culture. The debate, however diverse, is informed by a cultural code that positions dog eating in a polarized image as a 1) pollutant of legal system or marker of basic rights, and 2) symptom of past culture or signifier of 'authentic' contemporary Filipino identity. This paper also notes how binary codes could work as an analytic tool that is socially contingent and free-floating. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
subject
host publication
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION AND SOCIAL SCIENCES (INTCESS14)
pages
7 pages
external identifiers
  • wos:000349913300067
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
df116151-eda7-483e-b889-d2f0a35c77d2
date added to LUP
2024-05-26 09:14:27
date last changed
2024-05-31 10:21:32
@inproceedings{df116151-eda7-483e-b889-d2f0a35c77d2,
  abstract     = {{This paper explores how dog-meat consumption in the Philippines serves as an empty icon for varied social discourses. By utilizing structural hermeneutics of the Strong Program and Ernesto Laclau's concept of empty signification, this research locates dog and dog eating as empty signifiers that function as a battleground for competing discourses about Philippine identity, tradition and culture. The debate, however diverse, is informed by a cultural code that positions dog eating in a polarized image as a 1) pollutant of legal system or marker of basic rights, and 2) symptom of past culture or signifier of 'authentic' contemporary Filipino identity. This paper also notes how binary codes could work as an analytic tool that is socially contingent and free-floating.}},
  author       = {{Lacbawan, Macario}},
  booktitle    = {{INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION AND SOCIAL SCIENCES (INTCESS14)}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{622--628}},
  title        = {{Eating my Best friend : Empty Icon and Competing Discourses on Dog Meat Consumption in the Philippines}},
  year         = {{2014}},
}