BETWEEN AGENCY, LOGOS, AND ANIMAL THINGIFICATION: PUSHING THE LIMITS OF ALFRED GELL'S THEORY THROUGH VEGANTHROPOLOGY

Abstract

This article brings Alfred Gell’s theory of agency into dialogue with Veganthropology to analyze how logos associated with the commercialization of animal bodies and animal-derived products visually and verbally manage animal presence, guide selective abductions of agency, and naturalize the conversion of animals into commodities. This qualitative, document-based, interpretive study examines three commercial logos: O Rei dos Cabritos, Rede Frango Assado, and Porco Feliz. Drawing on Gell’s notions of index and the abduction of agency, in dialogue with Carol J. Adams’s concept of the absent referent, the article examines verbal and figurative marks, typographic elements, and visual characters. The analysis shows that these devices guide selective abductions of agency compatible with consumption: they either attribute domesticated agency to animals and portray them as affable or artificially happy, or displace their agency onto the brand, the dish, and the consumption experience. While suffering, slaughter, fear, and death are shifted out of frame, tradition, friendliness, flavor, familiarity, and happiness are made inferable. The article concludes that these logos function as speciesist indexes: they preserve the animal as a name, character, smile, or graphic trace, while selectively managing its presence and obscuring its status as a sentient subject.