MEANING PRODUCTION IN HUMAN–BONOBO INTERACTIONS: A SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS OF TWO SCENES AT THE LOLA YA BONOBO SANCTUARY

Author: Booto Booto Grevisse

ABSTRACT

This study analyzes two scenes of interaction between humans and bonobos observed at the Lola ya Bonobo Sanctuary in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to understand the mechanisms of meaning production in interspecies relationships. Based on a qualitative approach relying on participant observation and the analysis of two filmed scenes, the research draws on Fontanille’s semiotics of practices and Greimas’s actantial model to examine the role of gestures, postures, movements, objects, and distances in the coordination of interactions. The findings show that meaning is progressively constructed through reciprocal adjustments between caregivers and bonobos, in which misunderstandings contribute to the regulation of action rather than to its failure. This research thus demonstrates that interspecies interactions are part of a dynamic of situated negotiation and contributes to the development of an interspecies semiotics grounded in empirical data.

Keywords: Relationships; Bonobos; Caregiver; Situated Interaction; Actantial Analysis; Meaning Production.

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