More-Than-Human Childhoods: An Ethnographic Analysis of Multispecies Childhoods in Documentary Film

Abstract

This article explores the overlooked concept of more-than-human childhoods within the intersecting fields of childhood and animal studies. While childhood is widely recognised as a human right, policy and academic discourse often exclude other-than-human animals from this framework, denying their children the status of ‘child’ and, consequently, the legislative right to a childhood. Drawing on post-humanist developments in multispecies anthropology and the notion of more-than-human personhood, this speculative work reconsiders what it means to experience childhood beyond the human. Through a multispecies ethnographic approach to documentary film, this article analyses The Elephant Whisperers (2022) and Wild Babies (2022) to identify two key social framings of other-than-human childhood: animals as children of humans ontologically, and animals as children of other animals, described as ‘animal-led’ childhoods. Supported by visual anthropological and ethnographic theory, this work highlights how childhood is co-constructed across species boundaries. Ultimately, it calls for the recognition and protection of other-than-human childhoods, challenging dominant humanist assumptions and expanding the ethical reach of childhood rights.