Apocalypse and Reclamation of a Multispecies World: A Speciesist and Ethnographic Reading of Octavia E Butler’s Adulthood Rites

Abstract

Multispecies Ethnography is the interconnectedness and inseparability of human beings with other forms of lives. This article employs Multispecies Ethnography to critically examine human-nonhuman relationships in Octavia Butler’s Adulthood Rites, uncovering speciesist attitudes and practices embedded in the novel. This novel is the second in the Xenogenesis Trilogy. Akin, the protagonist of the trilogy, tries to build communal harmony between the humans and the extraterrestrial clan called Oankali. This paper emphasizes the intersection between speciesism, power dynamics, and ecological sustainability by incorporating the theory of ecofeminism. The trilogy parallels the story of African slaves in America and the conflict that  generations of African Americans feel regarding their integration into American society. The experiences of Akin, the first human-oankali hybrid in the earth with other humans pave the way for the exploration of Multispecies Ethnography and Speciesism in the novel Adulthood Rites.