Entre domestique et sauvage : les classifications animales dans la pensée indienne

The texts (religious and epic) of ancient India evoke different classifications of the animal kingdom. To a large initial domestic/wild division, others categories are juxtaposed, either more symbolic (positive or negative value for the animal), or based on the method of procreation. In these classifications, the human being appears to be sometimes fully animal and sometimes attempting to detach himself from this animality. The fluctuating nature of the individual is also present in the sacrificial context, a context which demonstrates moreover the fragility of the frontier between the wild and the domestic.