Illustrating Farmer–Animal Entanglements and Emotions: Drawing Elicitation in Upland Vietnam

While visual methods have been employed in research regarding human‐animal relationships and entanglements, the possible benefits of utilizing drawing elicitation have not been explored to date. Our study utilizes drawing elicitation with Hmong and Mien (Yao) ethnic minority farmers in the northern Vietnamese borderlands. We aim to investigate human‐animal relationships within these communities, considering their longstanding socio‐economic and spiritual entanglements with a number of domesticated animals. Simultaneously, we aim to assess the benefits and drawbacks of employing drawing elicitation in the context of more‐than‐human research in the Global South. Through the drawing exercises, participants not only conveyed important insights into human‐animal entanglements within these rural uplands, resulting in nuanced and at times highly emotive drawings, but they also provided reflections on the drawing activity itself. Despite challenges faced in encouraging drawing within a semiliterate population, our findings, guided by participant feedback, reveal numerous possibilities for employing this approach in more‐than‐human research.