Image credits: Princess Mononoke
Animals have always been agents and subjects to and of change. Their contribution in culture, social, and economic life cannot be ignored by a prudent person. They have evolved alongside humans and this is what makes it even more important to discuss them when suggesting historical timelines and eras of change and survival. Eliminate them once and you will almost be eradicating entire cultures, much to the disappointment of their domesticators and keepers. Animals not only play a seminal role when it comes to shaping cultural beliefs and practices, but they are also live agents of effective interaction with nature. Throughout centuries of existence, the animal kingdom including humans has acquired one of the most powerful traits of all time: survival based on instinct. This is one thing that allows them to adapt to changing circumstances and hence become more and more intertwined with present situations, making them fitter for survival in nature. They have been very significant in shaping cultures and civilisation because they have interacted with the needs of various cultures like tribal communities that worship animal gods. The domestication of animals led to a major shift in human subsistence patterns, from a hunter–gatherer to a sedentary agricultural lifestyle, which ultimately resulted in the development of complex societies. Over the past 15,000 years, the phenotype and genotype of multiple animal species, such as dogs, pigs, sheep, goats, cattle and horses, have been substantially altered during their adaptation to the human niche. Domestic animals have played an important role in shaping human evolution and history. After a millennia of constructing niches based on hunting, gathering, and foraging, a range of communities in diverse parts of the world embarked on trajectories of food production which in some instances led to the emergence of complex societies, urbanism, and empires, sowing the seeds for our current globalisation. These animals revolutionised human economies and transportation, boosting the power of states, empires and the scale of warfare.
While there are recurring references to the importance of animals in various cultures that have developed historically, their importance in teaching morals cannot be ignored. Indian Upanishads, Jatakas and Panchatantra stories are inspired by animals. One reason can be their accessible relativity to people and communities of all ages. Animals have been seen for a long time as sole companions of humans and that is why humans have felt the need to explore them more and more. As a biological instinct, we are driven by necessity and the fact that something appears useful is evidence enough that it either will be exploited or explored more.
Analysing human-animal relationships through a Ghibli movie: “Princess Mononoke”
Created by the director of Studio Ghibli, Hayao Miyazaki, this animated movie meant for young audiences stirs up a very important question in their minds, what would happen or who would win or lose the battle when all of humanity comes against the omnipotent nature? This film is set during the Muromachi period (14th-16th centuries) in Japan, starting off fittingly with the prince Ashitaka fighting off a demon. When the demon is defeated, Ashitaka’s right arm is cursed, which later sets him off on another adventure in order to find out the root of nature’s upset. This is where his destiny leads him to meet San, a difficult woman raised amongst wolves with a hatred for humans and Lady Eboshi, a so-called idealistic village leader who is slowly destroying the forest and unjustly consuming its resources. There are conflicting ideals in the movie and that is why this stands out as one of his most thoughtful works against his basic preset, being a soft pacifist.
The best part about the movie is that it doesn’t shy away from being violent, in order to deliver its message fully.
"Disgusting little creatures. Soon, all of you will feel my hate, and suffer as I have suffered." –Nago
There’s the first scene where the boar demon rampages through the land, dismantling the structure while destroying everything in the Emishi village, Ashitaka takes down the demon before he can destroy the village, but in saving the village, he takes a deadly curse. The curse spreads to Ashitaka and the demon warns about the consequences. The boar demon's last words are very sad and ironically justified; he expresses disgust and melancholy and curses humans that he would want them to suffer the same way he does. It’s on to Ashitaka on how the curse would unfold and the intensity of the violent hate involved.
The basic character of the film is its foundational premise, there’s not a moment in the film when nature is not appreciated or the core focus is shifted, the objective is clear: the long lasting and far fetched consequences of the actions of its characters that have the potential to harm nature and alter the natural order of things. The ‘humanisation of nature’ theory propounded by Marx has been brought to life when Miyazaki focuses on how humans, consumed by their unending desires and greed, harm and exploit nature until all that is left is destruction, dry soil and regret. It is both emotional and provocative. It is clever in the sense that it uses the human character as the central subject and comes full circle with the harmful impacts, connecting well with the receivers.
There are a lot of parallels that can be drawn from contemporary reality and that is what adds the element of beauty to it, with subtle nuances. It approaches reality through a logical standpoint, making sure the subject is clear.
Image Credits: Studio Ghibli Production
Richard Bulliet’s ‘Hunters, herders and hamburgers’ and the significance of camels as friends and forebearers of human legacy
By about 3000 BCE, human predation had driven wild camels to near extinction in Africa, Southwest Asia, and Central Asia. Who first domesticated them is a mystery. Richard Bulliet believes it was nomadic hunting groups teeming along the Southern Arabian coast who quenched hunger with seafood and occasionally hunted camels that had adapted to a predator-free regime of extreme heat. According to Bulliet, the camels were first tamed not for meat, but for milk, commonly drunk by Somalis and others to this day. With milk in high demand, there was no need to load and ride camels, making them commodities for mere use and exploitation. This points at the human-led instinct of exploitation which further exploited camels. It was then, perhaps, that they turned to their now-tamed beasts as at least part-time pack animals. Their camels provided milk and carried baggage from camp to camp in landscapes far from the cities of Mesopotamia and the Nile. The camel was mostly used as a source of milk and meat until the Arabian incense trade pushed the world into the great camel revolution, which legitimised the use of camels as commodities and not as equal beings existing in the biosphere.
The muscle-power of both men and animals has been used to drive machines—including heavy stone rollers. Thousands of years of animal husbandry resulted in a large number of working breeds with distinctive features. Ploughing was the activity where animals made the greatest difference—the pulling power of working animals is roughly proportional to their weight. Besides doing heavy ploughing and harvesting, animal labour also made it possible to lift large volumes of irrigation water from deeper wells (winding up ropes)—animals were made to operate essential food-processing machines as mills, grinders and presses at rates far surpassing human capabilities. Horses, who played an important role in Western Europe, could drag logs and pull-out stumps to convert forests to cropland, break up rich fertile-grassland soil, by deep ploughing, or pull heavy machinery. Horses and cattle produced manure for soil through dung and were hence deemed super useful. In Arabia, camels played an important role not only in the local economy but also in the transformation of the tribal structure. Horses have been animals of reverence and they were worshipped in a lot of cultures too.
Hunters, herders and hamburgers: A modern take on human solipsism
Bulliet writes, "We are today living through a new watershed in human-animal relations, one that appears likely to affect our material, social, and imaginative lives as profoundly as did the original emergence of domestic species." Bulliet identifies and explores three stages in the history of human-animal relationship- pre domesticity, domesticity, and post domesticity. He begins with the irony of when humans began considering themselves as a species distinct and more superior to animals and how the trend of domestication started.
This book takes into account the exact time when human-animal relationships became ‘HUMAN-ANIMAL’. The most fascinating angle the book takes is Bulliet's fascinating argument that an "increasing fascination with fantasies of sex and blood" among post-WWII Americans is a suitable reaction to the omission of animals other than pets—along with animal slaughter and animal sex—from their childhood experiences, wiping away any sensitivity towards them.
The three eras explained within are:
Pre Domesticity- The predomestic was the age before the agricultural revolution. This was the time when human societies survived on hunting-gathering economies.
Domesticity- The agricultural revolution tainted the beginning of domesticity—This is marked by the spread of ideologies about human difference and superiority over animals, and a growing economistic perspective that treated animals as a mere source of raw material or raw material itself.
Post Domesticity- Beginning with the industrial revolution, major population chunks haven’t interacted with animals directly (Bulliet is largely referring to post-industrial societies such as the United States, England, and Australia)—this refers to the absence of direct observation of animal life and processing of animal remains thus rendering zero the sensitivity towards them.
According to Bulliet, “post domesticity is defined by two features. First, post domestic people live far away, both physically and psychologically, from the animals that produce the food, fibre, and hides they depend on, and they never witness the births, sexual congress, and slaughter of these animals. This is surprising because now animals have been categorised, ones that understand human emotions like dogs and cats, and can therefore be treated as “PETS”, completely derailing their existence as a separate species. Second, a postdomestic society emanating from domestic origins that continues to consume animals and their products in bulk, but psychologically and ironically enough they experience feeling of guilt, shame, and regret when they look at the industrial processes by which domestic animals are rendered into products and about how those products come to market, ironically they never ‘do’ anything about it.
Human-animal relationships are often remarkably constant through the ages. Once established, a certain manner of interaction usually becomes so deeply ingrained into the cultural make-up and ideology of a group that it is virtually impossible to change, even if an alteration of the ecological or economic context of their lives would render this sensible, even religious. Animals, originally adopted and looked at as pets will not become sources of food for any culture because of such wide change in perspectives, and vice-versa. Just like the cow among Hindus, as a motherly and reverent symbol, dogs and cats will never be served on the plates of Western menus, and pigs will probably not advance to a respectable place in Western households, even if they could have the privilege of disposing garbage there or simply working as servants.
Conclusion
Animals have played a very significant role in shaping human history and what has become the present of it. They have been involved in every human endeavour that has taken place till now. In the field of environment, both their physical and mental contribution has been of critical construct as their adaptability and the absence of it has influenced a lot of cultures and their evolution. The fact that animals have been such major players in human evolution speaks volumes about the possible gruesome effect of their absence and we must acknowledge it. It is always possible to reduce the negative impacts but once we start losing crucial things in our biosphere, there’s no looking back.
It is high time we acknowledge their seminal contribution and role in our ecosystem and get rid of activities that hamper their survival and well-being. For a long time, humans have existed as a separate entity and this is what makes us vouch for our power. This will help us break free from the shackles of human led progressivism and actually progress in real terms.
By Guncha Shandilya Bio-Guncha shandilya is a 19-year-old history scholar with a keen interest in Japanese culture and modern literature. Her interests span writing, reading, and spending time in the lap of nature. She looks forward to being a diplomat in the future.
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