‘I am the Walrus’: Animal Identities and Merging with Animals – Exceptional Experiences?
2012; Routledge; Volume: 45; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/00293652.2012.703687
ISSN1502-7678
Autores Tópico(s)Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
ResumoArchaeological materials from various times and places give us many examples of identity attributed to animals and of merging of identities between humans and animals. We tend to regard these phenomena as different from our modern understanding of ourselves, animals, plants and objects as discrete ontological classes. Accordingly, archaeology explains and explores these phenomena in relation to what they implied and meant in their particular cultural contexts. However, these phenomena also share certain cross-cultural and trans-temporal similarities, pointing beyond cultural 'uses' (processual) and 'meanings' (post-processual) of animals. This observation demands the employment of a wider, more inclusive, theoretical stance (multi-theoretical, multi-methodological, eclectic) to be explained. I illustrate with examples from various periods (Palaeolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age, pre-classical and classical Greece, Roman Empire, Migration Period and Viking Period). I claim that characteristics of both human and animal nature ('things in themselves') can contribute to explaining the experiences of animal identities and of merging phenomena. Both phenomena connect to perceptions of, interaction with and relationships with animals. My arguments are based on research on human and animal psycho-endocrinology, brain and behaviours (cognitive, emotional and social) and ethology.
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