Posthuman Religion Main Menu

Animals

33519
With regard to an eschatological concern, as the active word here is in fact concern, I believe J35 and crows make a fine example. Whether or not animals know they will die one day is a mystery for now, despite that they do show signs of self-preservation. Many species of animal do experience personal, individual grief, such as the orca mother known as J35 who went into a period of mourning that lasted 17 days, where she carried the corpse of her dead calf over a thousand miles. Jenny Atkinson, the executive director of The Whale Museum, firmly believes that the orca bonded to the calf, who lived for 30 minutes before it passed away. This emotional bond was too difficult to break without some kind of ceremony or rite attached, and she held on to the calf and took it with her for so long the scientists monitoring her pod's health and safety feared she would expend her energy too quickly and she would die. She did not die, however, and returned to the pod after her mourning tour.

In a bigger, more species wide sense, crows have learned to fear death. It is well known that crows are exceptionally smart animals: they have excellent memories and can recognize when someone is complicit in an anti-crow action. Crows are also not the only animals that will go down to inspect and mourn for their dead: elephants, dolphins and chimpanzees are known for  sort of funeral rite where a group of them will encircle a dead member and touch them. What is unique to crows, a new study finds, at least for now, is that they examine their ded with morer than just a grieving eye: they attempt to learn the cause of death of the fallen comrade. The study found that a human holding a dead crow or a hawk near one, appearing to be implicit in the death, will become a victim of "scolding" where the crows will mob or take dives at the complicit human or hawk, which could go on for up to six weeks.

So, in animals too we find a certain ceremony about death that appears to be unshakable. Mourning life due to its inherent value and negative affect towards those associated with taking that life are found as firmly in the religion of animals as they are in the religion of humans.

This page has paths:

  1. Eschatological Concern Sam Henrickson

This page references: