Thinking Animals: Animals and the Development of Human Intelligence

295 Pages·1998·18.002 MB·English

by  Paul Shepard

THINKING
ANIMALS
OTHER BOOKS BY PAUL SHEPARD
Man in the Landscape: A Historic View of
the Esthetics of Nature
The Subversive Science: Essays toward the Ecology of Man,
edited with Daniel McKinley
Environ/Mental: Essays on the Planet as a Home,
edited with Daniel McKinley
The Tender Carnivore and the Sacred Game
Nature and Madness
The Sacred Paw: The Bear in Nature, Myth, and Literature,
with Barry Sanders
The Others: How Animals Made Us Human
Traces of an Omnivore
The Only World We've Got
PAUL SHEPARD
THINKING
Animals and the Development of Human Intelligence
ANIMALS
FOREWORD BY MAX OELSCHLAEGER
The University of Georgia Press
Athens 6* London
Published by the University of Georgia Press
Athens, Georgia 30602
© 1978 by Paul Shepard
Foreword© 1998 by the University of Georgia Press
All rights reserved

The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and
durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book
Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.

Printed in Canada

02 01 00 99 98 p 5 4 3 2 1

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA

Shepard, Paul, 1925-
Thinking animals : animals and the development of human
intelligence / Paul Shepard ; with a foreword by Max Oelschlaeger.
p. cm.
Originally published: New York :Viking Press, 1978.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN: 0-8203-1982-1 ( pbk.: alk. paper)
l. Human-animal relationships. I. Title.
QL85.S5 1998
128' .3—dc21 97-27156

BRITISH LIBRARY CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA AVAILABLE

Lines from John Ciardi’s collection An Alphabestiary appear with
permission of the Ciardi family.

Cover art: Embodied #6 (1995)
© Martha Madigan; Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

ISBN for this digital edition: 978-0-8203-4234-4
For their stimulating presence, without which the ideas that
follow would have remained unformed, this book is dedi-
cated to Buteo jamaicaicensis, Colaptes chrysoides, Eptesi-
cus fuscus, Rana catesbeiana, Chaetura pelagica, Agkistro-
don contortrix, Sceloporus undulatus, Bubo virginianus, Cro-
taphytus collaris, Coccyzus americanus, Scalopus aquations,
Urocyon cinereoargenteus, Epiaeschna heros, Vanessa ata-
lanta, Elaphus maximus, Butorides viresceus,.Cryptobrancus
alleganiensis, Papilo marcellus, Actias luna, Ondatra zib-
ethica, Equus burchelli, Bufo terrestris, Colinus virginianus,
Archilochus colubris, Lycaenopsis argiolus, Lepomis mega-
lotis, Terrapene Carolina, Ursus americanus, Corvus brachy-
rhychos, Didelphis virginiana, Limenitis arthemis, Microp-
terus salmoides, Passer domesticus, Sylvagicus ftoridanus,
Cercyonis pegala, Trionyx muticus
This page intentionally left blank
Z is not for zebra, but for ZOOLOGY,
Since our effort herein has been to achieve
the inclusive view rather than any
particular stripe, we are firm on this point.
Habit has its own animals and will cling
to them, but perception concerns all beasts.
Therefore Zoology, which is the science
most like a looking glass, teaching us
resemblances, when we learn to face them.
—John Ciardi
From An Alphabestiary
This page intentionally left blank
CONTENTS
FOREWORD xi
1 | ON ANIMALS THINKING 1
Preparing the Soil for Thought 1
The Post-Archaic World; or How Thinkers
Started the Day with Cereals 7
You Think What You Eat 11
What the Arboreal Eye Knows 15
Speech as the Summons to Images 18
The Zoology of the Self 25
Art as the Collective Imagery of Animal Form 30
2 \ THE MENTAL MENAGERIE 38
Language and Taxonomy 41
The Vocal Obligations of Infancy 46
Concealed Creatures 56
Animal Protagonists 60
The Intellectual Abuse of Animals 64
Organs as Creatures 67
The Dialogue of Inside-Outside 69
3 \ AMBIGUOUS ANIMALS 76
The Margins of Our Attention 77
Imaginary Combination Animals 83
Heads and Tails 89
Monsters 98
The Diabolical Ape 103
Monsters and Social Stress 107
The Living Coded Messages 109
4 \ IMITATING ANIMALS: THE CAST OF CHARACTERS 115
The Drama of the Animal 120
Totemic Culture 125
Adornment and Animality 130
ix