Brian Griffith's Blog, page 7

The freedom to hunt

Concerning the European colonists’ attitudes toward wild creatures, we should mention that when they landed in the New World, they were coming from lands where ordinary people had long been banned from hunting in the forests. Since medieval times, the lords and kings had enclosed the woods for their own use. Commoners caught trespassing in the forests faced the usual horrific penalties. As England’s Henry II proclaimed, “He who does wrong in the King’s forest touching his venison shall be blinded and castrated.”

The kinds of subordinate beings

In the Old World civilizations of ancient warlords and absolute monarchs, subordinate creatures fell into several categories. There were loyal servants of their masters, like the conquered peasants and domestic animals. Then there were non-subject creatures, like the people of rival states or animals in the bush, who were fair game for attack and plunder. Last and worst were enemies within the kingdom, such as traitors, rebellious minorities, criminal gangs, and animal foes of civilization. Back around 1700, as the age of colonial empires got rolling, French archbishop François Fénelon reasoned that “If all countries were peopled and made subject to law and order as they should be, there would be no animals that would attack man.”

The Jewish law on animals

Although the Bible recorded numerous priestly commands that violations of the holy law must be paid for in animal sacrifices, it also recorded denunciations of this practice by Isaiah (1:11-13), Micah (6:7-8), and Hosea, as in “I desire mercy not sacrifice” (Hosea 6:5-6). Also, in the Talmud we read “It is forbidden, according to the law of Torah, to inflict pain upon any living creature, even if it is ownerlessˮ (Preece, xx). The Old Testament actually says, “He who kills an ox is the same as he who slays a person” (Isaiah 66:3). Among these various conflicting values, people have had to choose which ones they prefer.

The Animals' Lawsuit Against Humanity

In tenth-century Iraq, a band of Sufis wrote a morality tale called “The Animals’ Lawsuit Against Humanity.” In this fanciful but disturbingly realistic account, the animals bring their legal appeal to the King of Spirits. In graphic detail they report the abuse and even genocide they have suffered from human arrogance. The lawyers for humanity argue that mankind’s inherent superiority justifies its abuse of lower beings. The animals, however, argue passionately, with snakes, camels, etc. citing verses of scripture to justify their complaints. Although the humans attempt to bribe the judge, the animals prevail in court. The King of Spirits pronounces his verdict, predicting what will happen if humanity continues its savagery toward the beasts. For anyone interested, here it is:

"The animals will begin to disappear, one by one, forever from the face of the earth, and the air in your settlements and fortresses will become dangerous to breathe.

"Should you still not change, the sky will weaken and the earth will reveal its nakedness to the sun; the water in your streams and the rain in the sky will slowly turn undrinkable.

"Persevere in your wicked ways and still worse will happen: the seasons will be reversed and your climates turned on end; the earth will cease yielding up its goodness and the sky will cease its rain. In the middle of summer, plants will drop their leaves and unripe fruits will fall as if it were autumn.

"Nor shall this be the end. Continue, and the animals you eat—fish and fowl, beast and bug—will bring sickness and death upon you, and you will be forced to fight each other—and even to eat each other—for lack of food." War and Peace with the Beasts: A History of Our Relationships with Animals

consorting with the beast

The medieval church actively opposed pet keeping, since pets would distract their owners from devotion to God and consume food needed by God’s flock. In the 1300s the Bishop of Winchester, William of Wykeham, felt he must chastise the nuns of the local convents for bringing pet “birds, rabbits, hounds, and such frivolous things” to church, and paying more attention to the animals than to the priests, “to the grievous peril of their souls.” Women who kept pet “familiarsˮ faced suspicion of consorting with the beast. War and Peace with the Beasts: A History of Our Relationships with Animals

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worshipping the beast

In Sunday school as a child, I heard that the ancient Egyptians “worshiped the beast,” which sounded absolutely evil, even though I loved my dog far more than I cared about the church. I accepted this contradiction without much thought, and only years later did I wonder how animals got such a Satanic reputation. War and Peace with the Beasts: A History of Our Relationships with Animals

the diversity of relations with animals

The diversity of our relations with animals has been almost unlimited. Maybe all of us see certain animals as demented monsters, others as soulless automations, some as dear friends, and at least a few (like horses or dolphins) as spiritual beings of power and glory. The animals that seem most awesome are not always the strongest or smartest. Among all the animals they know, the San people of the Kalahari Desert have given perhaps their highest esteem to the praying mantis, claiming that this insect represents “the voice of the infinite in the small.ˮ War and Peace with the Beasts: A History of Our Relationships with Animals

The sacredness of animals

Over the course of human history, people have opted or wavered between three main views on the divinity of animals:

1) Some animals (like bald eagles) are sacred, and others (like crows) are not.

2) No animals are sacred, as they have no souls.
War and Peace with the Beasts: A History of Our Relationships with Animals

3) All of them are sacred, as when Meister Eckhart rather rapturously proclaimed: “[Pray that we may apprehend and rejoice in that everlasting truth in which the highest angel and the fly and the soul are equal.ˮ

War and Peace with the Beasts: A History of Our Relationships with Animals

The goddess of East and West

In 1997, as Portugal ceded independence to Macao, it left a 20-meter-high statue of the goddess Kwan Yin overlooking the harbor. In this statue, the artist, Cristina Leiria, melded the goddesses of China and Portugal into one figure. It was both the Virgin Mary and Kwan Yin at the same time, symbolizing a fusion of the best and most beautiful from both the East and the West. -- A Galaxy of Immortal Women: The Yin Side of Chinese Civilization