34497 Y112 In Recent Years The Nayaka Hunter-
GATHERERS OF SOUTH-INDIA HAVE TAKEN UP SOME AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES SUCH AS HERDING CATTLE, RAISING CHICKENS AND CULTIVATING TEA. NOT SURPRISINGLY, THEY HAVE ALSO PICKED UP NEW ATTITUDES TOWARDS ANIMALS, AND THEY ESPOUSE VERY DIFFERENT VIEWS ABOUT DOMESTICATED ANIMALS (and plants) compared with wild organisms. In the Nayaka language a living being possessing a unique personality is called MANSAN! When probed by the anthropologist Danny Naveh, the Nayaka explained that all elephants are mansan. 'WE LIVE IN THE FOREST, THEY LIVE IN THE FOREST! We are all mansan... Só are bears, deer & the Tigers! All forest animals!' WHAT ABOUT COWS? 'Cows are different: you have to lead them everywhere!' AND CHICKENS? 'They are not mansan: they are nothing!' AND FOREST TREES? 'Yes - they live for such a long time!' AND TEA BUSHES? 'Oh, these I cultivate so that I can sell the tea leaves and buy what I need from the store! Nó, they aren't mansan!' The degradation of animals from sen-tient beings deserving of respect into mere property rarely stopped with cows & chickens. Most agricultural societies began treating vari-ous classes of people as if they too were property? In ancient AeGYPT, biblical Israël and medieval China it was very common to enslave humans, torture them and execute them for even trifling offences! Just as peasants did not consult with cows & chickens about the run-ning of the farm, só rulers did not dream of asking peasants for théir opinions about running the kingdom?!! And when ethnic groups or religious communities clashed, they frequently dehumanized each other! Depicting the 'OTHERS' as sub-human beasts was a first step towards treating them as such. The farm thus became thé prototype of new societies, complete with puffed-up masters, ÌNFÉRIOR races fit for exploitation, wild beasts ripe for extermination, and a great G(o)d abòve that gives Hìs blessing to the entire arrangement..........! Five Hundred Years of Solitude? THE RISE OF MODERN SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY BROUGHT ABOUT THE NEXT REVOLUTION IN HUMAN-ANIMAL RELATIONS! During the Agricultural Revolution humankind silenced animals & plants, and turned the animist grand opera into a dialogue between man & gods! During the Scientific Revolution humankind silenced the gods too? The world was now a one-man show... Humankind stood alone on an empty stage, talking to itself, negotiating with no one & acquiring rather enormous powers without any obligations. Having deciphered the mute laws of physics, chemistry & biology, humankind now does with them as it pleases..................
Asih, man, 79 jaar
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