Briar Bond, Journal Entry 12 - Anthropomorphizing Animals and Respecting the Other

 Something we spoke briefly about in class the other day is the anthropomorphizing of animals. This is unfortunately a very common occurrence, one I have had a lot of experience with as an animal educator. People understand things through logic and reason, that is making something seem more human. We do this for nature a lot by establishing distinct patterns and levels within ecosystems. This helps us understand the world around us, but it can go too far.

I have found that people will often assign emotions to animals based on what they think would make most sense, but when a person doesn't have a deep knowledge of that animal's behaviors they can quickly misstep. I have heard this a lot with the orangutans at the zoo I used to volunteer at. All the time I would hear "they look sad" or "they're so bored". These were impressions made by people trying to relate to the animals, which is a major first step in fostering compassion for the environment, but they also were missing some key information. For one thing, orangutans express emotions very differently from humans. What we would see as a sign of happiness, smiling, they would see as a sign of aggression. By being relaxed, they express contentedness rather than boredom. However, they also experience a different range of emotions than we do, a range that we cannot understand for one simple reason. We are not orangutans.

This is where the importance of respecting the other comes in. There are things in the world, especially in nature, that are beyond the grasp of human understanding. And that is okay.  People are a part of a complex system, one that is far too expansive to fully comprehend. I think it ties back to the idea of the primordial, or the unknowable. We humans have tapped into and explored only a tiny piece of the universe. For all I know, all the other species in the world have as well, only they understand a different piece.