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