I have a friend who thought that people in olden times were just as level-headed and reasonable as people today. They knew how to swim, for example; they understood bathing and hygiene; they knew not to drink contaminated water or spoiled food - any number of things we take for granted about modern society. When pointed out to him that in TODAY's world there are large segments of the population that don't do these things (see the huge swathes of Africa where they do not have clean water), he claims the reports must be lying. When shown the primary historical records showing people's ignorance, he claims it's no more an accurate reflection of day-to-day knowledge than picking up a People or Popular Mechanics magazine today.
I don't want to be that person.
And yet when I look at attitudes towards animals, I so dearly wish to brush off the 'they don't have souls', 'they don't feel pain', or 'they only see in black and white' as a product of the modern age and increasing separation from the reality of animals. Yet the opposite seems true. The further back in history we go, the more people saw animals as animate objects without emotion or full perception. Which is ridiculous! Anyone with any empathy or perception of their own can see within seconds that an animal has an emotional reaction to them - maybe fear as a chicken paces the opposite side of their cage, maybe affection as a dog greets them. These are not insensate creatures!
Yet even today, there are still those who put animals on one side and people on the other.
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I have a friend who thought that people in olden times were just as level-headed and reasonable as people today. They knew how to swim, for example; they understood bathing and hygiene; they knew not to drink contaminated water or spoiled food - any number of things we take for granted about modern society. When pointed out to him that in TODAY's world there are large segments of the population that don't do these things (see the huge swathes of Africa where they do not have clean water), he claims the reports must be lying. When shown the primary historical records showing people's ignorance, he claims it's no more an accurate reflection of day-to-day knowledge than picking up a People or Popular Mechanics magazine today.
I don't want to be that person.
And yet when I look at attitudes towards animals, I so dearly wish to brush off the 'they don't have souls', 'they don't feel pain', or 'they only see in black and white' as a product of the modern age and increasing separation from the reality of animals. Yet the opposite seems true. The further back in history we go, the more people saw animals as animate objects without emotion or full perception. Which is ridiculous! Anyone with any empathy or perception of their own can see within seconds that an animal has an emotional reaction to them - maybe fear as a chicken paces the opposite side of their cage, maybe affection as a dog greets them. These are not insensate creatures!
Yet even today, there are still those who put animals on one side and people on the other.