Most less complex animals, invertebrates, fish, amphibians, and reptiles probably have a `` it's fair '' type of worldview and accept whatever happens - go with the flow. But once you consider the relatively higher and more complex animals, like birds and mammals, the complexity of the brain becomes such that to a greater or lesser degree the intelligence and the ability to think and understand them. things need to be taken into consideration.
Humans may be among the best when it comes to intelligence and understanding, but that doesn't mean every non-human life form has the IQ of a microbe. I strongly suspect that birds and mammals develop a personal mythology of worldview that explains to their satisfaction everything they see and experience on a daily basis.
Additionally, for all those animals that develop a direct or indirect relationship with humans, they additionally need to evolve an understandable personal mythology into their larger worldview that puts us in their big picture. This mythology, their point of view is going to be grossly incorrect of course, but they don't know it. They, in all honesty, cannot comprehend the sum total of those experiences which they share directly with human activity and so, to one degree or another, they develop a mythological worldview that somehow explains this that humans do in their own context. However, sometimes humans are only depicted indirectly, so their POV does not actually involve humans in any form, manner, or form.
The purpose of this small essay is therefore to illustrate those animals (i.e. birds and mammals) that interact directly or indirectly with humans (in a good, indifferent, bad or horrible way) have a somewhat human-centered mythology, even if they are not aware of it. Taking a specific animal as an example, consider the following story about the possum.
I have a possum that visits my backyard at night. I know this because I often see his poo; in fact, I once saw it stand out against the backdrop of a lighted window of a house opposite mine. I guess the opossum hasn't spotted me; he is a creature of the night and I a creature of the day. Now, presumably, the opossum hunts at night, foraging for food. The Australian winter has been generally long and extremely cold here in the nation's capital, Canberra, so out of empathy for another life form that has a much more difficult life than me, I decided to leave it an apple in early evening. . The next morning he was gone - the apple that is. Now, as a smart human being, I know all the facts. I buy an apple; I leave aside the apple; the opossum finds the apple and eats it. However, I can't help but wonder, from the opossum's point of view, what does it do with that nocturnal gift of an apple, an apple that appears where there is no apple tree to kilometers around?
Some assumptions are in order. I guess the opossum has a certain intelligence, IQ, an ability to think, wonder, and reflect. When something out of the ordinary happens, it makes an impression. Translated, the sun rises and the sun sets - nothing fancy. I doubt the opossum gives much thought to this reality. The tree he lives in exists day in and day out - there isn't much to think about there. It is hot in summer; cold in winter; some days it rains; most of the time it doesn't rain. But that everyday apple hasn't been a part of his worldview mythology - until now.
So something new, beneficial but unexpected comes into play. Does the opossum attribute this to luck, good fortune, a life of its own, in the right place at the right time, or think- does it go deeper than that?
Now an apple first appears on the ground where it feeds - unusual but strange things are happening. An apple appears on this same spot of earth every night - in the same place without the benefit of an apple tree. It does not correspond to the ordinary expectations and experiences of our possum. Because it's not something natural and ordinary in the opossum's worldview, then it must be something extraordinary; it is something magical; it is something paranormal; it's something supernatural. Perhaps there is a supernatural deity Possum who looks after possums when needed, such as in winter when food in general and apples in particular are scarce.
And so our possum may be developing this idea of something bigger than the natural world it is used to. Possum perhaps develops a mythology of possum of a Possum deity who takes care of all possums, like herself. It must be “all opossums” since I guess our opossum has no understanding of good opossums versus bad possums, only the former being rewarded with an unrecorded apple (manna from heaven).
But maybe he saw me from the seclusion of his apple tree, in which case maybe I am the Great Divinity Possum. If he sees other humans, are they also deities, even if they are not possum deities?
Since this regularly present apple appears in roughly the same geographic location night after night, could our hungry opossum attribute anything extraordinary to this patch of (my) garden, (its) backyard turf? Could this plot of land, in the mythology of our opossum worldview, become the sacred site of our opossum?
Now, the opossum's perspective will no longer be based on language, and it will not be able to communicate its mythology of worldview to other opossums. Rather, his perceptions will be based on his five senses, which is in all likelihood the most important sight. He could imagine, visualize in his mind, a large opossum (type deity of Santa Claus) delivering apples without having words for `` apple '' or `` possum '' or `` deity '' or `` donor gifts '' or even `` human ''. He would not have words for ground or "sacred site" but rather a mental image that this piece of land is extra-special. Such an image, unlike the words we would use, would not be out of the question.
Okay, you know and I know that there is no Possum deity, that there is nothing mysterious or supernatural going on, there is no sacred site. I know what's going on - a farmer hundreds of miles away sells his crop of apples to a company that hires a distributor who trucks them to Canberra and they end up in that company's local supermarkets. You know it, and I know it, but we can't expect the opossum to know it. If this opossum communicates with other opossums (not that it can), it will not tell the story of a compassionate human buying an apple a day and leaving it aside to be devoured by possums, let alone having knowledge of that distant farmer. , company, distributor, truck, supermarket, and all the infrastructure that this implies, etc.
It would be fascinating to converse with this opossum and find out exactly what his current mythology of worldview is, even if it is beyond our means. But I bet anything is wrong! Yet let's walk a mile in his paws and try to see it the way he would. This is what we can do. I tried to do it, but chances are I am wrong. There is no real meeting of the spirits here. Even though I came face to face with the opossum, I couldn't converse with; I couldn't convince him that his point of view was wrong.
However, just as each possum has its own worldview mythology, each human also has a unique perspective on life, the universe, and everything. The difference is that in most cases we can communicate this perspective to other members of our species.
The point now is that if our companion mammals have an imperfect view of their worldview mythology, a mythology which we know to be false, but not so, which may or may not incorporate humans; Do we humans in turn have a flawed point of view regarding our worldview mythologies? The parallels between mammals (like our possum) and humans and those collective worldview mythologies that we all have might suggest that we too have misperceptions about life, the universe, and all that requires exploration and investigation. more in-depth and continuous development. In this larger context, perhaps we can also empathize with possums to the extent that we may also have imperfect worldview mythologies in the eyes of entities greater than us.