Vsauce! Kevin here.
In a building, a shelter - expertly designed by humans, for humans, to protect me, a human,
from nature. So what is this doing here?
More than half of you keep a non-human creature in your house. Sometimes in your bed. People
treat their pets like family - like babies. Why? Pets almost seem like a cuteness tax,
but our relationships with them today and throughout history can teach us a lot about
who we are. And what we think it means to be a human.
For most of human existence we lived on equal ground with animals. What we now call “Animism”
was the foundational worldview held by our Hunter-gatherer ancestors -- the belief that
non-human entities including rivers, plants and animals all have a spirit or soul. Hunting
and killing animals for survival involved elaborate rituals intended to honor the spirits
of the natural world. There’s evidence of Animism worldwide, from the Naskapi of Canada
having strict rules for consuming caribou, to the reindeer hunters of Siberia and various
bear cults including the Ainu of Japan.
Animals taken for survival were revered while others were kept as pets and made part of
the family. Pets are so vital and beloved that indigenous peoples from Australia and
Malaysia to South America and Hawaii included them in one of the most foundational bonds
of human life by breast-feeding baby animals. The Awa tribe in the Amazon still do.
The dawn of agriculture and widespread domestication of animals created a distinction between man
and beast. After about 190,000 years of relative parity, humans were now dominating nature.
In 350 BC, Aristotle declared that nature makes nothing in vain and therefore everything
on Earth had a purpose - to serve humans. He also proposed scala naturae, or the ladder
of life -- a hierarchy of living things with human beings on top due to their ability to
reason, a trait he believed came not from the brain but from the heart.
For Rome, man’s dominance of animals was entertainment. The colosseum games routinely
involved fights to the death, with some species like the North African Elephant and European
Wild Horse being made extinct as a result.
Animals were put to work building and feeding growing civilizations. Cats were self-domesticated
during the rise of agriculture, including themselves in the human food chain by weeding
out vermin like rats. People appreciated their service, and house cats were immortalized
in paintings during the Tang Dynasty in the 7th century.
Anthropocentrism, or the belief that humans are the most significant creature, was bolstered
by the Earth being declared the center of the entire universe. Questioning this geocentric
model, and by proxy man's centrality in the cosmos, was considered blasphemy. Galileo
was found guilty of heresy for supporting Copernicus’s banned heliocentric model in
1633.
Galileo was imprisoned during the Inquisition, a campaign in which Roman Catholic orthodoxy
was enforced by persecuting heretics. Even pets weren’t safe; they could be branded
as familiars, or evil spirits that helped people perform sorcery. Pets suspected of
aiding in magic were tried and executed if found guilty.
We went from suckling baby animals and honoring beasts felled in the hunt to publicly burning
humans for having pets.
England’s Witchcraft Act Of 1604 made it illegal to, “consult, covenant with, entertain,
employ, feed, or reward any evil and wicked spirit to or for any intent or purpose.”
Everything from dogs and cats to rabbits, toads, and even ants and cockroaches were
suspected as familiars that could lead to an alleged witch’s death. Animals were
tortured and executed not only to mete out justice, but as part of public celebrations.
In The Great Cat Massacre And Other Episodes In French Cultural History, historian Robert
Darnton explains that an aspect of the Carnival season of celebration before Lent - involved
passing around cats and ripping out their fur to create a crude musical instrument of
tortured howls. Dancing around bonfires was a joyous part of the Summer solstice festivities
- as was throwing magical objects into them - like cats tied up in sacks, hung from ropes
or attached to stakes. Burning dozens of cats in a basket was abolished in Metz in 1765.
So that’s good.
The context of treating animals like inanimate objects can be found in the philosophy of
Rene Descartes, who believed in the superiority of the human mind. The father of modern western
philosophy famously stated, “Cogito ergo sum” -- “I think therefore I am” -- but
he considered animals to be like clocks. In 1648, he referred to beasts as mechanical
automatons filled with organs that allow them to function but are devoid of consciousness
-- lacking a soul.
That marked a departure from how we'd thought about animals for centuries -- the word animal
comes from the Latin root "animus," which means "soul." It took the advancement of science
to return us to our radices. That’s Latin for roots.
The Age Of Reason brought with it a newfound interest in natural history, which included
biology and zoology. By the 1850’s, Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Darwin revolutionized
how we think about animals. Their theories of evolution placed humans and creatures at
equal points of origin, from which adaptations for ecological survival arose over millennia.
Darwin’s catalyst for his obsessive study of nature was his love of dogs.
Evidence of domesticated dogs as beloved pets goes back to 12,000 BCE with the Natufian
Grave in Israel - an old man buried with a puppy. Recent DNA studies suggest gray wolves
and dogs share a common prehistoric wolf ancestor that went extinct between 9,000 and 34,000
years ago. Wolves are the most successful, adaptable non-human predator in the world,
but they’re now outnumbered over 3,000 to 1 by dogs because dogs partnered with humans
-- an advantage that Anthropologist Pat Shipman believes helped humans outlast neanderthals.
From Mesopotamia, India, Egypt and Mesoamerica - dogs were symbols of loyalty and companionship
and were buried with their owners as guides to the afterlife.
Humans practiced selective breeding with dogs to encourage desirable physical traits like
size, speed and fur length. But over the past 150 years, dogs have been bred to change their
appearance and highlight features we want to see -- like shorter snouts, larger eyes
and floppier ears.
Neoteny is the retention of juvenile features in an adult animal, and selective breeding
by humans has exaggerated these features in breeds like Pugs, Bulldogs and the Cavalier
King Charles Spaniel. In some cases that has created unintended health problems, driving
the Kennel Club’s leading geneticist to believe that the less a dog looks like a wolf,
the less it makes any sense.
Neoteny can also be seen in cartoon characters with huge eyes and large heads - characteristics
we think are cute because the proportions are similar to infants - an actual cute character
design rule documented by former Disney animator Preston Blair in his 1948 book Animation.
Cuteness is based on the basic proportions of a baby. In 1971, evolutionary biologist
and science historian Stephen Jay Gould documented the neoteny found in the evolution of the
world’s most famous cartoon character - Mickey Mouse. And just as Mickey is a brand of Disney,
Pomeranians are a brand of dog.
During an era in which Gregor Mendel founded the study of genetics through breeding experiments
with pea plants, dogs were developed like consumer products with specific beneficial
traits. Purebred dogs were a common marker of status, from Pekinese in 7th century China
to Queen Victoria’s Pomeranians. But a rising middle class ushered in demand for purebreds
-- the Victorian dog fancy -- and an industry of breeding to meet that demand.
All of the Labradors in the world came from a small group of families in the British aristocracy.
There’s actually a leather-bound stud book kept in a safe in Scotland that traces the
exact origins of the Labrador. It details the quest to influence the length of the Labrador’s
muzzle, the spacing of its ears and the size of its eyes -- like a hereditary recipe book
to generate the perfect Lab, with morbid side notes of breeding failures like, “Put down
- useless.”
The oldest English book on dog varieties, Of Englishe Dogges published in 1576, lists
16 different types. Today, there are 340 unique breeds recognized by the FCI.
But why dogs? Yes, they’ve helped humans hunt since before recorded time by tracking
and retrieving game and guarding mankind with their superior sense of smell, speed and hearing.
Yes, they have expressive faces and complex vocalizations that aid in our ability to understand
and communicate with them. But it may be a fundamentally human quality that solidifies
our relationship dogs.
Dr. Juliane Kaminsky describes pointing as a triadic communication. There’s a sender,
a receiver and a shared concern. It’s commonly used in language development in infants - the
baby points at an apple - the parent tells them it’s an apple - the baby learns apple.
Michael Tomasello believes this act is a basic building block of language called “shared
intentionality” -- and it isn’t universal in the animal kingdom. Despite having fingers
and high-level cognition, chimps and gorillas don’t understand pointing. Because they
don’t believe anyone would help them.
One of an infant’s most basic instincts is a willingness to trust its parents and
accept their help. In 4th century BC, Plato argued that love forms the bonds of human
society. By the 20th Century, British psychologist John Bowlby posited that infants’ social
and emotional development rested on their relationships with caregivers -- and that
a willingness to form social bonds helped infants secure their own survival, satisfying
the foundational elements in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. There’s a reason why solitary
confinement and exile are amongst the greatest punishments for those who break the social
contract - often considered punishments greater than death.
Attachment theory lays the groundwork for the benefits of cooperation and social exchange.
Instructed in Aesop’s Fables in 6th century BC -- The Lion and The Mouse -- in which a
mouse convinces a lion to spare his life and to trust that someday he can help him.
Science is just now catching up with Aesop.
Oxytocin is a hormone that plays a role in social bonding - it’s produced in mammals
when they care about someone and has influences on trust, empathy and attachment. It's released
when humans engage in positive interactions with one another. Humans and pets release
oxytocin when petting, playing or simply gazing. Oxytocin was first discovered for its role
in regulating childbirth and breastfeeding - the facilitation and nurturing of life itself.
Studying communication and relationships between animals is teaching us about ourselves.
Alex the African Grey parrot spent thirty years being studied by animal psychologist
Irene Pepperberg. Alex proved that a large primate brain is not a prerequisite for complex
problem solving and language. Alex could recognize quantities up to six, identify 50 different
objects and had a vocabulary of over 100 words. At age 31, almost 30 years short of the average
life expectancy for a parrot - Alex suddenly passed away. His final words to Pepperberg
were the same he spoke to her every night. “You be good, see you tomorrow. I love you.”
Alex gained celebrity status because he expanded our understanding of animal cognition. But
he also exposed our desire to believe that devoid of the judgments, pressures and complications
of human existence, pets love you for you.
The Open: Man And Animal describes philosopher Georg Hegel’s concept of human as only existing
in the transcendence and transformation of its own animality. By separating ourselves
from nature - we express what makes us uniquely human.
But it’s not easy to figure out what that is. Our ever-changing relationships with animals
affect our understanding of what they are, but also what we are. In 1947, Psychoanalyst
Erich Fromm wrote, "Man is the only animal for whom his own existence is a problem which
he has to solve."
By reconnecting us with nature, pets help us navigate our existence.
Which means scrolling for cat memes is actually a very serious existential activity.
And as always - thanks for watching.
The Lion and the Mouse.
A Lion lay asleep in the forest, his great head resting on his paws. A timid little Mouse
came upon him unexpectedly, and in her fright and haste to get away, ran across the Lion's
nose. Roused from his nap, the Lion laid his huge paw angrily on the tiny creature to kill
her. "Spare me!" begged the poor Mouse. "Please
let me go and some day I will surely repay you."
The Lion was much amused to think that a Mouse could ever help him. But he was generous and
finally let the Mouse go. Some days later, while stalking his prey in
the forest, the Lion was caught in the toils of a hunter's net. Unable to free himself,
he filled the forest with his angry roaring. The Mouse knew the voice and quickly found
the Lion struggling in the net. Running to one of the great ropes that bound him, she
gnawed it until it parted, and soon the Lion was free.
"You laughed when I said I would repay you," said the Mouse. "Now you see that even a Mouse
can help a Lion." A kindness is never wasted.
That sounds true but is it? Yes. I hope that’s true. The world’s a sad place I hope that’s
true. But a kindness is never wasted. Even if. Never. It seems to be. Never. You can
still know that. Never. Well I agree with that. Never. Never. Never.
Special thanks to my friends at the BBC for providing incredible footage of dogs, cats
and wolves. Check out their channels for more. More videos and stuff. Okay. Thanks.