Revaluing Community

A few of us began to ask the questions “What does community look like when we’re all equal and respected members working together in self-reliance and dignity?  How can we build communities from the foundations of what exists now to be inherently whole and just?” We looked to public housing as a beginning. The big thing that motivates everyone is access to healthy food and food security.  The efforts around local food production here have been two-fold. From electing a food policy council member to the city council to launching an edible landscape movement, the city is underway to creating a (not so) new culture around food production. Even the public housing communities are part of this movement, though they don’t have nearly the same access to resources or training to sustain their gardens. The white leaders learn this and are initially excited to do something about it, but when they receive funding through their respective nonprofits to address the marginalization, something manages to go not quite as planned and the people are left figuring out what to do on their own save a few independent white allies, meanwhile they continue to experience sabotage and non-cooperation from the Housing Authority for their efforts.

But all in all, everyone is excited about local foods. And they are all pushing in the same direction–for farms to depend just as much on animals as they always have. In this urban local foods culture, chickens and rabbits and goats are the popular ones and a breeding industry has erected here in response to that demand. (One of the public housing communities hasn’t been able to acquire any animals yet because they don’t have the access or the resources.) When it comes to community-building, self-determination, and wholeness, once again, animals aren’t included in that picture except as objects to exploit, and people of color are barely included, but trying as always to be equal in participation with white communities who seem to have the resources, the space, and are determining the direction of the vision and the vision itself.

Afro-Animal: Our Shared Struggle

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African Americans, animal rights, black community, social justice

In 1906, black man went on a killing spree in Asheville, NC, killing six humans, some black, some white.  The city issued a two-day manhunt to find him.  When they finally found him, rather than put him to trial, the police lynched him on the spot.  He has since become an object of paranormal urban legend, with any memory of his race forgotten, save within the black community.

His name was William Harris.

Trans-species Living: An Interview with Gay Bradshaw

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animal consciousness, animal emotions, animal liberation, animality, community, consciousness, human-animal relationships, mutual reciprocity, mutuality, trans-species, trans-species psychology

What is trans-species psychology and how did you get involved in starting this new field?

Trans-species psychology describes a common model of brain, mind, and behavior for all animals, human inclusive. It draws from research in three main fields: neuroscience, ethology, and psychology. Why “trans” and why “psychology”?

The Quest for Zoopolis

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ecological design, human-animal relationships, intentional community, trans-species, urban wildlife, zoopolis

From harmonyfl.com

“Zoopolis” was coined by Jennifer Wolch, former professor of Geography at the University of Southern California and current dean at UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design.  She described it as a “renaturalized, re-enchanted city” that would “allow for the emergence of an ethic, practice, and politics of caring for animals and nature” by “[inviting] the animals back in.”

Encounters with Animal Minds: Lessons in Interspecies Relationships and Intersubjectivity (Part II)

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animal behavior, Barbara Smuts, consciousness, human-animal relationships, interspecies communication, interspecies relationships, intersubjectivity, mutuality

In part one, I touched on the tremendous insight into animality in Barbara Smuts’ article “Encounters with Animal Minds.”  However, the main themes of her narrative revolved around interspecies relationships and the concept of intersubjectivity.  Using personal narratives to describe her research experience with a baboon tribe in Africa and her intimate experience with dog companion Safi, she creates a theory of interspecies relationships based on direct experience.  Despite her focus on direct experience and phenomenological insight, she doesn’t stray too far from her scientific roots.  She concludes the paper with seven concrete stages she discovered in building interspecies relationships.

Encounters with Animal Minds: Lessons in Animality (Part 1)

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animal bonds, animal consciousness, animal minds, animality, Barbara Smuts, consciousness, human-animal bond, human-animal relationships, interspecies communication, intersubjectivity, self/other

Barbara Smuts and Safi

I just recently read an article by Barbara Smuts, published in the Journal of Consciousness Studies.  Unlike many articles I come across with the phrase “animal minds” in the title, this article was far from being a pretentious imposition of human privilege on nonhuman animal experience.  In fact, I would go so far as to say this article was amazing and profound and greatly contributes to an emergent body of knowledge in western thought surrounding the animal condition and reconceptualizing interspecies animal relationships.

The detailed narrative of her experiences working with baboons and chimpanzees and her intimate relationship with her dog companion Safi are wonderful explorations into animality,  intersubjectivity, and animal bonds.  The intimacy developed in her experiences confirmed that she “did indeed belong to this planet.”  In this post, I will focus primarily on her work surrounding animality.

The Multiple Degrees of Human Sociality

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community, Daniel Quinn, hermit, human sociality, Ishmael, social behavior, social change, solitude

Yesterday my dear friend (and co-editor of Emergent Thought Magazine) and I were discussing Daniel Quinn’s Ishmael and the book’s lessons for social change and the human animal condition.  I mentioned how the book seems to be a bible for primitive anarchism and re-wilding initiatives.  But my friend concluded that the book is much more than that.  The work forces us to explore the multiple degrees of human sociality and how economic and social diversity (as well as cultural diversity) is necessary for humans to have a stable ecological existence.

Violence against animals in the black community

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African Americans, animal abuse, animal cruelty, animals as property, black folks, black violence, dog abuse, ethnic animal relations, pit bulls, Susie's Law, violence

Back in November 2009, a young black man was arrested in North Carolina for “maliciously” torturing a dog named Susie.  As a result, the state responded to this “animal cruelty” by making the current law “tougher.” That means, rather than receive probation for torturing and killing a dog or cat, you can receive up to ten months in jail, which from an animal welfare standpoint is a vast improvement.   The North Carolina house bill (otherwise known as Susie’s Law) is named after the puppy who was tortured almost to death.  The torturer, named LaShawn Whitehead of Greensboro, burned and beat her to near death.  Fortunately, she managed to survive but lost her ears in the process and suffers from psychological trauma.  Rather than receive jail time (like he certainly would for attempted murder if Susie was a human), he initially received probation until the new law was passed.  Now he’s another black man in jail.  This is because he pleaded guilty to “burning personal property and felony animal cruelty.”  Apparently, he was worried that the puppy would “jump on his newborn.”

How Animals Talk: A Review

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adaptibility, animal communication, animal consciousness, animal emotions, animal stories, animal telepathy, chumfo, cognitive ethology, instinct, intuition, narrative, natural telepathy, nature writing, phenomenology, sensibility, sensory experience, sensory perception, sensualization, sentimentality, silent communication, super-sense

When I first picked up the book How Animals Talk written by William Long, I felt hesitant from his language, typical of the late 19th century.  He was truly an intellectual figure of the times: male, white, economically privileged.  And he used words like “civilized Man” and “savage” and “beast” and “negro.”  Not to mention, he was a sport hunter (though after reading, I later learned that he was of the sympathetic type, in juxtaposition to President Teddy Roosevelt, an avid trophy hunter and conservationist).  At the time, I couldn’t handle this worldview and had to put the book down for a couple of years until I was mature enough to read it through his lens and maintain open critique to this vastly different worldview from my own.

The foreword and preface, written by two revolutionary and radically different scientists/philosophers (Rupert Sheldrake and Marc Bekoff, respectively), introduce the work as a piece that provides great insight into animal psychic abilities and animal emotions.  However, neither the foreword nor the preface give any indication to the actual theses and details of the book.

Cultivating Wild Bonds in Childhood

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animal bond, animal experience, children and wildlife, endangered species, nature experience, nature reserves, online zoo, urban parks, urban wildlife, wildlife appreciation, wildlife documentaries, wildlife education, wildlife refuges, zoo, zoo industrial complex, zoological gaze

In an effort trying to preserve the imperialist zoological gaze, BBC opened an “online zoo” in September 2009.  I actually found out about this via PETA’s blog, where the author described it as “the zoo of the future.”  The “zoo”

The endangered Litoria Sauroni amphibian found by BBC wildlife team inside the extinct Mount Bosavi volcano in Papua New Guinea. Photograph: Ulla Lohmann/BBC

is actually an online video gallery of animals from all over the world, all animals belonging to groups who are endangered of extinction.  It’s unfortunate that both PETA and BBC use the term “zoo” to describe this project, thereby retaining the notion of zoo in society as acceptable.  I just wish radical positive change in our relationship with other animals would actually happen.  An idealist wish, yes, but not impossible.