It takes serious reflexive analysis on the part of a human to rearrange the natural order (with humans at the top) and animals and "non-animal" humans as equivalents. The poster presentations on invasive species and animal testing both examined the ways humans view their (biblical) power over the beasts and their responsibility to exert, or not, exert it.
The invasive species presentation showed the "state of fear" that accompanies the apparently out-of-place species and perhaps a human responsibility to return nature to its "natural" state. Maybe I missed this in the plenary discussion or the presentation, but I would have liked to have heard a little more about the "killer bee" scare. These killer bees were also known as "Africanized bees", although they did not come from Africa, and spoke volumes about the inherent volatility often attributed all things/people African by scientific authorities and popular media. Analysis of the characterization and perceived origin of other invasive species would further nuance the way some humans see themselves as rulers of all the beasts, which may in fact include other humans. On the other hand, the presentation sobre Animal Testing further placed humans at the top of the chain, this time responsible for protecting them, rather than keeping nature's order.
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Way back in the day the voice of man, raised in reason, met with the roar of the lion and the bellow of the bull. Man went to war with these creatures and after many generations, won the war definitively. We claim ourselves victorious even so many generations later. You point out that our power over animals is about protecting them and harming them. We harm what we think needs to be, and protect what we think should be protected. The invasive species come when we dont' know the difference. You are right to pick up on the fact that people are invasive species too -- in fact the biggest pandemic of all.
ReplyDelete(p.s., the Africanized killer bee does come from Africa. It is a species of honey bee that is extremely aggressive. Scientists brought them over to Brazil where they did tests with them...they escaped to North America from there)
Another link between these two topics is the creation of distinct breeds of testing animals, and what happens when they escape from the lab. (Remember the animated film 'The Secret of NIHM'?) Many of these animals have been bred to have certain characteristics. Is this a problem? This question is explored in this video series: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSZDRIf1vYs&feature=related
ReplyDeletecheck it out.
Yes but the important thing to note that it is not called the African killer bee. It is called the "Africanized" killer bee. An important semantic distinction. In the book "Film, Folklore, and Urban Legends" by Mikel Koven, he briefly discusses all the scary things about these bees...they aren't the "gentle, european" variety, they are "genetically African", AND they are unwelcome immigrants so to speak from Latin America. All super scary things. This is not to say that it isn't more aggressive, or have more defensive tendencies than the purely european varieties, but it would make a neat poster project.
ReplyDeleteword, elizabeth! i looked up those Africanized killer bees, and I was kind of thinking along the same lines. the word choices are very interesting.
ReplyDelete