Hey, Romulus and Remus were raised by wolves. On 4/22/10, CeJ <jann...@gmail.com> wrote: > Name highly intelligent social species that organize as groups and > cooperate to protect three successive generations in extended families > and clans (one key aspect being nurturing fathers in addition to > nurturing mothers). Humans and wolves come to mind. But isn't even > more fascinating that these two species should be so intimately > involved with each other since the start of 'human civilization'? > > The wolf becomes the enemy of humans once humans are with wolf-dogs. > The wolf represents a social top-of-the-food chain cooperative hunter > who is still in the niche we have aimed to monopolize for ourselves > (throwing the scraps to our wolf-dogs) but stands off and away from > human civilization. > > Regardless of chromosomes and theories of co-evolution, it's hard to > argue against the profundity of human-animal social cooperation in the > case of these species: wolf-dogs (we become transgenerational hunters, > manipulators and masters of huge herds of herbivores), the 'house' cat > (we can store huge amounts of grain, at least in dry climates like > Egypt, Mesopotamia), and the horse (look how quickly the Mongols and > the Lakota Sioux organized themselves once they had the horses). How > can you care what your ancestors knew and wanted to pass on to you if > you don't give a toss about your own grandparents? Wolves and humans > do. > > In areas of Central Asia, there is still this stand-off between humans > and wolves. Wolf packs know not to prey on the humans' herds (managed > with wolf-dogs). Central Asians do not attempt to hunt down wolves in > order to eliminate them from their herding/grazing territory. The only > wolf that preys on humans' herds is the occasional 'lone wolf' that > can not join a pack or form a new one with a mate. This lone wolf will > be hunted down and killed. One method is to use trained eagles who > literally trail the lone wolf from the air until it is exhausted and > then they kill it. I wonder if this is one of the reasons why the > eagle became such a revered animal among North American tribes (I > don't know enough about animal husbandry amongst these peoples, but > the Incans were great domesticators of herbivores). > > > I am also thinking that the ancients had hunches about social > human-wolf origins. > See: > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feral_children_in_mythology_and_fiction > > In mythology and ancient literature > > Enkidu, raised by unspecified beasts, becomes the friend of the hero > Gilgamesh. (see also Epic of Gilgamesh) > > The brothers Romulus and Remus, raised by a wolf, become the founders of Rome. > > In Turkic mythology, the female wolf Asena finds an injured child > following a devastating battle and nurses him back to health. He > subsequently impregnates her, and she gives birth to ten half-wolf, > half-human boys. Of these, Ashina becomes their leader and founder of > the clan that ruled the Göktürks and other Turkic nomadic > empires.[2][3] The legend has parallels with folktales of other Turkic > peoples, for instance, the Uyghurs. > > In Ibn Tufail's Hayy ibn Yaqdhan, Hayy is raised by a gazelle on a > desert island and becomes an autodidactic philosopher. > > In Ibn al-Nafis' Theologus Autodidactus, Kamil is also raised by > animals on a deserted island, and becomes an autodidactic scientist > and theologian. > [edit] In modern prose > > An early modern example of a feral child comes from Rudyard Kipling's > The Jungle Book. His protagonist, Mowgli, is raised by wolves and > becomes the ruler of the jungle. > > Tarzan, raised by apes, has become an iconic hero of novels, comic > strips, and motion pictures. > > Peter Pan, created by J. M. Barrie, is a boy who fled to the magical > Neverland and refused to grow up. > > Shasta of the Wolves (1919) by Olaf Baker, in which a Native American > boy is raised by a wolfpack in the Pacific Northwest. > > Jungle Born (1924) by John Eyton, in which a boy raised by apes in > northern India inadvertently saves a teenage girl from her abusive > father. > > The theme of young adolescent runaways seeking shelter with wild > animals and learning their ways is seen in novels such as the Newbery > Medal-winning novel Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George. > > Jane Yolen's Passager (1996), the first of the Young Merlin trilogy of > short novels, depicts a slightly more realistic view of such > childhood. Abandoned in a Welsh forest at the age of seven years, the > boy who will become Merlin lives in the forest for a year nearly as > well as its natives, until a falconer who is used to domesticating > animals captures him and begins the long and difficult task of > educating him in human behavior. > > In Karen Hesse's The Music of Dolphins, a young girl called Mila is > found after having been raised by dolphins for over a decade. In the > book, Mila is taken to a clinic with other undomesticated human young, > none of whom adapt to main-stream humanity as easily as she does. At > the end of the book, Mila returns to the dolphin pod, showing her > rejection of human society. > > In the series starting with Through Wolf's Eyes by author Jane > Lindskold, a young girl's family and colony are killed by a fire, and > she is the only survivor. She is then taken in by the "Royal Wolves" > who speak their own language with gestures and signals. Because > Firekeeper had already learned a human language before going to live > with the wolves, she was able to return to human society and became a > valuable asset to the royalty, but she found that humans were not as > noble as the wolves she loved as family. It is her greatest wish to > become a wolf herself and leave the humans behind again. > > In Robert A. Heinlein's novel Stranger in a Strange Land, Valentine > Michael Smith is a human raised by Martians on Mars, as he returns to > Earth in early adulthood. The novel explores his interaction with — > and eventual transformation of — human culture. > > In Boris and Arkady Strugatsky's novel The Little One (also known as > Space Mowgly), a human from Earth, Piere Semyonov, has been raised by > an alien non-humanoid civilization after his parents' spaceship > crashed onto an uncharted planet. After his discovery by the Terran > scientists, several attempts to integrate him back to human society > were undertaken, but all were in vain. > > Ursula K. Le Guin's Hugo-winning short story "The Ones Who Walk Away > From Omelas" tells of the title community, a beautiful, happy and > prosperous city that nevertheless exists only as long as, somewhere > within, a child is kept in conditions of appalling physical and > psychological neglect. > > World War Z by Max Brooks contain many references to feral children - > in this case, children who were separated from normal humanity at some > point during the zombie war, and were forced to live in the wild, > contending not just with the problems of survival but also the hazard > posed by the walking dead. The novel suggests they formed a kind of > rudimentary social or "pack" structure with basic tool-using > abilities, and in most cases were capable of being slowly > rehabilitated. > > In the 2006 book Dogboy by Victor Kelleher, a young boy is abandoned > at birth by his mother and is raised by a half domestic dog in a > litter of puppies. He is later bought back to a nearby human > settlement by the dog, searching for a home with her owner once again, > and her only surviving pup but is rejected as an abomination. > > _______________________________________________ > Marxism-Thaxis mailing list > Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu > To change your options or unsubscribe go to: > http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis >
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