The Tiger and The Rabbit

Happy Lunar New Year!

The Year of the Tiger has begun! My year.

And you know, I've always said that of the Chinese years one could be born in the Tiger was always the cool one. Besides being able to claim some ambiguity as to whether I'm part of Gen-X or a Millenial having been born in 1974, I've always thought claiming to be a Tiger was a bit cool. Even though I don't believe in astrology-nor the "generation game" for that matter. My brother who arrived a year later was born in the Year of The Rabbit. (One contest I could always win during 30 plus years of sibling rivalry was who got the cooler Chinese sign!)

But it got me thinking. We consider tigers to be cooler than rabbits because tigers are carnivores and because they are graceful. Rabbits are seen as tricksters in part because they are prey animals.

Of course, humans seem to aspire to be like the "cooler" animals, who we usually see as carnivores. Prey animals are less admired. Farm animals are of course, at the bottom of the barrel.

It's been suggested that this is because we evolved as carnivores and mighty hunters. But I have my doubts. And so do many physical anthropologists. Although humans may lament the idea that our ancestors were hunters because that supposedly led to a number of bad things such war and murder, the alternatives may be a little bit too unsettling. Indeed aren't so many of our horror movies, legends, fairy tales, sea monsters, thrillers about real animals and even certain science fiction epics are filled with various creatures who would love to eat us. Even movies about nuclear war such as terminator, are more often filled with the idea that robots would go after humans like predators after the kill, than with grim realities like radiation poisoning or starvation.

Echos from our evolutionary past? It's a speculation to be sure. But it's much less fantastic than speculations indulged in by Evolutionary Psychologists, on a weekly basis.

And if we can no longer attribute war to any idea that our ancestors were viscous carnivores, than we might have to start with the idea that our ancestors were prey animals as Barbara Ehrenreich did in her overlooked work "Blood Rites".

Perhaps that is why one of the most affecting social metaphors of the war ridden and violent 20th century involved not tigers, or wolves, or bears, but rabbits. The book "Watership Down", is much closer to the truth about how rabbits, the ultimate prey animals, behave than our ideas about cute cuddly little bunnies. Rabbits not only are potentially very aggressive animals, but are known for being very status conscience and sensitive to insults.

And if I may indulge in just a fraction of the wild speculations that Sociobiologists get away with as long as they are dead set on proving women to be evolutionarily unfit for politics, jobs, or even the vote, I look back to the early days after 9/11 and the behavior of those who were so quick to demand war. And not necessarily war against those who actually attacked the WTC and Pentagon, but any good target would do. Bush may have lied and the media may not have presented the facts fairly. But many Americans wanted revenge. They ultimately believed what they wanted to believe.

When I looked at the people who were so intent on revenge, and so willing to believe anything they needed to believe so they could justify it. When I look back on those who would put yellow stickers on their SUVs, I did not see the behavior of calm, calculating, cool carnivores like tigers. I saw a lot of people who were acting like a bunch of scared bunny rabbits.

Say Goodnight Readers!