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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Daniel Schuh who wrote (75222)	2/26/2000 3:18:00 PM
From: jbe	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

Although the idea that dogs may have adopted (or "tamed") humans rather than the other way around is an intriguing idea, what we were all reacting to (I think) was the smug (and dated!) anti-anthropomorphicism of passages like this: We are, as the animal behaviorist John S. Kennedy called us, "compulsive" anthropomorphizers -- always on the lookout for behaviors that mimic, even superficially, human social phenomena such as loyalty, betrayal, reciprocity.... Our cognitive ability to ascribe motives to others is a large part of what makes us human. But it truly is compulsive...We are primed to seize on what are, in truth, fundamental, programmed behaviors in dogs and read into them extravagant tales of love and fidelity...Blah, blah, blah, blah, yada-yada-yada-yada.... As for coevolution, it makes sense. And it does not require a belief that dogs are capable only of "programmed behaviors." Joan