"Animals in Translation : Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior" by Temple Grandin (Scribner ; ISBN: 0743247698) - pages 304-306.

Hi - my "horse" friend is reading the book above and came across a couple of passages which she wanted to share with me - and I in turn would like to share with you. I think it goes towards explaining why there are so many people who have an affinity with Wolves (and dogs) - especially as totem animals. Also it's got me wondering - if the wolf has had such a physical effect on the development of the human - how much influence have other animals had also? It could also go towards explaining why our abilities to communicate with these animals via meditations/dreams etc is so strong - we really are the same in many ways. I love it when "standard" science ends up backing up what "metaphysical" science has been saying for years!

Here's the passage:

"The reason the fossil record doesn't show any dogs with humans before 14,000 years ago is probably that before then people were partnered with wolves, or with wolves that were evolving into dogs. . ...This means that when wolves and people first started keeping company they were on a lot more equal footing than dogs and people are today. Basically, two diferent species with complementary skills teamed up together, something that had never happened before and has really never happened since.

"Going over the evidence, a group of Australian anthropologists believes that during all those years when early humans were associating with wolves they learned to act and think like wolves. Wolves hunted in groups: humans didn't. Wolves had complex social structures; humans didn't. Wolves had loyal same-sex and nonkin friendships; humans probably didn't, judging by the lack of samesex and nonkin friendships in every other primate species today.........By the time these early people became truly modern, they had learned to do all these wolfie things.....

"They take their line of reasoning even further. Wolves and then dogs, gave early humans a huge survival advantage, they say, by serving as lookouts and guards, and by making it possible for humans to hunt big game in groups.....

"Maybe the most useful new finding is that wolves didn't just teach us a lot of useful new behaviours. Wolves probably also changed the structure of our brains. Fossil records show that whenever a species becomes domesticated its brain gets smaller.....the dogs brain shrank 10 to 30 percent. This probably happened because once humans started to take care of these animals they no longer needed various brain functions in order to survive....

"Now archaeologiests have discovered that 10,000 years ago, just at the point when humans began to give their dogs formal burials, the human brain begain to shrink too....by 10 percent, just like a dog's brain. ....Dog's brains and humans brains specialised: humans took over the planning and organizing tasks, and dogs took over the sensory tasks. Dogs and people coevolved and became even better partners, allies and friends."

I'd love to hear your views - it's made me want to read more....

Hiya September,

Good to see ya back and posting a real interesting piece

I am going to hunt the book as I work with peeps that have Autism....

September - Welcome Back!

This is a great post, it made me want to read more too!

It actually ties in very nicely with something I've been quietly thinking about myself.

If we only use about 30% of our brains now, what was the other 70% used for?

OK us perceptive / psychic peeps may tap into a chunk of that other 70% but that still leaves say 50% that's unused!

It kinda makes you wonder whether all evolution is a good thing. If both the dog and human brains shrank becasue of the new found partnership, surely that means that both sides *lost* something, not *gained*?

Maybe when we are encouraged to learn something we should take just enough for our needs and no more, and not allow ourselves to get bogged down with stuff that is surplus to requirements.

So if, as you say, are totum animals are there to teach us somethng, we need to look at that animal and the way it lives, and try to glean something from it, be it good or bad.

It also encourages us to be more conscious of co-habiting Mother Earth with other creatures who are just doing what they do and minding their own business, like all the birds in our gardens.

Great posting September, thought provoking stuff!

Love & Light
Lioness

not tellin'

Rae x

Rae,

Go on.

You know you want too

Yeah go on Rae!

I dare ya!

Love & Light
Lioness

Looks like you are being out numbered here Rae

So you will have to spill the beans now

GB - apparently the author is autistic herself. She's written a few books - if you search on Amazon you'll see. Might be inspirational for your peeps. Certainly is for the rest of us too!

Hi there Lioness! Your comment:

"It also encourages us to be more conscious of co-habiting Mother Earth with other creatures who are just doing what they do and minding their own business, like all the birds in our gardens."

I agree. I'm used to the idea that animals change their appearance to adapt to their environment but didn't have a clue that brain sizes could change as a result of the influence of one species on another. There are grizzly bears here who are starting to rely on the food tourists give to them or leave for them when camping. The result is changes to their behaviour - they are losing their natural fear of humans because they are seeing them as providers of food. The result is aggression. What if, over time, the influence spreads to the brain to such an extent that all bears in the future have such adapted brains that they stop hunting for food and just expect it to be provided to them. That they actually lose the capacity to be able to think in that manner.

It's also made me wonder about the ancient civilizations (like Lumuria and Atlantis) - where some people believe psychic abilities were pronounced. If that is true - what happened to change this? why don't we use our brains in the same way automatically - or is that ability still there in the bits of the brain that are not needed for everday life. Within the missing 70%....

take care