Ethnocategories, Social Intercourse, Fear and Redemption Comment on Laurent

Eric S. Greene
Miami Beach, Florida

Laurent's article on the Japanese ethnocategory " mushi " ( S&A , 3 ,1) presents an intriguing study on the value of social constructions in general, as well as the possibilities for cross­cultural studies. In thinking about ethnocategories, I reviewed the past four issues of S&A in order to garner ideas about the categorization of beings and the authors' insights, interpretations, and intellectual struggles with the universal process of setting cultural boundaries.

Mushi , U.S.A.

Most of the articles published in S&A have dealt with social constructions within a Western context; Laurent's article explores mushi in contemporary rural Japanese society. While readers might see immediate differences between the conceptualizations of mushi , and attitudes towards some mushi ­like animals within Western culture (such as butterflies, which are venerated in the West), there are also striking similarities. Of the four groups of meanings attributed to mushi , the second and third ­ which relate to illnesses of the stomach or nervousness, and to hidden or unconscious feelings ­ are also indicative of the way Westerners view insects and other mushi ­like beings. These views are exemplified by such expressions as: "I've got butterflies in my stomach," "that advertisement gives me the creeps," "stop bugging me," and "he's got ants in his pants." The fourth group of meaning refers to a passionate fondness for something, or is intended to "denigrate someone's habits." For example, we have "bookworms," "spelling bees" and "quilting bees," and they "loused things up, again."

Laurent explains the Japanese' perception of mushi according to gender: boys play with mushi , and grow up to be men whose employ may involve them. Similarly, in the West, "what are little boys made of? Snips and snails, and puppy dogs' tails..." A girl with such qualities would drift from her traditional gender category into that of "tomboy."

At the outset, many who are introduced to concepts and structures from other cultures consider the entire presentation as "exotic." Likewise, one of the criticisms that many of the authors make about approaching the study of other animals is that animals are also seen primarily as "exotic," "other" and "unlike us." Those who attempt to explore and detail possible commonalities are criticized for anthropomorphising and blatant emotionalism. However, when approaching other (human) cultures, the discussion of possible commonalities is raised to the level of a conflict between cultural relativism and universality (here, the intellectual framework is that we are all human). Rarely is the basis for discussion: we are all animals.

Ethnocategories in Everyday Life

Relevant to this discussion is an analysis of how ethnocategories work. Mushi may seem unique in that it is not fixed, but exists in degrees as a relative descriptive, what Laurent calls a "contingent category" which "expresses itself differently according to the context." It is this ambiguity which challenges the Western view of ethnocategories and their study.

Categories are linguistic constructs which enable a culture to give some order to its universe, organize collective perceptions, and bear out relationships between beings and phenomena. In some cultures, such as in the West, categories are generally quite rigidly drawn, and their boundaries are often treated as impenetrable. For example, from my own experiences of growing up and living in the U.S., I have witnessed a discrete dichotomization of humans and other animals (other animals ranked according to their "likeness" to us) which has persisted before the Great Chain of Being. The secularized and virtually negligible category has become a spiritual sphere (the soul). Humanity is further segregated into spheres of class, race, ethnicity, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, size, and age.

There is, however, great variety within a single ethnocategory. Essentially, there are three divisions of a life ethnocategory (the category of a living thing): folkloric, scientific, and legal (Dahles,1993). It is common for a being to be considered differently in each of the three types, since each subset has its own criteria. For example, as Dahles describes, some animals may be considered "game" rather than "wildlife" within a folkloric category. Legally, they would only constitute "game" during hunting season, and then would be divided into "big game," "small game," "waterfowl," etc. Scientifically, they would be classified according to species and ecological niche. The same may be said for dogs used for research: while scientifically of the same species as "pets," their legal and folkloric descriptions differ.

Nevertheless, there are reasons why there is such severe rigidity of boundaries; their function is understood when one examines who constructed those boundaries. Boundaries are rigid in order to preserve a sense of control when people are insecure about some aspect of their collective power. In such cases, for any categorical subset of a culture (e.g., species, race, ethnicity) there will be a primary standard, and all other categories within that subset will be considered deviant and distanced from that standard. Thus hierarchies are established by those who have the power, who include themselves within the categories of primary standards. In order to maintain control, they define the categories and therefore, the fundamental ideas, setting themselves apart and above others; thus, the historical domination of other species continues.

Control is achieved by imbuing each category with expectations and social rules which, at times, may simply be impossible for individuals to fulfill. Thus, categorizations are social fabrications of ideals/archetypes, through which actual beings become typecast. For example, Quinn (1993) illustrates how idealized cattle were represented in paintings and drawings. Noted cattle breeders of the day sought the "improvement" of their livestock: "The adoption of their standards of perfection was, at least in part, mediated through visual representation in the form of paintings and prints" (1993, p. 153). One painter, Ross Butler, "quickly became established as the Canadian authority on what was called the True Type, Ideal Type or Standard of Perfection" (1993, p. 154). Quinn (p. 155) concludes:

The standards, however, are a moving target that change often to reflect the ideals (fashions) of the day. They are the physical embodiment of our ideals, our creations of "improved" nature. They are simplified cultural artifacts that have come to replace the complexity and diversity of the natural world.

Veterinarians in a veterinary hospital in the northeast U.S. "routinely categorize" their patients in order to establish greater control over them, and to provide power to the caregiver (Sanders, 1994). Certain categories enable the veterinarians to make allowances for their own behaviors (e.g., "shaming, exclusion, or physical coercion") in order to support their need for control in medical situations. "Rule­breaking injects stress and unpredictability into interactions. Identified rule­breakers are the focus of control maneuvers because they are seen as annoying, dangerous, dirty, immoral, or otherwise troublesome." This pattern of categorization can also be seen in other situations (e.g., hunting, vivisection) which, from the perspective of those being controlled, could indicate oppression.

Metaphorical Categories

Ethnocategories themselves become indicators of particular qualities, and may be used as adjectives to describe rule­breakers of another species/category, or those who don't meet primary standards. Edmund Leach's (1964, p. 28) seminal work explores why animal terms/categories have such potency when used as an obscenity (bitch, pig, ass), which he calls "animal abuse­­in which a human being is equated with an animal of another species." He continues, "animal abuse is in some way linked with...the ritual value of the animal category concerned." (p. 30).

Through such associations, animals become representational categories; metaphorical realizations of other beings or their qualities. Beirne (1994, p. 28), commenting on The Great Cat Massacre, states that a small group of male printer's apprentices took revenge on the master and Madame by killing their cats: "it was to defile Madame's body, even to rape her, which to the apprentices was an act of justice, and thus worthy of joyous celebration." In such cases, we do not see a fluidity between categories, but a blurring of boundaries vis­a­vis transference by association.

Dahles (1993) demonstrates how the association of hunters with "game" animals provides a basis by which the game category reflects qualities aspired to by hunters. The classification "game" cuts across boundaries of "wild" and "tame," in that while the animals are free­roaming outside of human encampments, they are protected and "managed" by humans. "It is no coincidence that the characteristics which are highly valued ­ aggression, courage, vigor, strength ­ are associated with manliness in our society.

Hunters, mostly men, measure their strength or cunningness by comparing themselves to their animal competitors" (p. 180). Thus, the animals are perceived less as animals and more as the incarnations of the valued personal qualities which some men want to see reflected in the natural world (nature being the resource of original qualities).

Similarly, in his article on cockfighting, Hawley (1994, p.164) states that the cock served as a totem for "bravery and resistance in the face of insurmountable odds," and that the cock and cocker were linked, taking on attributes of each other, yet maintaining a separateness. "Rather than anthropomorphizing attributes of the gamecock, human beings and their petty limitations pale by comparison to the much­beloved bird."

Finally, the way people respond to animal categories may signify something about the categories of the respondents. Laurent (1995) reveals how mushi is a demarcation of gender. Whereas boys and men are encouraged to participate in the world of nature, where mushi is:

"clearly related to the world of men...There is also a tendency in Japanese society, even in the countryside, to consider fearness of mushi for a girl as sweet, pretty, lovely, or delicate. Sometimes women refused to answer my questions about mushi , saying "I'm a woman; I can't understand that type of thing."

Laurent's article reflects typical Western patriarchal storytelling in which women do not confront nature, for they are perceived to be part of it. Men brave the wilderness which, with its animal totems, is perceived as threatening, and induces fear. Men must protect those in their charge: women, children and homestead. Men conquer and subdue nature, taming or killing the animals.

Rigidity versus Fluidity

Whenever boundaries are relaxed in Western cultures, it is accompanied by great controversy, for it is the act of trespassing boundaries that marks taboos. Romantic relations between people of different religions, races, and class have been considered taboo. A love relationship that transcends that of "master­pet" to companions or family had been taboo (especially between men and animals) until recently when the media gave tremendous publicity to accounts of the "human­animal bond." Along the lines of gender, boys who exhibited "feminine" qualities were considered "sissies," and girls who were interested in "boy things" were condemned as "tomboys;" both were considered deviant, and their interests were thought to be possible indicators of a developing homosexuality (which many still think of as taboo). However, perhaps nowhere is there greater unleashed power than where human and animal categories intersect.

Crist (1994) reports on the continuity between humans and animals, an idea which still eludes many social scientists. The dichotomy between these groups remains firmly in place, where humans are associated with all things cultural, and animals are associated with the often frightening and unpredictable forces of nature. Within human society, animals are the disenfranchised and marginalized class, as are those people who have been compared to them. Moreover, animals' lives and flesh have been utilized by Western and other cultures, and that utilization is a crucial part of cultural life, economic vitality, and political policy. As Shapiro (1994, p. 152) implies, we are not taught to see the members of animal categories as individuals, but as representatives of classes of objects, a perspective which precludes empathy: "They are objects, members of an abstract aggregate (the deer population), commodities for our consumption (meat or fur), or instruments for our learning (organism or laboratory preparation)." Lawrence (1994) echoes this sentiment in her comments on best selling author, Gary Zukav, whom she refers to as a "latter­day Descartes." Zukav avers that animals are differentiated from humans in that humans have individual souls, while animals have group souls: "Each horse is a part of the group soul of horse, each cat is part of the group soul of cat, and so on" (Lawrence 1994, p. 181).

Various authors challenge the foundational presumptions that form the pillar of the human/animal dichotomy. Their challenges are well­reasoned, yet inspire fear in some because these arguments deconstruct the Western notions of human culture and human beings.

If research were premised upon continuity between animal species, including humans, then empathy would indeed be a valid tool in better understanding animal ethnocategories. Yet empathy confronts the posture of objectivity which maintains the distance between researcher and subject. While this posture has been eased by social scientists studying other human beings and groups (e.g., participant­observer, ethnomethodology, phenomenological psychology) it remains de rigueur when studying other species due not to academic discipline so much as to cultural biases of the person conducting the research.

We currently are in a period of tug­of­war between traditional patriarchal ideas of life ethnocategories and an emerging ecofeminist critique. The contest has been represented in many ways: fluidity vs. rigidity, empathy vs. distance, love vs. power (vis­a­vis domination), and gender dischordance.

But even empathy has its limitations when the empathizer is limited by cultural biases. It's easier to empathize with the dog than with the flea. Lawrence (1994, p.182) references a study by Stephen Kellert which asserts that invertebrate animals are "not only valued far less in our society than vertebrates, but are viewed by the general public with aversion, dislike, or fear." Reason must accompany empathy, and overcome fear.

When boundaries intersect, many fear that the "primary" category may be influenced, changed, corrupted, or co­opted by the "other" category. It is believed that if this occurs, there would be a loss of control, which produces anxiety and fear in those who are aligned with the "primary" category. But unions of any type can generate fear. It is not only a fear of the unknown, but of becoming lost in it.

An analogy (one that has been experienced by many) is the fear of a deep and real romantic love. For some people, the idea of such love is simple and sweet, "when two souls that are destined to be together find each other, their streams of light flow together and a single brighter light goes forth from their united being" (Baal Shem Tov). Yet for others, this idea is terrifying. They fear becoming "lost in love;" losing the independence they have striven for; having their dreams, needs, and essence compromised or obliterated by another's love for them.

Social Intercourse

Westerners tend to characterize the fluidity between ethnocategories in other cultures as being filled with the mystical, magical, and fantastic (i.e., potentially dangerous), yet to the inhabitants of those cultures, that very fluidity would be normative. In Western societies, the arena where boundaries do intermingle is in magic, myths, the supernatural, and advertisements, all of which can conjure up intense power. Throughout the history of religion, there were many minglings of animal and human categories, including the combined animal­human forms of ancient Egypt and the animal mascots of ancient Greek mythology (Sax, 1994a). In contemporary Christian lore, angels have been described as human­like spirits with the wings of birds, and God's rival, Satan, has been depicted as having fangs; tail; goat buttocks, legs and hooves; bat wings; and an appetite for human flesh.

In Sax's (1994b) historical analysis of the deadly power of "fascination" ("the evil eye") that was attributed to basilisks in Medieval Europe and rattlesnakes in the early European colonization of the U.S., he describes how the rattlesnake symbolically served to "rebel against the elaborate hierarchical order of nature." To do so meant that the snake must understand that order, and was thus anthropomorphized with a human­like intelligence. "Stories of fascination by rattlesnakes involve the blurring of boundaries between animals and humans which generally seems to accompany intense relationships between the two, whether of affection or enmity" (p. 13).

In cultures such as the Lakota (Lawrence, 1993; Greene, 1993), there was ­ in everyday life ­ considerable conceptual fluidity between ethnocategories of beings. The Sun Dance provided a vehicle for spiritual transmutation, where dancers merged with animal archetypes and sought visions from the Great White Buffalo Woman. They danced for the good life and for a successful hunt. There was also a sexual fluidity among traditional tribespeople. Winktes, who comprised a third gender category (of males who harmonized gender characteristics of men, women and those of their own design) were thought to have a special wisdom: their expression was thought to most clearly reflect Wankan Tanka (the Great Spirit) because they could mediate between men and women, humans and animals, and the spirit and the flesh. It has been postulated that the Great White Buffalo Woman was a winkte (Greene 1993).

Conclusion

Even with an intermingling/fluidity between categories, a society may yet perpetuate violence upon animals, as seen among the Lakota, cockfighters and European hunters. Hawley (1993, p. 164) writes that:

"The cockfight provides ritual, structure and purpose for the traditionally­oriented enthusiast caught in a complex, changing and dissonant world. Again like the ritual sacrifices of antiquity, the beloved bird must die, it would seem, for the sun to rise and set, and the seasons to come in their appointed order.

Sax (1994b, p. 167) tells of a "mystical" union between hunter and "game," "by which both killing and eating acquire sacramental meaning...man and deer share a single death, mingle their blood and live on as a single creature." Sax continues (p. 172), "historical and anthropological data affirm that a very high regard for animals, and even worship of them, is entirely compatible with eating meat, hunting and some forms of domestication."

Through the death of animals may come a sense of redemption. The concept of redemption through sacrifice is all too familiar to the Christian West, where redemption is believed to come from the sacrifice of God's son. While animals can be killed in societies with rigid or fluid intercourse between ethnocategories, there is a more spiritual and enveloping quality accompanying greater fluidity. But there are degrees of fluidity. Further research might bear upon patterns which appear to be evident: greater fluidity between ethnocategories exists among people whose lives are more integrated with the natural world, such as nomadic peoples (e.g., the Lakota), as opposed to more agricultural people who seek to exert greater control upon their environment (as seen in the West).

In our universal pursuit for spiritual redemption, and with the means to avoid the deaths of animals, it is possible to become reintegrated with the natural world within the scope of an ecological and animal rights perspective, whereby unions between other life categories can be forged through preservation rather than oppression. In the modernists' search for truth, ideas stumble over fences surrounding modes of classification. The postmodernists' charge helps to dismantle those fences, and it is the goal of animal studies to disarm those fears which control and inhibit free thought and the power of love.

References

Beirne, P. (1994). The law is an ass: Reading E.P. Evans' the medieval prosecution and capital punishment of animals. Society and Animals , 2 , 27­46.

Crist, E. (1994). [Review of Animal minds by Donald R. Griffin, The new anthropomorphism by J.S. Kennedy, and Humans and other animals by Barbara Noske]. Society and Animals , 2 , 77­88.

Dahles, H. (1993). Game killing and killing games: An anthropologist looking at hunting in a modern society. Society and Animals , 1, 169­184.

Greene, E. (1993). On Lawrence's "The symbolic role of animals..." Society and Animals , 1 , 39­44.

Hawley, F. (1993). The moral and conceptual universe of cockfighters: Symbolism and rationalization. Society and Animals , 1 , 159­168.

Laurent, E. (1995). Definition and cultural representation of the category mushi in Japanese culture. Society and Animals , 3 .

Lawrence, E. (1993). The symbolic role of animals in the Plains Indian sun dance. Society and Animals , 1 , 17­37.

Lawrence, E. (1994). Conflicting ideologies: Views of animal rights advocates and their opponents. Society and Animals , 2 , 175­190.

Leach, E. (1964). Anthropological aspects of language: Animal categories and verbal abuse. In E. Lenneberg (Ed.), New Directions in the Study of Language . Boston: MIT Press.

Quinn, M. (1993). Corpulent cattle and milk machines: Nature, art and the ideal type. Society and Animals , 1 , 145­157.

Sanders, C. (1994). Biting the hand that heals you: Encounters with problematic patients in a general veterinary practice. Society and Animals , 2 , 47­66.

Sax, B. (1994). The basilisk and rattlesnake, or a European monster comes to America. Society and Animals , 2 , 3­15.

Sax, B. (1994). Animals in religion. Society and Animals , 2 , 167­174.

Shapiro, K. (1994). The caring sleuth: Portrait of an animal rights activist. Society and Animals , 2 , 145­165.

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