The Anthropology of Conscience

Michael Tobias
Santa Monica, Califormia

In this brief essay I invite consideration of an anthropological framework of moral analysis that takes as its blueprint observations on several human cultures and their concern, or lack thereof, for non-human life forms. I will focus on three communities in India whose strict vegetarianism is predicated upon their insistence on ahimsa , the Sanskrit term for non-violence (Tobias, 1992).

Vegetarian religions and tribes are extremely rare in the world today. But in India, there are approximately eight million adamantly vegetarian Jains, nearly one million (Hindu) Bishnoi of the northwestern deserts of Rajasthan, and approximately 12 hundred Todas of the high Nilgiri mountains of Tamil Nadua state, in South India. I shall restrict my comments here to their specific perceptions of other species, and the astonishingly cohesive, community-wide compassion they bestow upon other species. This insistence upon ahimsa, or not harming other living beings, provides a methodological approach to gauging and appreciating another people's holistic attitude toward the environment and, by implication, the important variable of human conscience, however fraught with ethical relativity such moral high ground may be.

By understanding the integrity and sustained traditions of biophilia as practiced by these three separate communities in an otherwise ecologically war-torn nation, I believe we can divine important guiding metaphors for belief and action that are urgently appropriate for human beings everywhere (Montague, 1978). Moreover, it is all the more remarkable that these three groups have maintained their active empathy toward nature when all around them meat eating, and the destruction of the environment, prevail. In fact, the government of India concluded a major anthropological survey in 1993 that showed (to the country's surprise) that 88% of the nation's people were non-vegetarian (Sing, 1993).

The Jains

Jainism is one of the oldest religions in the world. By the time of its most recent sage, Mahavira (599-527 B.C.), Jain traditions had already been firmly documented for centuries, and Jain oral folklore comprises a theology extending thousands of years before Mahavira's time. Mahatma Gandhi was schooled by a Jain monk, and was to promulgate the first Jain principle of ahimsa as the core of his own philosophy in life. Gandhi consistently argued that "ahimsa limps: but it is the only way (Tobias, 1987)."

The Jains will not partake of those industries, business practices, or professions which exploit animals in any way. Clearly, they cannot eliminate entirely the violence inherent to human nature, but they have taken extraordinary care in analyzing the nature of human harm and prescribing methods by which we can minimize our adverse behavior. These "fences" take the form of vows, hundreds of vows, that pertain to every aspect of daily life (Tobias, 1995a).

Every living organism, say the Jains, is endowed with a unique, precious soul, or jiva , a life force which must be respected, even revered. All souls are interconnected ( parasparopagraho jivanam ), thus invoking an ecological sense of stewardship under the prevailing Jain doctrine of universal reciprocity. Jainism is intent upon that sense of shepherding nature. Said Mahavira, "...a wise man should not act sinfully towards earth, nor cause others to act so, nor allow others to act so..." (Jacobi, 1880).

Consistent with this Jain activist stance are its key behavioral norms: ahimsa, nonviolence; aparigraha , nonacquisition; asteya , patent respect for others' rights, property, territory, and integrity; and satya , truth (Tobias, 1995b).

The Jains have no gods. Rather, they revere 24 early sages, of whom Mahavira is the most recent. Mahavira renounced his material possessions, including his clothing, at the age of thirty. For twelve years he wandered throughout India in search of truth. At the age of 42 he was enlightened, and spent the rest of his life (thirty more years) wandering from village to village promoting nonviolence. His first sermon was known as Samavasarana (Tobias, 1994a), meaning in Prakrit, "a congregation of people and all other animals." We can read this same mytho-poetic ecology in the much later communion between St. Francis and the birds, though it is unlikely that the Medieval Italians in Assisi had ever heard of Jainism. In fact, the West apparently was not to learn of the religion until the late 18th century, with one possible exception. Alexander the Great's first biographer noted that when the general and his army reached the Indian village of Taxila, during their conquest of Asia, Alexander encountered several naked men sitting quietly in meditation who would not speak with the young general until he, too, sat down in the dust, shed his armor, and quieted his heart. It is alleged that this incident convinced Alexander to give up his conquests and return home to Greece. Given their prominence in the Indian subcontinent at that time, those naked yogis were probably Jains. To this day, some 60 Jain monks ( Digambara , meaning "sky clad") continue to wander naked throughout the country spreading the message of peace. Their nudity is a sacred institution that reflects their belief in nonpossession. In one of my first encounters with a Digambara muni (monk), he told me that he had been wandering nude most of his life and that this total freedom, this complete lack of material possessions made for the most exquisite happiness. Other Jain disciples throughout the country would provide him his one, vegetarian, meal each day (Tobias, 1993).

Most Jains are vegetarian. It is the basis of their way of life: Over seven million consumers who will not wear leather, who will not keep pets, engage in agriculture, or participate in the exploitation of animals or, to some extent, even plants (Tobias, 1991). Through a variety of ecologically sensitive professions, Jains have become wealthy - as teachers, lawyers, doctors who will not prescribe drugs derived from animals, scientists, environmental engineers, jewelers, accountants, publishers, judges, politicians, and religious leaders. As a community, they give back much of what they have earned. It has been estimated that the Jains, who account for less than one percent of India's nearly one billion people, in fact contribute as much as 50 percent of all social welfare in a country notoriously lacking in government support for basic health and human services.

Jains believe that all organisms are endowed with between one and five senses - human beings having five, a mango fruit one. Jains are only allowed to eat one-sensed beings, and in strict moderation, with frequent fasting. The Jains consume the banana, but spare the banana tree. This sensate principle is basic to Jain spiritual ecology. Mahavira expounded on the appropriate human attitude toward and treatment of other organisms. At a time when Greek biology (primarily in the hands of Aristotle) recognized about six hundred other species, Mahavira had already catalogued approximately 800,000 organisms. Such scientific acumen is astonishing. In fact, Jain literature comprises several million pages of scripture and analysis, comparable to Talmudic scholarship. It is interesting to note that original Biblical precepts ordained vegetarianism among Jews, a practice which has recently been revived by many Jewish groups in the United States. Kosher came about as a compromise measure to insure at least some additional humanitarian treatment of animals, and to provision for the sacredness of the animal's blood, its life force (Tobias, Morrison, & Gray, 1995).

Jainian ethics hinge on the belief that the liberation of the soul from ill deeds and negative thoughts requires active participation in creating the world daily and a recognition that the power of that creation is in every living being. Their community conceives of human nature as an island of conscience in a sea of tumultuous evolution. This challenge is accomplished through very specific techniques, an ecology of soul, if you will. Daily spiritual practice requires careful attention to all actions and thoughts, forgiveness, tolerance, critical self-examination, restraint, frequent fasting, 48 minutes of daily meditation ( samayika ), following a holy path that may lead to total renunciation. At the basis of these injunctions is the belief in the sacredness of all life. Today in India seven million adherents of an ancient, yet thriving, religion exercise a strict ecological consciousness in their consumption of goods, diet, professions, and charity in the midst of one of the most fiercely capitalistic countries in the world.

The Bishnoi

In 1988, about 100 ecologists marched across the drought-ridden Tar desert to examine the strange immunity to such crisis enjoyed by one of the desert communities, the Bishnoi. These Hindus have, for centuries, worshipped the fifteenth-century environmental hero, Jangeshwar Baghwan, or Jamboje, born in the Rajasthani village of Pipasar. But, unlike other Hindus, the Bishnoi have no idols. They believe Jamboje to have been a descendant of the Hindu god Vishnu. The edicts of Jamboje, translated into a book known as the Jamsagar or "show people the light," prescribed strict vegetarianism and an ethos of desert husbandry that is remarkable for its calculating sustainability. While dozens of tribes and communities around the world practice ecological sustainability, very few combine it with vegetarianism.

The Bishnoi are not vegan, but are known for showing great affection to their animals, particularly to their cows. Bishnoi eat curd, buttermilk, cooked vegetables, kddi made from graham flour, spices, sugar, breads, and a considerable amount of lentils. They live in small villages numbering no more than one hundred, typically nuclear families. They are strictly rural, and maintain a belief in the venerability of old age. Voting is a matter of pride to the Bishnoi, who saw the first Bishnoi woman elected to a political assembly outside their community in 1987.

In the 18th century, outside lumber interests came into Bishnoi territory with their eyes on the local thick-trunked khejare tree ( Prosopis cineraria ), which the Bishnoi continue to depend upon for its high protein fodder and use as thatch. They have always been emphatic in their conservation of this plant. When outside industrial interests threatened to denude the khejare forests, many Bishnoi hugged the trees in an effort to prevent such deforestation. Hundreds of them were massacred doing so. Recently, the Government of India honored those martyrs as the country's first ecological heroes, the precursors of the recent Chipko ("tree-hugging") movement across the Indian Himalayas (Tobias, 1986).

If a Bishnoi is discovered to have eaten meat, or harmed an animal, he or she is socially boycotted. In such small villages, it is almost impossible to elude scrutiny and hence, the religious edicts are not easily transgressed. Here again is an in-built mechanism for perpetuating an ecological ethic. One might be tempted to predict that when and if the Bishnoi are urbanized, as part of India's - and the world's - mad dash towards megacities, Bishnoi traditions will vanish. But the Jains have proven this not to be the case. Unlike the Bishnoi, Jains have virtually no rural tradition, but are strictly dependent upon an urban community of like-minded Jains. In fact, Jains would never condone the keeping of cattle, nor of any other animals. They believe that husbandry is a form of interference, of exploitation. It is rare to find a Jain household that has a pet.

As a result of their faith, Bishnoi villages swarm with wild animals. And while much of India periodically suffers from drought, the Bishnoi's ability to monitor water, harvesting dew drops from plants, maintaining cisterns, and preventing over-grazing by their sheep, cows and goats, predictably results in plentiful water for their villages. They do not suffer; their cattle have plenty of alfalfa, two varieties of millet grow throughout the hot summers, and through the winter radishes, carrots, garlic, onions, sorghum, wheat, and sesame oil are produced, at great profit.

I will never forget driving through Rajasthan and seeing one funeral pyre of buffalos after another, tens of thousands of animals that had perished, and hundreds of thousands of people forced into ecological exile. But in Bishnoi territory, there was no vision of hell, but rather one of modest paradise. The Bishnoi's emotional bonding with their animals, their love of life, has sustained them in a pragmatic as well as a spiritual sense.

The Toda

Among the five tribal groups of the Nilgiri massif, the 1200 Toda (known as Ahl by the Toda themselves) are the most ancient and unusual. Over a thousand years ago, the entire tribe apparently converted to vegetarianism, a fact documented by the first appearance of their cattle worship. Since that time, that veneration has yielded a bewildering variety of practices oriented toward the preservation of life and the love of animals. The Toda consume cow's milk and sell it to other tribes in nearby markets. This commerce is their sole sustenance. Toda cattle worship is a complex religion with its own priests, cattle temples, and elaborate rituals that define the entire Toda civilization. None of the neighboring tribes are vegetarian.

One of the first serious ethnographers to make contact with the Toda was British anthropologist W. E. Marshall, who published the major study of these people in 1873 when the reported Toda population was 693. Permit me to quote extensively from his book, for reasons that will be apparent:

The Todas have no sports or games, except the innocent tip-cat, corresponding in its play very much with our boys' game of rounders. No violent exercise. No means of settling disputes by scientific personal conflict, as in wrestling, fencing, or boxing. Nothing in fact pointing to natural turbulence of character and surplus energy. They wear no weapons of offence or defence. They do not even hunt, either, for the sake of providing themselves with food, or for the pleasure of the chase. They do not attempt to till the ground. The products of the buffalo form the main staple of Toda diet...To what other cause but grievous national improvidence can we attribute their having acquiesced in promptings to part with an amount of meat sustenance, that would, if utilized, nearly double their food supply? And to permit skins and horns of vast herds -whose sale would have brought a very welcome addition to their revenue- to be removed...?...If they will not trade, and to work are ashamed, yet why none of the ordinary short cuts to wealth and honor, by means well known in all ages, and to most nations? No exciting and glorious war, with plunder! the feathers of the chief, the titles of the hero! No women to be attached, or prisoners to be enslaved or tortured! No food but a milk diet and grain, whilst the woods are full of game, and flocks and herds to be had for the taking! What is the meaning of all this? Have we come on the tracks of an aboriginal reign of conscience? And was man originally created virtuous as well as very simple? It appears to my mind, that in this absence of vigorous qualities: in the disregard of gain and of thrift: as well as in their ultra domesticity, we have the attributes of a primeval race. (Marshall, 1873/1989)

Marshall goes on to reveal his contempt for these primitive people whose natures whom he describes as "torpid and inefficient," unlike "more spirited" races who are "clever, and persevering through ages of strife with fellow-man."

Such sentiments were common in the 19th century, and are even more so today, though perhaps less disingenuously conveyed, in an era of the GATT, NAFTA, and an aspired-to fifty trillion dollar global economy. With the advent of the British in the southern Hill Stations, the Toda women were sexually sought after by foreigners, who succeeded in transmitting a variety of diseases. By 1927, according to anthropologist Anthony Walker, "49% of the Toda population was suffering from venereal diseases, and this was seen as the principal cause of the community's low fertility" (Walker, 1986).

In the company of a local anthropologist, Tarun Chhabra, I filmed extensively among the Toda in the winter of 1995, particularly in the small villages of Toror and Inkity. The villages hold less than 30 inhabitants living in no more than five units.

Most family units have about a dozen buffalos, four of which are active milking buffalos producing something like fifteen liters of milk per day. The cattle range freely. They are the economy, the religion, the talk of the town. Buffalos are the primary source of exchange and gift giving, food, and interspecies companionship, along with dogs. Occasional elephants, the rare tiger, numerous monkeys, and a host of other species inhabit Toda lands. The dairies are communally owned, though villages belong to individual families (Chhabra, 1995).

Whenever disputes do arise, the elders meet for a noyim at a hill called Asxwilyfem. There they honorably and rationally work out resolutions that - true to Marshall's complaint - involve no screaming, fighting, or killing. In fact, so mild-mannered are disputes that one is hard pressed to ascertain who has been wronged. Norms of justice among the Toda are similar to those practiced throughout rural India. But because the vegetarian approach to life is so ingrained among the Toda, as among the Bishnoi and Jain, the intensity of conflict appears greatly reduced, and the common language for conflict-resolution unanimously assured. Property and other economic issues all are adjudicated by an unquestioned ethical communion (Rivers, 1906/1986). Those arenas which are perpetually charged with stark opposition elsewhere in the world never surface among the Toda.

This common language of ethical justice, couched in the unambiguously expressed context of conscience, is perhaps the key contribution of the Toda to the larger human community. At a time when cattle and other animal species are being slaughtered and tortured in the billions, it is extremely important to note that there is a human tribe which has persevered gently for over a thousand years (Tobias, 1994b). Neither felling the forests nor fouling the soil, harming no animal, the Toda worship their habitat, insuring for themselves an afterlife (Chhabra, 1993).

Conclusion: The relativity of concern

Some may dismiss these statistically diminutive human cultures as mere anthropological oddities, irrelevant to national policy. Yet India's neighbor to the northeast, Bhutan, has in fact codified similar ecological ethics as those practiced by the Jains, Bishnoi and Toda, incorporating the spirit and intent of such ethics into its Constitution. The Bhutanese have kept 63% of their forests in a virgin condition (versus 9% in the U.S. and far less in India). And while Bhutanese Buddhists (who constitute nearly all of the 1.3 million population) are not by definition vegetarian, they are largely so. They have resisted development and moved into the 20th century with astounding precautions, to avoid the serious mistakes occurring, for example, in neighboring Nepal, where wildlife, forest cover, watersheds, and human cultures have been devastated (Tobias, 1985).

Close observation of these three historically rooted animal protectionist groups allows social scientists to better gauge the integrity and effectiveness of groups elsewhere in the world who are increasingly attempting to engender sustainability. The Jains, Bishnoi and Toda have formulated precise criteria of ethical behavior toward animals and in so doing should, perhaps, best be viewed in the context of the cultural variable of conscience. Their example of active compassion provides a provocative challenge to the rest of the world. As beacons of behavior, they suggest critical indicators of possible change, for a 21st century whose primary task a growing number of people believe must be the adoption of an ecological and humane conscience. That means, first and foremost, making lasting peace with other life forms (Tobias, 1994c).

References

Chhabra, T. (1993, September). A journey to the Toda afterworld. The India Magazine of her People and Culture , pp. 7-16.

Chhabra, T. (1995, February). A journey to Nyoolzn: A Toda migration. The India Magazine of her People and Culture , pp. 62-71.

Marshall, W. E. (1989). A phrenologist amongst the Todas or, the study of a primitive tribe in South India . Gurgaon, Haryana: Vipin Jain for Vintage Books. (Original work published 1873).

Montagu, A. (Ed.). (1978). Learning non-aggression: The experience of non-literate societies . New York: Oxford University.

Rivers, W. (1986). The Todas (2 Volumes). Jaipur, India: Rawat. (Original work published 1906).

Sing, K. (1993). The life of the people of India . New Delhi: ASI, Government of India.

Tobias, M. (1985). After Eden: History, ecology and conscience . San Diego: Slawson.

Tobias, M. (Ed.). (1986). Mountain people . Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma.

Tobias, M. (1987). Ahimsa non-violence [Television]. KRMA/TV-Public Broadcasting System. Denver.

Tobias, M. (1991). Voice of the planet . New York: Bantam.

Tobias, M. (1992). Life-force: The world of Jainism . Fremont, CA: Asian Humanities.

Tobias, M. (1993). Environmental meditation . Freedom, CA: Crossing.

Tobias, M. (1994a). A naked man . Fremont, CA: Jain.

Tobias, M. (1994b). Rage and reason . New Delhi: Rupa and Company.

Tobias, M. (1994c). World War III: Population and the biosphere at the end of the millennium . Santa Fe: Bear and Company.

Tobias, M. (1995a). India 24 hours . Bombay: CMM Studios and Mapin Publishing.

Tobias, M. (1995b). A vision of nature: Traces of the original world . Kent, OH: Kent State University.

Tobias, M., Morrison, J. & Gray, B. (Eds.). (1995). A Parliament of souls: In search of global spirituality . San Francisco: KQED Books.

Walker, A. (1986). The Toda of South India . Delhi: Hindustan.

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