DINOSAURS AND HUMANS

[neptunesdolphins]

 Working with Dinosaurs has been an object lesson for me in both approaching and in working with Ancestral and other Spirits. First and foremost, Dinosaurs are not reflections of humans. Nor do They wish to be defined by people. They are the Other, worthy of our respect and awe.

 

Human-Dinosaur relations reflect the worst excesses of the western intellectual tradition. Since the discovery of dinosaur bones, humans have defined themselves in terms of dinosaurs. Noted paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould has said that humans are fascinated by dinosaurs because “they are big, fierce, and extinct.” The narrative that western intellectual tradition has bequeathed to us is the one of how man became the “master of the universe,” while these “beasts” went extinct.

 

According to this cultural account, dinosaurs were slow, unwitting beasts who were no match for the quick, and agile humans. Since dinosaurs could not adapt to their changing environment, they died out. Humans, on the other hand, are smarter and more intelligent, and therefore would continue to reign supreme. (This is the retelling of the Bible story of the Christian God granting Adam and his descendants, dominion over all the earth, for rational intellectuals.)

 

Cultural historian W.J.T. Mitchell explores how humans used dinosaurs to advance their own agendas, in his book “The Last Dinosaur Book.” According to Professor Mitchell, the dinosaur became the “totem animal of modernity.” As American culture changes, the scientific view of the dinosaur is then reconstructed. From the 1900s to 1930s, the active, edgy paintings of Charles Knight displayed in the American Museum of Natural History (New York City) reflected the instability and volatility of the United States, at the time. The staid and stolid dinosaurs of the 1950s were more about cultural reinterpretations rather than current advancements in paleontological discoveries. The dinosaur narrative in America, Mitchell notes reflects American exceptionalism and the peculiar focus of Americans on “the pursuit of happiness.”

 

To work with Dinosaurs, Tyrannosaurus rex told me to ask Iguanodon, who has always been patient with humans ever since they found her tooth in 1820. (Humans had originally thought that Iguanodon was an ancient iguana.) From Her, I learned Dinosaur etiquette, and why They disliked humans. The big purple dinosaur who entertained tots was just the tip of the iceberg in Dinosaur grievances against humans. Iguanodon also told me that the Dinosaurs were the ones who had me study paleontology, since They wanted their stories to be told as precisely as They dictated.

 

Since the discovery of the Iguanodon tooth, dinosaur bones have been dug up, stolen, sold, bargained for, and destroyed by humans purporting to increase scientific knowledge. The “Bone Wars” between American paleontologists Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Coper lasted from the 1870s to the 1890s. Throughout the fossil rich American West, these two men deliberately destroyed dinosaur bones and the sites where they found them, in order to keep each other from using these bones in their work. The egos of Marsh and Cope fueled their feud, not their passion for scientific discovery and the advancement of knowledge.

 

Given that their Dead receive so little respect, even today, Dinosaurs usually want nothing to do with humans. Their bones are displayed, in various contortions in open halls, where screaming children pay Them little notice. Before humans can have any discourse with Dinosaurs, reparations have to be made. Therefore, to approach Dinosaurs is to first learn the human history of Them. Then, learn about Dinosaurs properly. And finally, remember that Dinosaurs prize etiquette and manners above all else, especially from humans.