The blurb on the back page says it better than I can:
Long admired for his compassionate, probing meditations on the natural world, Loren Eiseley completed this volume of his favorite writings shortly before his death in 1977. In includes many selections never before published in book form and spans Eiseley's entire writing career--from his early poems through The Immense Journey and The Unexpected Universe to his most recent essays--providing a superb sampling of the author as naturalist, poet, scientist, and humanist.
If there is an overriding theme in the twenty-three essays and ten poems that comprise this work, it is that the facts and data elicited by science are not the final statement of our view of the natural world. Those facts are the frontiers that we must go beyond in our study of the natural world. His essays show us just what this means if we are to gain a fuller understanding, even if it is only a limited understanding of the natural world.
The Judgment of the Birds
It is a commonplace of all religious thought, even the most primitive, that the man seeking visions and insight must go apart from his fellows and live for a time in the wilderness. If he is of the proper sort, he will return with a message. It may not be a message from the god he set out to seek, but even if he has failed in that particular, he will have had a vision or seen a marvel, and these are always worth listening to and thinking about.
The world, I have come to believe, is a very queer place, but we have been part of this queerness for so long that we tend to take it for granted. We rush to and fro like Mad Hatters upon our peculiar errands, all the time imagining our surroundings to be dull and ourselves to be quite ordinary creatures. Actually, there is nothing in the world to encourage this idea, but such is the mind of man, and this is why he finds it necessary from time to time to send emissaries into the wilderness in the hope of learning of great events, or plans in store for him, that will resuscitate his waning taste for life. His great news services, his worldwide radio network, he knows with a last remnant of healthy distrust will be of no use to him in this matter. No miracle can withstand a radio broadcast, and it is certain it would be no miracle if it could. One must seek, then, what only the solitary approach can give--a natural revelation.
The above are the opening paragraphs of some thoughts about several experiences he had involving ravens, pigeons, and various species of small birds in the countryside and from his room on the twentieth floor of a hotel in New York City.
Normally I don't bother with the back cover blurbs, except to wonder frequently whether the author(s) of the blurbs had actually read the work, but I have to quote another one:
This book will be read and cherished in the year 2001. It will go to the MOON and MARS with future generations. Loren Eiseley's work changed my life. -- Ray Bradbury --
As I have said before, numerous times I believe, Loren Eiseley is an author who has been a major influence on my ideas, beliefs, and philosophy. His works are those that would join me on that famous (infamous?) desert island.
The essays in The Star Thrower are too varied to try to summarize it, so I will limit myself
to posting quotations from and brief commentaries on various essays in the book over the next few
weeks or months.
Showing posts with label science. Show all posts
Showing posts with label science. Show all posts
Thursday, August 10, 2017
Thursday, February 27, 2014
John Bradshaw: Cat Sense
John Bradshaw
Cat Sense
Basic Books, NY
This is one of the best books I've read on cats. Bradshaw is the Foundation Director of the Anthrozoology Institute at the University of Bristol. He is also the author of an earlier best selling work, Dog Sense, in which he does for dogs what he does here for cats.
He provides what little is known about the cat's early history, its likely ancestors, and its incorporation into human society, such as it is. Little really is known about the cat's early involvement with humans since it never really was taken over as was the dog. The cat's first encounter with humans was probably when humans noticed that cats provided a defense against rodent raiders of their storage facilities for grain. Since agriculture was developed relatively recently, the cat's involvement with humans began much later than the dog's involvement.
However, this initial contact required nothing from humans except to allow the cats access to the surrounding area and, no doubt, the facilities themselves. Nobody had to train the cat to hunt rodents, whereas dogs require training by humans to accomplish their numerous tasks which therefore brought about considerable interaction between the dog and humans. In fact, Bradshaw argues that cats are not yet fully domesticated to the same extent as dogs, cows, sheep, etc.
Bradshaw also provides information about the physiology and the psychology of the cat, which he says is incomplete at present because while dogs have been studied for many decades, it's only recently that researchers have decided to take a closer look at the cat.
He has an interesting chapter on the way cats perceive the world. While they have the same senses--vision, hearing, smell, etc.--these are not identical to human senses. For example, cats' hearing has a higher range than human hearing, such that cats can hear bats' echo ranging cries which humans cannot detect. This may explain why my cat at night sometimes acts as though she hears something which I am unable to detect. As most people, I suspect, already know, the cat's vision is superior to humans at night, but human vision is superior during the day. Humans who have a cat's color vision capabilities would be considered as suffering from red-green color blindness.
Other chapters focus on the social relationships of cats, both with humans and other cats. While cats are perceived as loners as far as other cats are concerned, this is not strictly accurate. Recent studies have shown that cats can gather together in groupings which are often comprised of mothers with daughters and grandchildren, and some males. Males, though, tend to be the loners.
Cats do not normally accept humans, but instead they must have contact with humans during the first two or three months of life. Cats who are never handled by humans within the first three months generally never form any sort of relationship with humans, even if captured later and attempts are made to gentle it. Kittens on the other hand are very tolerant of other critters, which is why we see photos of kittens snuggling up to a variety of feathered and furred beings, including featherless and furless bipeds.
There are also chapters on the cat's personality as well as its relationship to wildlife. Bradshaw ends with a chapter in which he discusses what he sees will be necessary changes in cat behavior if it is to
continue as the most popular pet today.
Highly recommended for those who want to learn more about the cat.
Cat Sense
Basic Books, NY
This is one of the best books I've read on cats. Bradshaw is the Foundation Director of the Anthrozoology Institute at the University of Bristol. He is also the author of an earlier best selling work, Dog Sense, in which he does for dogs what he does here for cats.
He provides what little is known about the cat's early history, its likely ancestors, and its incorporation into human society, such as it is. Little really is known about the cat's early involvement with humans since it never really was taken over as was the dog. The cat's first encounter with humans was probably when humans noticed that cats provided a defense against rodent raiders of their storage facilities for grain. Since agriculture was developed relatively recently, the cat's involvement with humans began much later than the dog's involvement.
However, this initial contact required nothing from humans except to allow the cats access to the surrounding area and, no doubt, the facilities themselves. Nobody had to train the cat to hunt rodents, whereas dogs require training by humans to accomplish their numerous tasks which therefore brought about considerable interaction between the dog and humans. In fact, Bradshaw argues that cats are not yet fully domesticated to the same extent as dogs, cows, sheep, etc.
Bradshaw also provides information about the physiology and the psychology of the cat, which he says is incomplete at present because while dogs have been studied for many decades, it's only recently that researchers have decided to take a closer look at the cat.
He has an interesting chapter on the way cats perceive the world. While they have the same senses--vision, hearing, smell, etc.--these are not identical to human senses. For example, cats' hearing has a higher range than human hearing, such that cats can hear bats' echo ranging cries which humans cannot detect. This may explain why my cat at night sometimes acts as though she hears something which I am unable to detect. As most people, I suspect, already know, the cat's vision is superior to humans at night, but human vision is superior during the day. Humans who have a cat's color vision capabilities would be considered as suffering from red-green color blindness.
Other chapters focus on the social relationships of cats, both with humans and other cats. While cats are perceived as loners as far as other cats are concerned, this is not strictly accurate. Recent studies have shown that cats can gather together in groupings which are often comprised of mothers with daughters and grandchildren, and some males. Males, though, tend to be the loners.
Cats do not normally accept humans, but instead they must have contact with humans during the first two or three months of life. Cats who are never handled by humans within the first three months generally never form any sort of relationship with humans, even if captured later and attempts are made to gentle it. Kittens on the other hand are very tolerant of other critters, which is why we see photos of kittens snuggling up to a variety of feathered and furred beings, including featherless and furless bipeds.
There are also chapters on the cat's personality as well as its relationship to wildlife. Bradshaw ends with a chapter in which he discusses what he sees will be necessary changes in cat behavior if it is to
continue as the most popular pet today.
Highly recommended for those who want to learn more about the cat.
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