Who Is the REAL Animal? A Look At Our Terminology (Graphic)

[Bite Size Vegan]

this is a “vintage” nugget from early on in bite size vegan. when someone commits atrocious acts of depravity, we call them an "animal." this video takes a playful and serious look at our use of this term...and who the real "animal" is in our society. what are your thoughts on our use of this term and what it implies?

 

[Blobbenstein]

animals haven't got the same extent of brain structures as human(animals). Calling someone an animal, to me, is saying they are behaving in the way an organism without the human brain structures would behave; that is impulsively, aggressively, behaviour unchecked by the frontal lobes for example.

people also say 'party animal'. In that case it just means a behaviour more instinctual, impulsive, fun etc.

 

[flyingsnail]

animals haven't got the same extent of brain structures as human(animals). Calling someone an animal, to me, is saying they are behaving in the way an organism without the human brain structures would behave; that is impulsively, aggressively, behaviour unchecked by the frontal lobes for example.

All mammals more or less have the same brain structures. I think when someone calls another person "an animal" they are doing so with the tacit assumption that non-human animals act mindlessly only within their "instinct"......but that assumption isn't true and humans act mindlessly within their evolutionary determine behaviors on a daily basis. Indeed, the sort of us-them distinctions that allow this sort of thinking have roots in the way humans structure their society.

Humans have proved to have rather low social intelligence....so it is pretty ironic that we use the word "animal" disparagingly. If non-human animals could talk, I wonder if they would say "human" whenever someone destroyed themselves and their community for social gain?

 

[Blobbenstein]

All mammals more or less have the same brain structures.

I thought humans had extra bits, like frontal lobes and wotnot. I know the more ancient parts are similar.

 

[Bite Size Vegan]

If non-human animals could talk, I wonder if they would say "human" whenever someone destroyed themselves and their community for social gain?

ha! that's exactly what i say in the video! that we should be saying "you're such a human!"

 

[flyingsnail]

I thought humans had extra bits, like frontal lobes and wotnot. I know the more ancient parts are similar.

Mammalian brains have four basic structures; frontal lobe, parietal lobe, occipital lobe and temporal lobe. The "ancient parts" are in the brain stem and are shared with a larger class of vertebrates. So, at least as the basic structure of the brain go, mammalian brains are all the same. Also the frontal lobes of humans is nothing special, see here:

Gorillas Agree: Human Frontal Cortex is Nothing Special | Beautiful Minds, Scientific American Blog Network

There has been a long history of trying to find something about the human brain that sets it apart from other mammals, but so far not much has been discovered. I think part of the issue is that we exaggerate our abilities in relation to other animals....I think its important to remember that just 10,000+ years ago we lived lives that weren't dramatically different than other animals. Not much has changed in the brain since then.....will some other animal on this planet exhibit the same level of change in the next few thousand years? If so.....I'm betting on birds...in particular crows and ravens.