Back in the Fall, I buried my old cat on the far eastern edge of the property under a Brown Turkey Fig. To mark the spot, I used one of the large rocks piled in the wooded area that previous owners had lifted out of the soil under cultivation. A few weeks ago I went out to visit the gravesite and I found that my cat had a night visitor. One of the deer crossing the property was courting Georgina's wild soul, reclaiming her for a life she never got to have when she was dependent on me.
Activists for the humane treatment of animals campaign to raise awareness that we express our humanity best in how we behave toward creatures completely dependent upon us for their survival. Their opponents resist the conferring of "personhood" on animals. Which view better expresses human civilization?
Siberian communities living 7,000 - 8,000 years ago provide some answers to that question:
http://news.discovery.com/animals/zoo-animals/ancient-dog-burial-siberia-110228.htm
http://blogs.plos.org/everyone/2013/05/28/sharing-was-caring-for-ancient-humans-and-their-prehistoric-pups/
http://www.barbarajking.com/blog.htm?post=776648
http://www.stonepages.com/news/
http://archaeologybriefs.blogspot.com/2013/06/evidence-of-domesticated-dogs-date-to.html
Emotions such as love, devotion, grief or sentimentality are rarely associated with prehistoric peoples by our culture. This is especially the case with the paleolithic generations that first populated the North and South American continents and who preceded the Woodland Indians contemporaneous with European settlers. And yet those paleolithic generations, according to archeologists, more closely resembled in their culture our idyllic notions of native culture as lacking conflict and promoting communitarian values. Only later, once those paleolithic immigrants into North America had grown in population until they filled this entire continent, did competition for land and survival lead to intertribal conflicts. Paucity of remains and a general "lack of glam" has made those first "Americans" infinitely forgettable: pound rocks is what the paleolithic people did a lot of the time; they also hunted game; prepared hides to wear; foraged for plants; buried their dead; picked up and moved; had babies....if any grand speeches were given in the manner of those Native Americans who fought back when European colonists wanted their land, we will never know.
What the paleolithic peoples DO tell us is a good rock is about as wonderful a find as a good companion-animal. And we know that because those rocks lie underfoot many places in the United States and because paleolithic burials all contain some material indications of cultural value. The dog in Siberia was buried with the spoon that may have been used to feed him when he was too old and infirm to get around since the remains indicate chronic injury to the spine. Or maybe the spoon remembers when his owners pulled him back from the brink and their dog lived on; so grateful were they for their years with that dog, the paleolithic couple in Siberia buried with their dog an implement that took time and energy to make and which would be worth hanging onto, except it will always be remembered for how it helped them care for the family dog, and so it would have been inconceivable to keep and use that spoon. Or possibly, what archaeologists tell us about visions of the afterlife mirroring this life is true, and the Siberians who buried their dog long ago wanted him to be able to eat in the next life.
So the next time someone says you "have rocks in your head," consider the paleolithic peoples who first discovered and shaped the landscape in this country. And just for the heck of it, try doing what they did; try chipping away at a rock to learn just how much knowledge those people had at hand for making a life out of materiel generally considered utterly useless by our "amazing civilization." Those rocks, chipped and shaped into serviceable implements, were ALL those people had that could do the job of cutting firewood, digging graves, cleaning hides, killing game, punching holes in hides...or carve an antler spoon.