Dead Dualism

Scientists have long understood reverence for the dead as being a behavior unique to humans. According to Gazzaniga, this behavior may be due in part to our dualistic tendencies. We unreflectively perceive that a particular human is more than just a body; there is something about each human that transcends the body—an essence. Common expressions like “beauty is on the inside” attest to our implicit beliefs that the abstract “person” has worth, and all corporeal qualities are accidental and irrelevant. At death even, the dead and dysfunctional state of the body does not take away from our hopes that the particular person will live on. In sum, dualistic beliefs in regards to the dead end up being quite religious.

When did this sort of dualistic reverence for the dead begin to happen? Ina Wunn argues that interpretation has become a problem when it comes to archaeological excavations, and archaeologists too quickly attribute significance to early burials. For example, many believe that in the Middle Paleolithic (150,000 to 35,000 years ago) Neanderthals and Homo sapiens participated in complex religious rituals. Because Neanderthals buried their dead in sleeping positions, and surrounded them by goat horns, stone tools, and skins, archaeologists speculate that Neanderthals may have had the notion that, because they are hunters in this life, they will still be hunters after they die in the next life (Joseph 2001). But Wunn explains that the Neanderthal man must have felt rage, mourning, and confusion at the loss of a beloved person, which could have induced the Neanderthal to affectionately handle the corpse. At most a hesitation to leave a loved-one, the Neanderthal burials by no means implicate a dualistic perspective or belief in the afterlife.

Another big research question has been about whether other species have elaborate reactions to dead con-specifics, which may mean we are not the only dualists. Of course, other animals would not have the symbol system to be able to hold intellectual beliefs about the afterlife, but they surely may have a type of categorizing that remembers and has feelings for the dead individual, despite the dead body. Elephants in particular have been observed to pay great attention to carcasses of con-specifics. In a study by McComb and Baker (2006) the team performed three experiments to see whether this claim is true. In the first experiment they observed the reactions to and time spent with an elephant skull, a piece of ivory, and a piece of wood. In the second, the elephants had the choice of an elephant skull, a rhino skull, or a buffalo skull. In the final, they placed three skulls of recent matriarchs in front of the elephants, only one of which was a relative. The results indicated very significant preferences for elephant skulls or ivory over other objects, and no significant difference between the matriarchs.

The researchers conclude that the elephants do have strong preferences for the dead among their species, recognizable through the ivory material. Does this study, however, automatically cancel out any chance of elephants being dualistic, as Gazzaniga claims it does? Not exactly. First of all, it may be significant that the skull of the relative is taken out of its scene-of-death context. The elephant-that-never-forgets may remember the location of a dead relative, but its actual skull (especially cleaned of any scent or body rot) may be very unrecognizable to an elephant. Humans certainly would not easily remember the skull of a loved one, but might become reverent at the sight of any human remains. Either way, there is no ruling out of a general respect for the dead among elephants that is found in very few species besides humans. And there is certainly no saying that an elephant may not be thinking “this skull once belonged to a living elephant.” It may be interesting, if anything is known about elephant brains, and whether it is actually possible or practical to give elephants brain scans, to see what parts of the brain are activated during their investigations of the dead. Particularly it would be interesting if their emotional centers were at work.

Works Cited

Gazzaniga, M.S. 2008. Human: The Science Behind What Makes Us Unique. Harper Collins: New York.

Joseph, R. 2001. The limbic system and the soul: Evolution and the neuroanatomy of religious experience. Zygon. 36:;105-136.

McComb, K., L. Baker, C. Moss. 2006. African elephants show high levels of interest in the skulls and ivory of their own species. Biology Letters. 2:26-28.

Wunn, I. 2000. Beginning of religion. Numen. 47:417-452.