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Feb. 9, 2005 Jim, say goodbye to the pithy pejorative pronouncement: “Birdbrain!” Say goodbye to: “Pigeonbrained!” And: “It’s a turkey!” It has been a long time coming, Jim, but scientists are finally acknowledging that birds are intelligent. “Minds of Their Own: Birds’ Intelligence Gains Respect,” said the New York Times headline Feb. 1, 2005 reporting on a statement by an international consortium of scientists that was published in the latest issue of Nature Neuroscience Reviews. Avian brains and our brains have important similarities, according to them. Jim, the Eminences of Science have to say goodbye to their anatomy textbooks that claimed birdbrains are limited to an architecture intended for firing up instinctual behavior, not ordinary intelligence, let alone brilliance. They should expect a null price, if they try to sell them on eBay to today’s anatomy students. “Stop!” says Jim. “Maybe they should hold on to those books. Perhaps they will become high value items on some future day when people will look back in wonder at the compartmentalized wisdom of generations of men and women of great and extraordinary learning.” Meanwhile, people of our day have been given sanction to consider “birdbrain” to be a word of praise, rather than a put down. “Stop calling people birdbrains meaning stupid. Take it as a compliment,” said consortium leader Erich Jarvis of North Carolina’s Duke University on January 31, according to Reuters. The good news is that the High Priests and Priestesses of Science have finally revised chapter and verse on the subject of avian brains. Recognizing that nomenclature influences how we view and value the creatures of the world we live in, 29 avian experts from six countries met for seven years to formulate a more accurate lexicon for mammalian and avian brain structures. Jim pauses for a moment and says: "You know, Michael, what the implication of all of this is? The old vocabulary colored the perception and objectivity of the Masters and Mistresses of Microscopic Erudition, as much as it did the world view of those who accepted without question what their erudition made intellectually fashionable." You hit the nail on the head, Jim. The laboratory and research crowd have discovered data people in traditional cultures have known for a long time. Check this subheading, Jim, in the same Times story that summarizes the rest of the consortium’s findings: “Pigeons memorize. Crows invent. Parrots teach other parrots.” [New York Times, Feb. 1, 2005] [Jim says, "Decades ago, most of our classmates at St. Michael’s High School, Bombay, could have filled the researchers' ears with these words based on the knowledge they had absorbed from their extra-curricular, non-book learning."] There is an unintended excuse for all our Wizards of Science nesting in the words of Tony Reiner, University of Tennessee neuroscientist, another consortium member: “Pigeons bob their heads while they walk, which make them look like morons, and so people assumed birds have only the moron part of the brain.” [Rick Weiss, Washington Post, Feb. 1, 2005] Jim considers this interesting formulation by the esteemed neuroscientist and says after another thoughtful pause: “It’s not always to your advantage to reveal how smart you really are, is it?” “You got it, Jim,” I say. “But not quite. You see, Jim, you can judge how smart birds are by how they fooled a lot of very smart human experts for a very long time.” Jim doesn’t believe in hiding his intelligence. “If you have it, flaunt it,” he declares. Jim, should we require the Masters and Mistresses of Microscopic Erudition to watch Judy Irving’s new film, “The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill,” as part of their compulsory re-education?” Jim Crows: “Good idea!" Jim, I would like to close with an insightful little folktale from the Kannada oral tradition that I read in A. K. Ramanujan’s acclaimed “Folktales from India” [Pantheon Books, 1991]. Kannada, a language with a great and ancient oral and literary tradition, is spoken by millions of people in South India in and around the high tech center of Bangalore, a city in which I did a six-month internship at the highly respected Deccan Herald newspaper. Here is my take on the page-long folk tale: After Mr. Snake swallows successive chick hatchings of his neighbors, Mr. & Mrs. Crow, the bereaving Father Crow decides that he needs to add to his knowledge of wiles to overcome Snake’s superior physical strength, otherwise he and Mother Crow might as well forget about having a few baby crows of their own. So, the Avenging Poppa flies off to consult his friend, Mr. Jackal, who quickly recommends that the best strategy is to draw humans into the action. He maps out how to accomplish this objective. The ready-for-action Poppa Crow follows the plan. He flaps off to the king's, and his queens'(yes, Jim, plural intended), favorite lake for bathing and swimming. He patiently waits for them to arrive, and then to disrobe, take off their ornaments, and immerse themselves in the royal waters. Poppa then swoops down and plucks a necklace, making sure the king’s retainers see him and are in hot pursuit. In full view of his pursuers, Father Crow drops the necklace into the egg-gobbler’s hole. In order to retrieve the necklace, the king’s men have to kill the viper. Knowledge enhanced, the nemesis of their chick hatchings dispatched to his next incarnation, the Crow Family is able to grow in numbers and prosper. Jim asks, “I know you have always been in awe of crows, Michael. What’s the moral of this story? Crows learn, memorize, strategize, act? Folk tales about crows and other birds should become mandatory reading for avian researchers? And for those who are caught in the sticky machinations of geopolitics?” “All that, and more, Jim. Ask, Alfred, your hero.” ------------ About the author: Michael Chacko Daniels, a Californian, grew up in India. He is a writer, editor, community worker, and former clown. Visit him and his works at: http://IndiaWritingStation.squarespace.com Email: mchackod@pacbell.net Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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