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Hardcover
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN13: 9780300127317
Condition: NEW
Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Drawing on accounts from India to Africa and California to Tennessee, and on research in neuroscience, psychology, and animal behavior, G. A. Bradshaw explores the minds, emotions, and lives of elephants. Wars, starvation, mass culls, poaching, and habitat loss have reduced elephant numbers from more than ten million to a few hundred thousand, leaving orphans bereft of the elders who would normally mentor them. As a consequence, traumatized elephants have become aggressive against people, other animals, and even one another; their behavior is comparable to that of humans who have experienced genocide, other types of violence, and social collapse. By exploring the elephant mind and experience in the wild and in captivity, Bradshaw bears witness to the breakdown of ancient elephant cultures. All is not lost. People are working to save elephants by rescuing orphaned infants and rehabilitating adult zoo and circus elephants, using the same principles psychologists apply in treating humans who have survived trauma. Bradshaw urges us to support these and other models of elephant recovery and to solve pressing social and environmental crises affecting all animals, human or not.
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| Elephants on the Edge |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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This book is deeply educational and stretches the mind of the reader. A must read for everyone who wants to learn beyond what has been taught.
Elke Riesterer
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| A Dose of Reality |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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In response to the comments by Aldo Matteucci I'd like to inject a dose of current scientific reality into the situation. Matteucci does not appear to be familiar with the most recent neuroscience and comparative psychological research. So, I'd like to correct some of his misinterpretations of Gay Bradshaw's arguments. Matteucci makes the naive claim that the human brain is a "chaotic structure" that seems to be haphazardly put together and, by implication, so much more complex than the brains of other species that inference from humans to other animals is untenable. To the contrary, the available research converges on the finding that all animals, including humans, share the same brain structures related to the processing of emotions and that these structures and their biochemical connections to the rest of the body are among the most conserved evolutionarily. In decades of neuroscientific investigation we have yet to find a single attribute of the human brain that sets it apart qualitatively from the rest of the animal kingdom. Moreover, findings on cognitive abilities in other animals are appearing in well-respected journals practically on a monthly basis showing that so-called uniquely human capacities are distributed across many other species. Dr. Bradshaw's arguments are based on a solid body of scientific evidence, which clearly refutes Matteucci's point.
Might I suggest that the strident nature of Matteucci's criticism be best understood in the context of his archaic argument that by attending to the needs of elephants and other animals we are allowing the "starvation of billions of people". Underlying such remarks is the banal and unsupported perspective that it is "us against them" and that we must choose between humans and other animals. Matteucci appears offended by the notion that the problems faced by other species would be placed on a par with those of humans. In doing so he misses Bradshaw's most profound point that humans and other animals share critical psychological characteristics that make us all vulnerable to damage and trauma. We are all in this together.
Lori Marino, PhD
Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology Program
Emory University
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| Unbelievable |
| Customer Rating: 1 out of 5 |
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Using the example of elephants as a point of departure Dr. G. A. Bradshaw has set upon herself as task bringing the discussion about the treatment of wildlife on a scientific footing. Here is a quote from her sweeping conclusions: "What science has explained about the operations of elephant brains, their joys, their grief, their ways of thinking and psychological vulnerability to human violence holds true for virtually (sic) every other wildlife species: parrots..." (p. 249) leading her to conclude, two pages later: "We need no new research or knowledge before we act."
Much of what Dr. Bradshaw argues hinges on an 'experiment' she seems to have performed: she has circulated to five mental health professionals a sanitized description of the behaviour of an elephant in captivity. They have diagnosed PTSD, or complex PTSD. Written by non-professionals, submitted to professionals who did not have the chance to observe the 'patient' directly, this document would seem to me a weak reed to support her castle of conclusions.
Dr. Bradshaw sets much store in recent advances of neuropsychology and epigenetics to prove her point, first in humans, then trans-species. This is done by leaps of faith and sweeping analogies - the worst of false friends. That human brains have similarities with those of animals is a platitude nowadays. We are just beginning to have an inkling of the complexity of the human brain - a chaotic structure that seems more haphazard than planned. At this early stage any inference from the human mind to the functioning of the brain in other species would seem to translate poorly indeed.
Dr. Bradshaw is fond of 'consistencies' that buttress theories. If I have a theory that storks bring babies, and then observe storks and babies in a village, they are consistent with my theory. She furthermore puts much store in the ability of 'theories' to 'predict'. In scientific method, however, a prediction is a test to which the theory submits itself, not a prophecy. Where this kind of approach can lead is seen in the following statement: "Evolutionary theory predicts that the extensive hostility and persistent threat that humanity poses today may render prosociality and forgiveness more of a liability than an advantage," (.pg. 146). Well, this is a trans-species reformulation of crude social Darwinism.
But let's wave the magic wand and grant Dr. Bradshaw all her claims. She calls us to act. How much would implementing Dr. Bradshaw's dreams entail? We spend 60 $ per year on each of the starving billion humans. How many humans is she willing to let starve so that elephants or parrots be given the kind of care she advocates? And no counsel of perfection like "we can do both" - sorry, there is no free lunch. The difference between a politician and an executive is that the first thinks strategy; the latter thinks resources and logistics.
As a trained scientist Dr. Bradshaw had a chance to set the discussion on how to treat wildlife on a more rational footing. God knows that much is to be done here. Instead she has produced a rambling, often confused and confusing text that makes a mockery of the 'scientific method'. More to the point, having called for action, she has failed to put meaning into the word 'action'. What a pity.
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| Revolutionary and breathtaking |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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Thanks to scientific discoveries that tell us more and more about the lives, abilities and consciousness of non-human animals, we have dwindling justification for drawing a line between humans and other animals. A subtitle for this powerful, deeply moving book might be, "We are them; they are us."
In this sweeping book, G.A. Bradshaw reviews what humans have done to elephants and, perhaps more important, explores what that has meant for elephants and elephant society. I think anyone who advocates for animals will find this a disturbing but deeply satisfying book. Bradshaw reminds us how much we have to learn from elephants which, in the end, will bring us back to ourselves.
Jane Goodall says it's not about animal rights, it's about human responsibility. Bradshaw's book is a landmark contribution for those who seek to accept full responsibility for ourselves and our actions.
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| Nothing Short of a Masterpiece |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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This book has not only enhanced my understanding of elephants and other animals in radical and important ways. This beautifully written learning experience has expanded my vision about the world and the role that humanity (or the lack thereof) plays in it for all of us ... Individually and collectively. Scrupulously supported by peer-reviewed research conducted by the author and her colleagues. The ideas presented are at once both brilliantly revelatory yet make so much common sense in the ways we need to make it - instead of breaking it - in this pivotal time in our world's history. This book has changed my life on a soul level as well as make me a better researcher. We don't just owe it to the elephants to read this book - we owe it to ourselves and our own communities.
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