Between Grass And Sky: Where I Live And Work

The Cow Is My Totem

T H E C O W I S M Y T O T E M 1 7 3 Humans who choose to identify with animals have almost always chosen carnivores, the winners in the great eating lottery. In prehistoric times, shamans and their followers selected critters at the top of the food chain for totems . Today, people seeking self-confidence may adopt a “power animal.” Just as a warrior once emulated a bear, wolf, or tiger, wearing its fangs and claws to symbolically transfer its power to himself, some folks now wear animal images in jewelry, amulets, or on T-shirts. Again, only a select group of animals qualify for this honor. No self-respecting, self-proclaimed shaman would expect to sell a million copies of a hardbound how-to guide to personal enlightenment with a frog or a cockroach on the cover. Totems take other forms in modern society, as well. Traditionally, cars and sports teams are Cougars, Tigers, Panthers, Grizzlies, Lions. The only herbivores included in this nationwide name game are those with lethal strength or at least dignity, like Buffaloes or Rams. I doubt if any sports team was ever named the Sheep, or even the Elephants. We also use animals to symbolize human traits we consider less than admirable : “You’re chicken!” we scream on the playground. Over coffee, we nod sagely and observe, “Rats desert a sinking ship.” In more imposing surroundings , such as a congressional chamber, we may remark, “He’s sly as a ••• Hasselstrom/157-220 6/13/02 10:55 AM Page 173 1 7 4 • b e t w e e n g r a s s a n d s k y fox and filthy as a pig.” Behind a presidential podium, any of us might proclaim , “Let slip the dogs of war.” Perhaps this verbal familiarity is one reason some folks have trouble taking any animal seriously, but we are equally adept at prolonging animal myth. Since most of us were raised on Little Red Riding Hood, wolf experts have a hard time convincing us that wolves mate for life, practice baby-sitting within an extended family group, and rarely attack humans. Conversely, humans raised with cuddly stuffed animals and television shows featuring tigers on leashes may not realize how dangerous a real animal, a buffalo, for example, can be. Rangers in Yellowstone Park were once horrified to see a man place his small daughter on the back of a buffalo and step back for a photograph. After he’d retrieved her and was a safe distance away, they tried to explain that the animal could disembowel another buffalo with one swipe of those picturesque horns. The doting papa probably didn’t believe them, but occasionally buffalo make dead believers out of folks who think nature is “sweet.” Most of us now know we can learn a great deal from animals simply by observing the way they are, without picturing them either as furry humans or as savage brutes with nothing in common with us. But even vegetarians, members of the Sierra Club, and other politically correct modern thinkers tender more respect to meat-eating animals than to, say, cows. Those of us who make our living from cows and joyfully eat them are not invited to the chic cocktail parties held to benefit whales. Yet, with the exception of those who wear plastic shoes (recognizable by their limping gait), most of us bene fit from cows every day. I think more folks should begin to view cows as part of nature, and I suggest some of us might even consider adopting cows as totems. They possess certain admirable traits, and might come to symbolize a benign way of living on the earth. This idea isn’t likely to be popular at first glance, since cows are seldom featured on tv wildlife shows, but stay with me a minute. Many of us have adopted our opinions about animals from the strong views of others. Some environmental groups— Earth First! for example—detest cows and recommend destroying even the windmills that bring them water in the arid Southwest. The king of angry environmentalism, Edward Abbey, speaking in May 1985 at the University of Montana, said public lands were “infested with domestic cattle,” and called them “ugly, clumsy, shamHasselstrom /157-220 6/13/02 10:55 AM Page 174 bling, stupid, bawling, bellowing, stinking, fly-covered...