I have just submitted the abstract below to the organizers of Minding Animals Conference 4 (Mexico City, January 17-24th 2018).
***
The cultural semiotic of wolves and
sheep
Morten
Tønnessen
University of Stavanger, Norway
Wolves and sheep go together – at
least in the public mind. They are among the most widespread mammals of wild
and domesticated species respectively. While the wolf is in several countries the
most controversial large carnivore, it is also, and not coincidentally, the
most symbolically laden Western carnivore. The wolf is a symbol of large
carnivores, governmental interference in local issues, freedom and
authenticity, evil, hunger, sexuality, etc. Sheep, on the other hand, represent
among other things innocence and vulnerability (and, of course – food, wool and
thus economic value).
The
juxtaposition of the symbolism of wolves and sheep go all the way back to the
Bible, if not even further. In the Bible, this archetypical opposition is only
resolved in the vision of a new Earth and new Heavens, when, in this new paradise,
“[t]he wolf and the lamb will feed together” (Isaiah 65:25). Meanwhile, everybody
“knows” that wolves prey on sheep. However, many would be surprised to learn
that in Norway, wolves over time only account for less than a tenth of
depredation on sheep. This demonstrates the way in which people are informed
not only by facts, but also by cultural imagery.
Familiarity with the
cultural imagery of wolves and sheep is arguably a precondition for fully
understanding the fierce human emotions that are invoked in social and
political conflicts on wolf management and conservation. Although there are
local variations, and even though imagery and symbolism can change over time,
the “background noise”, as it were, of the historical cultural semiotic of
wolves and sheep is significant practically wherever there are, or were,
wolves.
