#oh deer carcass we're really in it now

[beastrambles]

Visiting the same decaying carcass week after week and watching it slowly blend back into the Earth has done more for me spiritually than any Church service I've been forced into

[occultadama]

Appropriating nature - Alpha Males to Worker Ants.

Why do we only aproppriate and relate to nature when it applies to dominance or taking other people's stuff? The best example of this is wolf politics or the fallacy of the "Alpha Male" which found its footing in since debunked science . It was born of synthetic conditions that only tell us the distressed lupine psychology once wolves are held captive. The concept of an "alpha male" is infact modelled on emotional distress displayed by wolves once they are stripped of thier freedom...Alpha Wolfs complete flim flam. (Somewhere Joe Rogan is weeping into a deer carcass)

So post WW2 (The exact time we're our relationship with nature really seems to collapse with the same grace as Charles and Diana - we are Charles in this scenario btw) a scientist named Schenkel was tasked with studying captive wolfs and thier hierarchies. Which was directed to support new ideas of classism and capitalism. The wolves were found to be aggressive (me too if I was trapped in a small lab) to one another fighting and concluding with a victorious male. This made way to the term "Alpha male" and our misunderstanding of archetypal male behaviour. All of which would encourage competitive male work hierarchies and the "dog eat dog", toxic male culture rife in modern culture (i believe everytime "alpha male" is uttered in earnest, a man will start another "political discussion and satire"  podcast and be sponsored by a protein supplement)

What later studies found was these conclusions by schenkel were largely due to the subjects being held in captivity.  Other studies conducted in there natural enviroment found wolf packs operate within family units. The references of alphas refer to the mother and father were "power" is distributed equally and its used more to ensure pack members have what they need I.e being safe and fed. Dominance fights are infact very rare. The study was conducted over 14 years and made none of Schenkels observations of lupin social structures. Concluding "Alpha male" refers exclusive to the breeding couple and nothing else.

Its not more appropriate to refer to a doe deer as an alpha. Its a meaningless term that has been attached to social and institutional structures and then absorbed as fact. The entire justification for schenkels theory is validated by natural science when in reality it just enforces an artifical dominance hierarchy amongst humans. Its like studying humans in prison and asserting  "oh wow humans really like trading things for cigarettes"

Curiously we rarely appropriate nature in regard to insects. The only real comparisons I can strike is with the industrious hard working honey bee - which is directly championing over working for a "hive" or Queen. We even visualise many work infographics as hives. Making a distinction of the lesser workers (bees) and a buisness money pot (queen) A model in lue of the Queen is also exclusively male in our aproppriation. A similar appropriation can be found in our interpretation of ant colonies. The exceptions being that ants triumph due to thier lacking emotional capacity and dominate strength, it resonates better with our misunderstanding of male traits and emotional capacity.

Despite our constant misinterpretation of nature and its absorption into our social structures it communicates the power of natures mascots we use to orientate ourselves and one another. It has been historically used for nefarious gain but can this be subverted? Nature is far more giving and kind than it is dominant and aggressive. How can we appropriate the positive interuptative traits of nature? Could animation be a way to rearrange our entomological appropriation? Is this appropriation of nature good at all? This last one is the trickiest for me.

We mould our understanding of nature in relation to our own human experiences. As a consequence the seperate and complex intelligence of nature is sidelined and abstractified. We no longer look beyond the "Alpha wolf" label for example. A species becomes defined by our reductive and inaccurate human lens. The hard working and robot ant become only this and now incapable of escaping the role human narrative has forced upon it. The appropriation of nature in our language, science and entertainment may in fact shoo away our biophilia. It strips species down to a singular emotional construct.  They can no longer be seen outside of it and this often gets absorbed into popular culture. We rationialise deplorable human behaviour into a precast mould that we pour the natural world into. We simplify and politicise natural  "science" to fortify indifference to one another and often non progressive, Conservative ideal and capitalism. We use it to double down on alot of unnatural evolved human idiocy. As if we are aware it's damaging for all involved so we grasp at the earth to find reasoning. This reminds me alot of Kafkas reflections in regard to bureaucracy and how he projects it onto nature (The Metamorphosis 1915)

The interuptive nature of this phenomena however does leave appropriation vulnerable to the opposite application. As an artist there's a strength to be found in subjectivity and interuptation that isn't bound to accuracy. Illuminating and exaggerating favourable insect behaviour to fit around comparable human habits may encourage behavioral change and biophilia. Appropriation of nature in both a biophobic and biophilic sense supports E O Wilsons observations of us as the "Poetic Species". That we favour our metaphors, symbols and interuptations much more than our data. E.g we have compared and modelled much of our gender roles around misinterpreted or debatable animal pack hierarchies.

Ok. I'm beginning to walk into neighbouring Gardens now, I don't know where I am anymore and people are looking at me through their windows. Il stop here. I've lost my footing and fell into a ditch.