KINSHIP

I have always found it fascinating how reluctant many people are to recognise our kinship with other animals.

Most major religions see us as being apart and above other living creatures, created separately and for a greater purpose. A far cry from the various manifestations of animism all our ancestors once adhered to, but which essentially disappeared as human societies grew larger and religions became more organised, interwoven with other power structures.

Humanism, though admirable in many ways, recognises the evolutionary link between all living things, but nevertheless treats non-human animals as lesser beings, unworthy of the rights we insist that all people should have. It is taken for granted that a human life is more valuable than any other, that we are set apart: there are humans, and then there are other animals, grouped together despite their manifest differences.

Part of this is as natural as it gets. Every species prioritises kin over strangers, after all. But we go further than that, continuing the religious traditions of distancing ourselves from even our closest relatives in order to justify our right to make decisions on their behalf, to have dominion over their lives. We gladly sacrifice billions of animals every year not because we need to for our own survival, but because we enjoy the taste of their flesh or milk. Billions more because we want their body parts for imaginary elixirs, decorations or entertainment, or their habitats for our own use.

Fine. (Though it isn’t fine.) But let us at least be honest about who we are doing this to. We were not created, nor is our intrinsic worth greater just because we were born human. We evolved. Together. A cow, a pig, a dog, a rhinoceros, a gorilla: they are not objects, not “things” to be addressed as “it”, but conscious beings: a he, a she, somebody’s child, mother or father, capable of feeling fear, stress, joy, affection or relief.

Yes, we have transcended evolution with the help of technology. Yes, prioritising our own species is natural. But devaluing the lives of others - and ignoring our kinship to them - is neither worthy, nor necessary.

❤️