Barbara Ehrenreich discusses how Palaeolithic cave painters’ fascination with wildlife was far greater than their interest in humans, speculating that large non-human animals were much more abundant than today, and that they dominated the drama of people’s everyday lives (‘Humans were not centre stage’, Journal, 12 December) .
After establishing a sanctuary for rescued farm animals, I began to entertain a different explanation. When out in the pastures with the animals, I felt a peacefulness unlike anything I had experienced before. It felt as if the animals were part of the quiet harmony of nature, and I was being included in it. I wonder if the shamans, the spiritual healers who often painted the animals with such delicate and graceful lines, also felt that the animals could bring humans a sense of nature’s peace.
William Crain
Professor of psychology, The City College of New York; author of The Emotional Lives of Animals and Children: Insights from a Farm Sanctuary
