Sometimes I think about how different the “cultures” of various species are and how difficult it would be to communicate if animals were able to talk and interact in society as nonhuman people. Dogs and cats have it hard enough as it is with the very divergent meanings of a wagging tail, but everyone would be on edge around all the smiling humans, for example.
We even have trouble with cultural shit within our own species! Smiling like that all the time would warn me away and I’m from a culture that generally likes smiling. In our closest living genetic relative, the chimpanzee, a toothy smile means “I’m ready to tear your arm/balls off.”
Sometimes I think about how different the “cultures” of various species are and how difficult it would be to communicate if animals were able to talk and interact in society as nonhuman people. Dogs and cats have it hard enough as it is with the very divergent meanings of a wagging tail, but everyone would be on edge around all the smiling humans, for example.
We even have trouble with cultural shit within our own species! Smiling like that all the time would warn me away and I’m from a culture that generally likes smiling. In our closest living genetic relative, the chimpanzee, a toothy smile means “I’m ready to tear your arm/balls off.”