The Intertwined History Of Elephants And People

For thousands of years, humans have lived alongside elephants — sometimes in harmony and sometimes in conflict. In recent times, we have exploited elephants for their ivory, kept elephants in captivity for zoos or circuses and, in some cases, we’ve tried our best to save elephants and give them sanctuary. Thousands of years ago, however, there is not only evidence that we used their ivory for ornaments or statuettes much as we have in recent years, but that we also killed them for meat and used their bones to make tools. However, research also shows that early humans recognized the “physical, social, behavioral and perceptional” similarities between humans and elephants, and came to see them as a “sister species.” This paper looks at the relationship between humans and elephants stretching all the way back to the Paleolithic era and notes that humans used elephants for their own purposes, but also as a “cosmological and conceptual beacon at all times.”

Looking at more recent data, the researchers also suggest that our relationship with elephants was the source of food taboos and meat taboos. They describe how, as the “humanization of elephants” progressed, there was a move away from consuming elephant meat. In some places, the killing of an elephant would require “a mourning period of seven days, the same as the mourning period for a member of the tribe,” while in other places elephant hunting was considered in the same way that people viewed human warfare. The authors point to countless references found in archeology that show the importance of elephants in human cosmology and provide evidence of these interspecies bonds. For elephant advocates, this is data that could be useful in telling a story about the history of elephants for advocacy purposes.

For animal advocates more broadly, the research shows just how close we sometimes have to get to animals for us to consider eating them to be taboo. The perceptions around eating certain animals vary from culture to culture and often have deep significance. For elephants, the food taboo may have required a degree of anthropomorphism and humanization, something that many advocates already employ as a strategy today.