6 History According to Cattle For thousands of years history has been written from the perspective of a small minority, humans. Still, the world has always been shared by numerous species. For the first time in history a non-human form of life will have their own museum, an institution that makes their experience of this shared reality visible. The Museum of the History of Cattle exhibits bovine culture and the relationship between cattle and their companion species. The installations explore the changes in bovine landscape, caused by urbanization, the industrial revolution, and the theory of evolution, and studies the indigenous cattle populations. 7 Entrance to the museum. The Museum of the History of Cattle is the world’s first ethnographic museum portraying the history of a non-human species. 8 9 THE AGES OF CATTLE 10 In cattle culture, history is divided into three time periods. The Time Before History includes the history of cattle before the domestication of humans. After this comes the Time of History, which for many if not all cattle begins about 10,000 years ago, when bovine culture became intertwined with the culture of humans. The Time of History ended one hundred years ago, when human industrial society made it impossible for cattle to pass on their heritage to later generations. During the Ahistorical Period, cattle were cut off from awareness of their own culture in many parts of the bovine world. The Museum of the History of Cattle has been created to fill this void. The museum presents different cultural phases and the relations between cattle and their closest companion species, turning points in the species’ traditions, and the influence of their human companions on the course of cattle history. The world has never before seen an exhibi- tion of this kind. The language used in the Museum of the History of Cattle is borrowed from humans, and is the same as that in which they write their own history. The cattle tongue is not a written language. In cattle culture, the tongue is a means of touching others. Like the cattle themselves, the Museum is only looking for temporary resting places, after which it will again take a few steps in another direction. 11 12 A milker from the 1970’s. 13 Human use milkers to collect cow’s milk for their own purposes. 14 15 16 17 The Time Before History Unlike human culture, cattle culture is not a linearly perceived historical continuum. For cattle, time is cyclic. Neither the past nor the future are of great importance; existing is what matters to bovines. It has been thus ever since the first ruminant trod the Earth. From one millennium to the next, unchanging rituals helped individuals to recognize their roles in society, and offered security amid the exigencies of life. The cultural stories lived on in the bodies of their narrators, in quiet grazing. They changed little by little, or if need be, very quickly, since cattle are adaptable. The greenest pastures, techniques of repose, respect for the value system, caring for calves, and mating conventions are learned through watching, listening, and by following intuition. Because cattle culture recognizes no gods, the question of the origin of inner knowledge can be cast aside with the swish of a tail. 18 19 20 The Hall of Indigenous Cultures. On the right: vegetation from the grazing lands of the indigenous Banteng populations. In the glass case: replicas of ancient Auroch hoof prints (1 million - 627 years, human time). 21 22 India, two million years ago A white cow and a dark bull mate and the Aurochs are born. From India’s vast pastures, the Aurochs wander Eastward and Westward, as far as the great grass- lands extend. Iran, ten thousand years ago A herd of eighty Aurochs graze by the river in which the Tigris unites with the Euphrates. They are the ancestors of cows and bulls that will later on live with humans. Jaktorów forest, three hundred and eighty-six years ago Persecutions and the diminishing habitats drive the last of the Auroch family to seek refuge in the thickest forests in Europe. The last cow lives alone for seven years until she dies of old age. 23 24 25 Vegetation from the Banteng’s home environment. 26 Indigenous Peoples Our wild relatives live far away from here, in East and Southeast Asia. These natives, known as gaurs and bantengs, graze in forests and on the surrounding meadows. Bantengs are the same size as we are, while gaur bulls grow to a respectable one-and-a-half tonnes. Only a handful of land- based species are bigger than that. Gaur societies are matriarchal. The bulls roam around alone or with other bulls for the better part of the year, and come to salute the cows every spring. Bantengs form looser groupings. Gaurs and bantengs generally avoid humans. In the areas most disrupted by humans they have become nocturnal, since humans are creatures of the day. When unable to avoid them, gaurs exploit humans by grazing their land. A sensible human will give way to a gaur. Bantengs show themselves to humans so infrequently that they consider the banteng a mythical creature. The herd will protect its calves from tigers, but even gaurs are no match for an armed human. Humans have actively endangered the very existence of the indigenous inhabitants, with many populations already totally extinct. On the other hand, humans have helped bantengs to return to freedom. They were taken to Australia as livestock, but, after humans did a bit of rational thinking, were released into the wild. In a little over a century, they have built up a large local population in the continent’s tropical forests. While being non-natives, the bantengs in Australia live in symbiosis with the endemic bird species, and do not harm the ecosystem – an example of our remarkable adaptability. Many humans recognize the gaur from the illustration on an energy-drink can. 27 28 29 The Historical Period Ten thousand years ago, humans came across cattle. Human culture was revolutionized, thanks to the bovine contribution to work. Cattle shaped the land from which man got grain. He invented property, trade, slavery, the State, war, and writing systems. Man now had spare time. He recog- nized his own mortality, and so he invented history. He wanted to trace the landscapes of the past so as to record the spirit of yesterday. Not seeing that life just happens, he tried to bind the details of days gone by into a single, coherent story. Writings are holy to man. What he once defines as his- tory he forever considers the truth. Even so, man is still searching for the limits of memory. Then, one day, all human languages will die, the skill of writing will be forgotten, and the tools for recording rot away. When human and cattle cultures met, the latter was also much changed. Cattle culture adapted to become part of the human world and its ambitions, both good and bad. Bovines shared with humans, not only their homes, but also their technology, the pursuit of the ideal body, and ultimately, death. 30 31 The diorama of companion species. On the left: Housefly (Musca domestica). On the right: Human (Homo sapiens) 32 33 34 Companion Species: Homo sapiens The “rational human” (Homo sapiens) is the last surviving species of the genus Homo. Humans grow up to 200 cm in height and weigh up to 150 kg. Some individuals can weigh even more. Humans have only two legs and two other limbs – arms. There is little sexual dimorphism between the two sexes, and yet individual humans frequently try to create differences. Humans also consider it important to distinguish themselves from other species. Humans have spread all over the Earth and into some parts of space, too. Currently, there is a lively discussion about whether, and where in the universe, we should start to regard humans as an “invasive alien species”, this being a term invented by humans themselves. Like houseflies, humans prefer to be indoors, to transmit diseases, and to pollute places with their excrement. 35 36
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