Chapter 4 of The Ecology of Eden

 Continuing on with the trend of the ecology of Eden, chapter 4 begins to take a look at the origins of humans as the great hunter. In this chapter, Eisenberg argues that the human transition from scavenger to Hunter was a fundamental shift in our consciousness and in our relationship to the mountain.

   An idea that stood out to me, was that of a Sacramento kill? Which Eisenberg explains that with early humans, hunting was not an act of violence, but a profound exchange. furthermore when a human kills and eats a wild animal, it is them taking the mountain in for themselves. In this example, there was a deep sense of gratitude, and more specifically how the hunter respected the prey as an equal, and also a fellow inhabitant of the wild source.

Furthermore, he begins to contrast this with the tower approach, we have to animals which is domestication. We as humans have moved from the idea of hunting animals to herding them, which began the shift of an animal to stop being a sacred peer, but to become a piece of property for us. During this shift, we moved from the mountain of wild risk to the tower of control, which is what Eisenberg suggest is where our ultimate ecological guilt began. More specifically, how we start being part of that wild cycle, and began to start managing things for our own convenience.

This chapter made me question if the domestication of animals was a form of authoritarianism, and more specifically, if we traded our spiritual depth of hunting animals for the security of going to a grocery store and buying them instead?

Taking this chapter into my perspective in the spirit of the Sacramento kill, I believe that I will try to be more mindful of the life that sustains me. Philosophy has made a lot of things, and I believe that even if I'm eating a sandwich, I will acknowledge the wild origins of those ingredients, whether that be the grain that fought against the weather or the animals that are raised in the concept of the towers, I believe that I will begin to that meal way more than I have before.

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