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designed for their differently configured systems. Although the work of the early researchers was essentially ignored for several decades, later elegant experiments drew more convincing parallels between avian learning and memory and these striatal areasâ¦Of particular interest was research that suggested a link between striatal development and âintelligence.â On studies of reversal learning, set learning, oddity problems, number-related problems, and insight detour problems, birds with the greatest striatal developmentâsuch as crows, parrots, and mynahsâperformed more accurately than birds with lesser striatal developmentâsuch as pigeons and domestic fowlâand were often superior to some monkeys. Moreover, lesions in these areas appeared to interfere with learning. Parrots had also performed at high levels on problems involving simple labeling and intermodal associations, and Grey parrots had demonstrated the ability to respond as accurately on new problems as on related training problems. This ability to transfer information between problems is generally considered evidence for advanced cognitive capacities. Such findings suggested that birds did not need an extensive cerebral cortex to perform complex cognitive tasks, and that the extent of avian intelligence, based primarily on studies on pigeons, might be markedly underratedâ (pp. 9â10).

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P. 16: SHAMANS SPEAK âTHE LANGUAGE OF THE BIRDSâ

Eliade (1964) writes: âAll over the world learning the language of animals, especially of birds, is equivalent to knowing the secrets of nature and hence to being able to prophesy. Bird language is usually learned by eating snake or some other reputedly magical animal. These animals can reveal the secrets of the future because they are thought to be receptacles for the souls of the dead or epiphanies of the gods. Learning their language, imitating their voice, is equivalent to ability to communicate with the beyond and the heavens. We shall again come upon this same identification with an animal, especially a bird, when we discuss the shamanâs costume and magical flight. Birds are psychopomps. Becoming a bird oneself or being accompanied by a bird indicates the capacity, while still alive, to undertake the ecstatic journey to the sky and beyondâ (p. 98). Guss (1985) writes: âAccompanied by drum or rattle, by drugs, costume, and dance, the shaman enters his trance through the power of his words and once there receives the special message he has set out to learn. This messageâspecial in both form and contentâis delivered in another language, the secret, esoteric one that spirits and animals use in their own world. This is the language of transformation and Magic Words, the language of the unconscious and the underworld, the one that shamans speak to one another and refer to as the âLanguage of the Birdsââ (p. xi). Frazer (1888) writes: âThe reason why the serpent is especially supposed to impart a knowledge of the language of the birds appears from a folk-lore conception of the origin of serpents. According to Democritus as reported by Pliny, serpents are generated from the mixed blood of diverse birds. This explains why serpents should understand the language of birds; they do so, because they are blood relations of birds, having the blood of birds in their veinsâ (pp. 180â81).

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P. 17: THE OWNER OF ANIMALS AS PROTECTOR OF ALL SPECIES

Reichel-Dolmatoff (1976) writes, referring to the Desana of the Colombian Amazon: âThe Desana believe in supernatural personifications that are closely associated with the animal world, and that are often described as the protectors and representatives of the local fauna. The most prominent of these beings is the Master of Animals, called vai-mahsë, âAnimal-Person,â who is imagined as an anthropomorphic being, a phallic dwarf, who lives among the animals and is their constant companion and guardian. He is not associated with a certain species, but all animals are thought to stand under his care. All this is imagined as happening in a dimension of an Otherworld wherein animals are socially organized