Snake.
The very sound
of the word has a negative connotation in our culture.
If we think somebody borders on evil, we call
them a snake.
If they are a liar, we say
they have a forked tongue.
Most modern
Christians associate snakes with the devil (even though early Christians saw
snakes as representative of Christ and redemption.
See John 3:14-16 and Numbers 21:8.)
The fear and hatred of snakes among Western
people at large is so strong and pervasive that most people will either run at
the first sign of a snake, or turn and kill it.
Over all, the prejudice of the 21
st century West against this
animal reaches a fever on par with 14
th century superstitions. What
causes this ailment?
What is the
cure?
That is what I would like to get
us thinking about in this article.
Even non-venomous snakes, such as this indigo snake, strike fear into the hearts of the public.
To understand how to improve public perceptions of snakes,
we have to understand what causes those perceptions. First, let’s consider what is not the
cause of this fear and hate. Attempting
to explain it by the fact that many snakes are in fact dangerously venomous is
not sufficient. For many people, their
perception of snakes goes beyond honest fear of harm to actual hatred. And it makes little difference to most people
if the snake they are confronted with is confirmed as harmless. The fear continues.
Hollywood doesn't help....
Further, though we may be tempted to point the finger at Hollywood,
that is not where the blame belongs. Sensationalized
use of snakes on the big screen certainly doesn’t help, but let’s not kid
ourselves: Hollywood
can use snakes as a cheap tool for sensation because of the perceptions that
the audience comes with beforehand. Hollywood’s
use of snakes doesn’t cause the perception, it exploits it (but certainly also
intensifies it).
Religion is not the cause of fear of snakes in our culture.
Lastly, attitudes about snakes are not caused by
religion. Yes, the famous snake from the
Garden of Eden extends and deepens the fear for some people, but I would once
again argue this is not the source. In
my experience, people of all beliefs tend to have similar views of snakes. It could be held that, independent of an
individual’s present belief system, Judeo-Christian attitudes pervade our
Western culture, including attitudes on snakes.
But looking abroad quickly dispels this notion: it is easy to find a similar picture of
snakes in many cultures with no such heritage.
The legless, serpentine body form is just very, very strange to us.
Venom, Hollywood,
and religion impact our view of snakes, but the basic fear we hold for them is
independent of all of these. So where
does this fear come from? My experience
observing countless people react to snakes points to the intrinsic characteristics
of the snakes themselves as the culprit.
Snakes are the only limbless animal of any appreciable size commonly
encountered by humans. Think about
that. There is no other animal bigger
than a worm that is part of our lives that does not have legs. Other legless squamates and caecilians are
indistinguishable from a snake to the average person, and are almost never
encountered by the average person anyway.
Eels are marine, a world away. To most people, snakes are simply the only living thing without legs
(besides worms and snails).
This has
huge implications. A long, flexible body
form without definition is extremely alien to us. But what really freaks us out is how such an
animal moves. I find that the slithering,
inching belly crawl of heavy-bodied snakes and the effortless, sleek motion of
slender snakes are both terrifying to people.
Add to that the already foreign characteristics of reptiles, including
shiny scales (equals slimy in most people’s minds) covering the entire body,
ectothermy, unblinking, spectacled eyes, and a flicking, chemosensory tongue,
and you have a recipe adding up to the complete estrangement of an animal. We fear what we don’t understand, and we have
virtually no intuitive understanding of snakes.
As tetrapods, we have a certain intrinsic understanding of all other
legged creatures. This one creature that
creeps into our lives devoid of legs is in a completely different category for
us.
Just gawking at snakes doesn't necessarily dispel fear.
This may all seem quite obvious and unprofound, but understanding
this is essential to understanding the solution. The solution to the fear and hatred caused by
the estrangement between human and snake is anything that relates the two
together positively. It’s not enough
that people be merely exposed to snakes, as in nature documentaries or zoos,
though this helps. It’s extremely
important that people actually see a snake and human relating positively to one
another. Even more important, people
need to relate directly with snakes themselves.
This is common knowledge among wildlife educators. But just why it is important, and how
paramount is that importance, is not always grasped. Failure to understand why results in
ineffectual attempts to change public attitudes. For instance, many educators will expend
great effort explaining the ecological importance of snakes, and the subsequent
services to humans they provide. Others
will concentrate on how harmless the huge majority of snakes are, and that
dangerous snakes don’t seek harm to humans purposefully. This knowledge is important for establishing
the value of snakes and dispelling overblown fear of venomous snakes. But it doesn’t address the basic fear of
snakes as creatures without legs. In other words, appealing to people's intellect doesn't resolve the fear because the fear is not primarily intellectual. It's emotional, and has to be appealed to at that level.
Nothing compares with a visceral connection to establish understanding.
The best way to do that is to bring people face to face with
a snake, especially at a young, impressionable age. Even a brief encounter can accustom someone
to the unique body shape and movements of snakes, and they often leave with a
new appreciation of snakes as living individuals. For those bold enough, nothing compares to
touching or holding these animals for establishing a connection with a creature
otherwise entirely foreign to our sensibilities. Zoos are more frequently bringing snakes
beyond the glass to visitors, with excellent results. Private keeping of snakes, though not without
its drawbacks at times, has also had a great impact: conscientious snake keepers expose many
people within their sphere of influence to personal encounters with
snakes. I see the success of Steve
Irwin, otherwise known as the Crocodile Hunter on Animal Planet, as stemming
from this phenomenon as well. Viewers
vicariously experienced personal encounters with snakes through his unusually
hands-on show, and I still meet people who don’t fear snakes because of his
influence.
Personally interacting with snakes was perhaps the biggest influence Steve Irwin had over his audience's perception of the animal.
All this is part of the bigger picture of establishing
humans in a place amongst nature, not set apart from it. The chasm between snakes and humans
epitomizes that dichotomy, and re-integrating the two is a small step toward an
holistic view of all life. Ultimately,
people only save things that they love, and only love what they
understand. We need to recognize the
importance of visceral understanding, not just intellectual understanding. To regain a connection with nature in our
culture, nature must spread from our heads to our hearts. Real life experience with nature does that
like nothing else. Go start with one
small step and introduce someone to a serpent.
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