Instant Genius How our intimate relationship with animals shaped human evolution
Mar 23, 2026
Michael Bond, science writer and author of Animate, explores how animals have shaped human minds and culture. He discusses cave art, our brain’s tuning to spot animals, burial rituals and shapeshifting myths. He also traces domestication, philosophical divides, medieval animal trials, and modern findings on animal consciousness.
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Animal-Mindedness Persists Beneath Conscious Views
- Being 'animal-minded' means unconscious attentiveness to animals despite conscious separation.
- Bond contrasts Ice Age integration with the Neolithic shift where animals became objects of use and regarded as inferior.
Burials Show Spiritual Bonds With Animals
- Early human burials include deliberate animal parts suggesting spiritual bonds.
- Bond gives examples: an 80,000-year-old child buried with fallow deer antlers and a Neolithic infant placed on a swan wing.
Shapeshifting Reflects Deep Human-Animal Overlap
- Shapeshifting themes show longstanding fascination with blurring human-animal boundaries.
- Bond points to therianthropic figures in Ice Age art and ongoing myths where humans adopt animal anatomy or traits.
