193larger solitary carnivores are rarely encountered by the Solega, although they
frequently attribute the disappearance of goats and domestic dogs to attacks by
these predators. Some birds are also implicated in interactions with other animals,
including predation in the case of the ko:ḷi koṭã ‘chicken hawk’ (Sparrowhawk),
mild, unintended antagonism towards elephants in the myth of the kuruḷihakki
‘ quail ’ and governance in the case of the doḍḍa karaḷi ‘Racket-Tailed Drongo’. All
these cases are described in more detail in Chap. 4.
6.4 ‘They’re Like Us’
The majority of third-party relationships that Solega people notice as being present
in their environment are plant–animal (mostly trophic) interactions. But why should
any group of people pay so much attention to a host of unrelated phenomena that—
it could be argued—have little or no impact on their own lives? Why should, say, an
elephant ’s eating habits be the type of information that is attended to by humans
going about their own activities, information that is often the topic of discussion,
and that can be effortlessly recalled at will? Shouldn’t egocentric relationships be of
paramount importance in a human’s self-awareness, as suggested by Dwyer’s model
(Fig. 6.1a )? Reiterating two competing arguments that I discuss in Chap. 2 , I could
ask whether it is the elephant’s physical size that causes people to notice its every
move (with either detached interest, or with caution)—i.e., perceptual reasons—or
whether it is the possibility that humans might learn valuable lessons from such
observations, regarding the edibility or medicinal uses of certain forest products—
i.e., utilitarian reasons. From my discussions with various Solega people, I suspect
that although both the above arguments might provide partial explanations, there is
a third possibility that provides the most satisfying answer. Simply put, Solega peo-
ple notice third-party interactions in their environment, because they empathise
with the birds and animals that form a part of those interactions, noticing several
lines of similarity between their own lives and those of other organisms. The ‘ele-
phant medicine’ transcripts presented earlier show that the speaker unambiguously
equates the animal’s maladies with familiar human ones, although the remedies for
humans involve the ingestion of different plant products. On the topic of health and
well-being, the same speaker goes on to deliver the following message on the
importance of salubrious living, once again drawing strong parallels between the
human condition and the life of animals:
E:va miruga baduka:giddaruve, a:ne baduka:giddaruve, na:vu namma maneli e:va ri:ti
kli:na:gi haccu kaṭṭa iddamõ, a: ri:ti adakka mane haccu kaṭṭa ira:ku. Na:vu e:ka ke:ri
guḍsadu? I:ga ni: bande, naṇṭa banda:ga ni: ke:ḷde, “E:na? Ivara ke:ri hi:ge ade?” endu
heḷtive! Na:sadillava? A:ga ma:naka kammi. Ha:geve, a:neka uve, mirugaka uve, matte pra-
tiondu ma:nava jaluma, iruppu embattu ko:ṭi, e:na ji:va ra:shi huṭṭiddado, a: ji:va ra:shika
ella sampu:rṇava:gi ira be:ku. Sampu:rṇava:gi iddareve namage ro:gagaḷu baradille.
When an elephant or some other animal is fully grown, it likes to keep its home in order, in
the same way that we like to keep our house tidy. Why do we sweep the fl oor and clean our
house? Someone like you comes along—a guest—and you think to yourself, “What’s this?6.4 ‘They’re Like Us’