disturbing as it may be, man-eating occurs within the acceptable
parameters of the tiger’s nature, which has informed our nature. If the pig
or the moose did such things, they would simply be abhorrent and weird;
it wouldn’t resonate in the same way.
As long as they are carnivorous and/or humanoid, the monster’s form
matters little. Whether it is Tyrannosaurus rex, saber-toothed tiger,
grizzly bear, werewolf, bogeyman, vampire, Wendigo, Rangda, Grendel,
Moby-Dick, Joseph Stalin, the Devil, or any other manifestation of the
Beast, all are objects of dark fascination, in large part because of their
capacity to consciously, willfully destroy us. What unites these creatures
—ancient or modern, real or imagined, beautiful or repulsive, animal,
human, or god—is their superhuman strength, malevolent cunning, and,
above all, their capricious, often vengeful appetite—for us. This, in fact,
is our expectation of them; it’s a kind of contract we have. In this
capacity, the seemingly inexhaustible power of predators to fascinate us
—to “capture attention”—fulfills a need far beyond morbid titillation. It
has a practical application. After all, this is the daily reality of many
savanna baboons, and it has been ours as well. In southern Tanzania, in
the Sundarbans of Bangladesh, and in many war zones around the world,
it still is.
Over time, these creatures or, more specifically, the dangers they
represent, have found their way into our consciousness and taken up
permanent residence there. In return, we have shown extraordinary
loyalty to them—to the point that we re-create them over and over in
every medium, through every era and culture, tuning and adapting them
to suit changing times and needs. It seems they are a key ingredient in the
glue that binds us to ourselves and to each other. Without our social
networks and the fragile carapace of technology with which we shield
ourselves, Khomenko’s and Markov’s fate could be our own. And neither
our psyches nor our stories will allow us to forget it.
- Taphonomy is the study of an organism’s decay and related processes
over time, including its fossilization.