Contours of the Flesh - The Semiotics of Pain - Darlene M. Juschka
Mythic Caesura, Pain and the Boundary between Non-human and Human Animals
Contours of the Flesh - The Semiotics of Pain - Darlene M. Juschka
Darlene M. Juschka [+]
University of Regina
Darlene M. Juschka is an associate professor in the Department of Gender, Religious and Critical Studies at the University of Regina, Canada.
Description
In Chapter 2 I identify, examine and compare the separation of human and non-human animals in the Classic Maya myth the Popul Vuh and the Iliad of ancient Greece through the use of pain. In both locations anthropogonic myths record the effort to establish human animals as different from, and necessarily superior to (in greater and lesser degrees), non-human animals via the indexical sign of pain. My intention, beyond showing similarities and differences between these myths with regard to this separation, is to demonstrate how systems of belief and practice are central, and in some instances foundational, to how we determine the boundaries and borders of existence.