ETAPA
2 ACTIVIDAD 1
HALLOWEEN'S
SCARIEST ANIMALS
As
nighttime falls, the creeping, slithering, stalking world arises,
watched intently by a pale-faced moon. In the dead of night you
may hear the sounds of this underworld stirring ... or you may not.
But
they are still there.
With
Halloween slinking up on us, we may notice the noise of animals
more – our pets or the wildlife just outside the window. We delight
in sparking the feelings of dread and fear in the stories of blood-sucking
vampire bats, lurking wolves, crawly spiders, and of course the
ever-present black cat.
Certain
animals are tailor-made for delicious fear, like the vampire bat
and the wolf. But as we explore the world of the scary, it's important
to keep it all in perspective. We make up these stories about animals
to entertain ourselves. They shouldn't be harmed because of our
own, largely manufactured, fears.
Of
course, that doesn't mean they're not lurking, just outside your
window ...
Class
Activity
- Organize
the group into teams, so that each team represents each Halloween
animal.
- Let each
team read the history of the animal they chose and think about
what is myth and what is true.
- Invite
them to discuss the qualities of each animal:
What is the animal look like? (Physically)
What does it eat?
Where does it live?
Imagine that the creature is really magical, what powers do you
think it has?
- Finally,
ask them to describe the creature in front of the group and share
their experience in the forum.
HALLOWEEN
ANIMALS
Few
things are more chilling that the thought of a night creature that
subsists on the living blood of another organism. The vampire bat
has lived in our haunted imaginations for thousands of years.
Even
before Bram Stoker's book, Dracula, our fear of blood-sucking animals
was common, and many cultures from different periods have their
own version of the story. The ancient Hebrews wrote of a woman that
transformed into an owl, killing newborn babies and pregnant women.
The ancient Greeks also believed in monsters that roamed the night,
drinking blood and eating children. In India , ancient lore tells
of a monster that hangs upside down during the day, like a bat.
This creature is empty of its own blood and must drink the blood
of others to live.
The
idea of an animal living off the life force of another makes good
copy, but the real bat is a lot more innocuous. Most subsist on
insects. Of the hundreds of species of bats, only three actually
drink blood, and only one drinks blood from mammals.
The
year was 1591. In the countryside around the German town of Cologne
, villagers found the grisly remains of half-eaten human limbs and
farm animals. They set out after what they believed to be the culprit
– the wolf.
The
villagers eventually cornered the wolf. As they attacked the animal
with spears and sharp sticks, the wolf stood on his hind legs and
his shape melted into that of a middle-aged man – someone they all
knew from town. This is the tale vividly described in a pamphlet
from the period. The legend of the werewolf was born.
Wolves
have inspired fear and awe for their predatory nature. Their howls
at the moon chill the blood, as if they are calling to all the demons
in the darkness. Although admired for hunting, they have been regarded
as evil instruments of the devil. Perhaps this is because wolves
competed with early man for food, or perhaps because they have attacked
our livestock with such cunning efficiency.
Wolves,
in fact, usually try to avoid humans and are naturally timid. But
as their natural habitat disappears, they have come into conflict
with people, often around farms. With a vanishing food source, wolves
have attacked farm animals, prompting angry people to go after the
wolf. The North American wolf population, as a consequence, is almost
extinct.
Any
self-respecting haunted house will be festooned with cobwebs, populated
by spiders lying in wait for some hapless prey. It wouldn't hurt
the house's reputation if a few hairy tarantulas scurried hither
and yon on the floor. It's almost as if zoning laws required that
all haunted houses contain spiders and their webs.
Why
the link? Well, think of the spider in detail – eight legs, eight
eyes and a face only its mother could love. The spider's method
of dining sends shivers up the spine. From the victim's point of
view, you're trapped, mired helplessly in a sticky web, while this
large, multi-legged, many-eyed creature crawls slowly toward you.
Spiders are in fact one of the most feared creatures on earth for
these reasons. Arachnophobia is alive and well in many people.
The
tarantula is the most frightening of spiders. It's large enough
to eat a small bird or rodent, and is very hairy. But though frightening,
they are also becoming very popular as pets because they can be
tamed to a degree.
Like
spiders, snakes have the dubious distinction of being one of the
more universally feared animals. Slithering stealthily on the ground,
the snake represents an agent of evil to many people. It was, after
all, a serpent that got Adam and Eve thrown out of Eden . For his
art of persuasion, the serpent was sentenced to slither on the ground,
despised by all of earth's creatures.
A
far more practical reason why people fear snakes is that a few are
dangerous to us. Venomous snakes sink their teeth into skin, injecting
venom. Others suffocate their prey and swallow them whole.
Snakes
have been worshiped and reviled, but in the pet world they are a
source of endless fascination. Others may admire the 2,700 species
in the world – so long as they don't have to pet them.
A
black cat is a feline with black fur. Black cats may be thought
of as either good luck or bad. The black cat in folklore has been
thought to change into human shape to act as a spy or courier for
witches or demons. During the Middle Ages, these superstitions led
people to kill black cats. This had the unintended consequence of
increasing the rat population and the spread of the Black Plague
and other diseases carried by rodents. There is no evidence from
England of regular large-scale massacres of "satanic"
cats, or of burning them in midsummer bonfires, as sometimes occurred
in Europe .
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