动物王国的死亡仪式

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When a Jewish person dies, according to tradition, a member of a group called the chevra kadisha stays with the body from death until burial, continually reciting passages from the book of Psalms. For those in the Catholic church, friends and family members gather together in the presence of the deceased in a ceremony called a wake. Similarly, when ancient Romans died, relatives immediately gathered around the body, reciting lamentations. The body was kept close, in the atrium of the family home, until the funeral procession began.

传统上，犹太人去世以后，犹太治丧志愿工协会的一名成员会一直守在遗体旁边，为其诵读《圣经诗篇》中的文章，直至下葬。天主教徒亡故以后，朋友和家人便会聚在一起参加他她的守丧仪式。无独有偶，古罗马人仙逝之后，亲属会第一时间围在遗体左右，诵读《哀歌》。葬礼仪式开始之前，遗体就一直放在家里的正厅中。

These behaviours transcend cultural boundaries. While the details vary from tradition to tradition, the pattern is undeniable: humans seem to find value in guarding or watching the bodies of the deceased for some period of time following death.

这些行为跨越了文化界限。尽管在不同的传统之下，具体的细节不尽相同，但是这种模式却不可否认：人类似乎发现了用一段时间守护故人遗体的价值。

But as we are beginning to discover, these behaviours may transcend species boundaries as well.

但随之我们开始发现，这些行为有可能还跨越了物种界限。

On 10 October 2003, a researcher watched as a female elephant named Eleanor collapsed. Her swollen trunk had been dragging on the ground while her ears and legs displayed evidence of another recent fall. One of her tusks was broken. An elephant named Grace, a member of a different social group, galloped towards Eleanor and tried to heave Eleanor back to her feet with her massive tusks, but Eleanor's back legs were too weak. The rest of the herd had moved on, but Grace remained with Eleanor at least another hour, until the sun disappeared below the horizon and night fell over Kenya. Eleanor died the following morning at 11am.

2003年10月3日，研究人员目睹了一头母象去世的全过程，他们称她为埃莉诺。埃莉诺肿胀的象鼻艰难地拖在地上，耳朵和四肢也濒临掉落，而象牙已经断掉一支。格里斯与埃莉诺属于不同的象群，她飞快得跑向埃莉诺，想用她巨大的象牙扶她起来，但埃莉诺的后肢已无力支撑。象群的其他成员也已经向这边赶来，但是接下来的一个小时，格里斯一直陪在埃莉诺身边，直至太阳消失于地平线，肯尼亚的夜幕降临。第二天上午11点，埃莉诺去世了。

The parade of elephants that followed may – in some deep, fundamental way – be no different from those who gather to pay respects to a dignitary lying in state. Over the course of several days, the carcass was visited by five other elephant groups, including several families that were completely unrelated to Eleanor. The elephants sniffed and poked the body, touching it with their feet and trunks. Even though the carcass had been visited by jackals, hyenas, vultures, and was under the control of lions by the fourth day, the elephants were rarely more than a few hundred metres away during daylight hours.

就深层次的意义而言，随后赶来的象群，它们的游行与人们前去瞻仰高官遗体的行为如出一辙。接下来的几天里，还有五个象群也来拜访埃莉诺的遗体，其中有几个家族与她并无关联。他们闻她戳她，用脚和鼻子触摸她。虽然野狗、鬣狗和秃鹰频来光顾，到第四天的时候遗体落到了狮子手中，但在白天，大象们始终待在埃莉诺身边数百米范围之内。

Since interest in the carcass was not just limited to Eleanor's relatives, the observing scientists tentatively concluded that elephants had a 'generalised response' to the dead. Supporting evidence for his conclusion comes from other studies, both observational and experimental. While these behaviours are clearly different from human death rituals, they’re still unique as far as elephant behaviour goes.

来拜访埃莉诺遗体的不只是她的亲属，观察家据此得出初步结论:大象对已经去世的同类有着“普遍的反应”。这一结论也得到了其他的观察与实验研究的支持。尽管这些行为与人类的死亡仪式有着明显的不同，但只要大象继续，它便是独一无二的。

Underwater rituals

水下死亡仪式

But humans and elephants aren’t the only ones to visit the bodies of the recently deceased. On 6 May 2000, a dead female dolphin was spotted on the seabed, 50 metres from the eastern coast of Mikura Island, near Japan. Two adult males remained with the body at all times, leaving the body only briefly to return to the surface to breathe. As the cause of death was unknown, divers attempted to retrieve the body. However, the presence of the two males prevented a successful retrieval. Returning the following day in an additional effort to recover the carcass, the researchers found the same two males guarding the female, again making recovery impossible. By the third day, the carcass had disappeared. Researchers assumed that it had simply drifted into deeper waters. 但是，除了人和大象，还有别的动物也会拜访刚去世死者的遗体。2000年5月6日，在日本附近距御藏岛东海岸50米处的海床上，一具雌海豚的尸体受到众多瞻仰。两只雄海豚一直待在遗体旁边，只有偶尔才浮上海面呼吸。由于海豚死因不明，潜水员想对它的尸体进行研究。但是，两只雄海豚的存在始终没能让这一想法付诸实践。第二天，潜水员试图再次接近遗体，但两只雄海豚仍陪在在左右，尝试便再告失败。第三天尸体不见了。研究人员认为很可能尸体只是沉到了深水处。

It’s far from being the only documented instance of dolphin death rituals.

关于海豚的死亡仪式，并不只此一例记载。

2001年4月，另一组科学家在加那利群岛发现了一只小海豚的尸体，小海豚身边还围着好几只海豚，其中一只应该是它的妈妈。第三天的时候，小海豚的尸体开始漂浮到水面上，第四天，尸体出现了腐烂的痕迹。虽然海豚们并没有试图把小海豚的尸体拖回来，但研究人员注意到，无论何时，一旦有海鸟想靠近漂浮的尸体，其他海豚就会立刻将它赶走。

And when a dead dolphin calf was spotted by another group of scientists near the Canary Islands in April 2001, it was also surrounded by several other dolphins, one of whom was presumed to be the mother. By the third day, the calf was floating on the surface, and by the fourth day, the calf was started to show signs of decay. While they did not attempt to recover the body, the researchers noted that whenever even a seabird attempted to approach the floating calf, it would immediately be chased away by the other dolphins.

2001年4月，另一组科学家在加那利群岛发现了一只小海豚的尸体，小海豚身边还围着好几只海豚，其中一只应该是它的妈妈。第三天的时候，小海豚的尸体开始漂浮到水面上，第四天，尸体出现了腐烂的痕迹。虽然海豚们并没有试图把小海豚的尸体拖回来，但研究人员注意到，无论何时，一旦有海鸟想靠近漂浮的尸体，其他海豚就会立刻将它赶走。

As this group of dolphins was under continuous human observation, researchers could be reasonably certain that they were acting differently than usual. They travelled slower, remaining in the same general area far longer than was typical. Both of these observations suggested that they were responding specifically to the death of the calf. In each case, the attending dolphins worked together to prevent others from approaching the dead body, sometimes showing signs of aggression to those who tried. In each case, the attending dolphins deviated from their typical routines.

研究人员通过对这群海豚的持续观察得出确切结论：海豚的行为发生了变化。它们游得很慢，待在同一个地方的时间也远远超过了平时。两组观察都表明海豚们对小海豚的死亡有着特殊的反应。两个案例中，参加葬礼的海豚一起努力阻止其他一切人和物靠近小海豚的尸体，有时它们还充满敌意。与此同时，它们的行为也与往常不同。

Learning about death

学习死亡

Chimpanzees, on the other hand, maintain their routines. When an infant chimpanzee dies, his or her mother will carry the lifeless body around for days. Sometimes for weeks or months. The mother continues to groom the body, slowing the inevitable decay. She only stops interacting with the corpse when it has decomposed so much that it is no longer recognizable. When a three-month-old female chimpanzee was killed in June at the LA Zoo, keepers allowed Gracie to retain her infant's body for several days, so that she'd be able to carry out this sort of chimpanzee grieving process.

在另一方面，黑猩猩还和昔日表现一样。小猩猩去世以后，猩妈妈一连几个星期或是几个月无论去到哪里都带着它的尸体。猩妈妈继续擦洗小猩猩的身体，腐烂是无法避免的，但起码这样能变得慢一点。尸体严重分解面目全非以后，她才停止这些行为。7月里，动物园一只三个月大的雌猩猩被杀，饲i养员让梅雷西和它的孩子在一起待上数天，这样它就能进行属于黑猩猩的哀悼过程。

This chimpanzee ritual was described in depth after researchers in Zambia chanced upon a female named Masya who was interacting with the dead body of her four-month-old infant. Writing in the American Journal of Primatology, researcher Katherine Cronin speculates: 'The behaviours expressed by this female chimpanzee when she first endures physical separation from her dead infant provide valuable insight into… the possible ways in which chimpanzees gather information about the state of responsiveness of individuals around them (hence learning about ‘death’).' Similar practices have been observed among gorillas, baboons, macaques, lemurs, and geladas.

关于黑猩猩的死亡仪式，还有更加深入的描述。一次偶然的机会，赞比亚的研究人员发现了一只叫做马思亚的猩妈妈正和它4个月大孩子的尸体互动。研究者凯瑟琳克罗林把这一现象记录并发表在《美国灵长类学杂志》上，她猜想：“猩猩妈妈第一次经历和孩子在肉体上的分离时所表现出来的行为，能让我们很好地理解，它们可能会以何种方式学会如何去响应身边的其他黑猩猩（因而也学会如何理解’死亡’）。” 大猩猩、狒狒、猕猴和狐猴也都有类似行为。

Elephants, dolphins, and chimpanzees all have complex social behaviours that we only partly understand. Since it is so rare for humans to observe a natural death in the wild, most of the information that we do have comes from non-experimental case studies thanks to quick-thinking researchers. Even still, the available evidence offers an important reminder that humans are not the only animals who respond to death in a particular way. And the list of non-human animals that seem to do so keeps expanding: recent reports suggest that giraffes and western scrub jays may mourn as well, each with their own customs.

大象、海豚和黑猩猩表现出来的复杂社会行为，我们现在还不能充分理解。由于人类很难观察到野生动物的自然死亡，所以大部分信息来自于非实验性的案例研究，而这得益于聪明灵活的研究人员。即使如此，现有证据也给了我们一个重要提示即，对死亡有着特殊反应的动物并不只限于人类。而且这些种类还在不断增加：最新报告表明，长颈鹿和西方灌丛鸦可能也会对同伴的死亡表示哀悼，只是各自的方式不同。

But we humans like to convince ourselves that we are somehow special, unique among the entire animal kingdom. And in some ways, we are. But for every facet of life that is unique to our species, there are hundreds that are shared with other animals. As important as it is to avoid projecting our own feelings onto animals, we also need to remember that we are, in an inescapable way, animals ourselves.

但人类总是极力说服自己，在整个动物王国里，我们是特殊的，是独一无二的。某些方面，确是如此。但是就独属于人类生活的各方面而言，我们与其他动物又存在诸多共性。我们不该把我们的感情投射到动物身上，同时，也不能忘记我们自己就是动物，这是无可否认的事实。

Is it possible that we're simply offering post-hoc explanations in an effort to justify behaviours to which we're naturally driven? The mortician who carefully embalms the recently deceased may have a great deal more in common than he realises with the chimpanzee who painstakingly removes parasites from her dead infant. What bonds us with the chimpanzee in this sense is that we are, in our different ways, simply trying to understand death.

有没有一种可能，即我们只是在简单给出一种因果性解释来为这种出于天性的行为做辩护？那些殡葬业者为去世没多久的死者精心做着防腐工作，也许他们更能体会到黑猩猩为已故的孩子驱除寄生虫的苦心。从这个意义上说，连接人类与黑猩猩的共同点就在于，我们也只是在努力地理解死亡，方式不同罢了。

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