Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Sprach- und literaturwissenschaftliche Fakultät - Nordeuropa-Institut

Understanding culture as part of nature may make it difficult to think of culture as “civilized” and nature as a “struggle for life” as Darwin put it in 1859. Various animals have their own culture. To think of culture as not uniquely human, not opposed to some “wild nature”, but as part of another kind of nature, is to take a position that is sometimes called a break with human exceptionalism. I will exemplify another kind of relationship between human beings and other animals by telling concrete stories – stories about humans and animals.