Exploring the Easter E.g. - Shifting Baselines and Changing Perceptions of Cultural and Biological "Aliens"

今天我们在英国周围看到的东西，几乎没有什么可以归类为“本土”的。当海洋把这个岛与大陆的其他部分隔绝时(约8000年前)，岛上的动植物和人口都有很大的不同。几千年来，英国的生态和文化发生了变化。变化是唯一不变的，人口流动是该岛独特的生物文化遗产的原因。古代人类、思想和动物的迁徙被广泛庆祝，并被纳入英国文化身份的表达中。然而，移民的时间越近，对他们的态度就越消极。这一点最好的例证莫过于关于“本地人”和“外星人”地位的讨论，无论是与动物、人还是宗教意识形态有关的。一般来说，原住民被认为是积极的和“自然的”，而“外国人”一词与文化和环境问题有负面的联系。这些观念往往转化为社会态度和政策制定，特别是与生物多样性有关的态度和政策制定，尽管它们可能是“基线变化”的结果。“基线变化”指的是人们认为童年的社会环境环境是“自然的”和道德绝对的现象。在缺乏对历史和考古更深入的了解的情况下，这些怀旧的理想被盲目地(而且往往是错误的)作为个人层面乃至更广泛的科学和政策决策的基础。这个项目旨在通过备受瞩目和公开参与的复活节这个例子，调查基线的变化所起的作用，以及它们对‘本地’和‘外来’动物、人和意识形态的价值判断的影响。复活节是基督教日历上最重要的事件，但令人惊讶的是，人们对复活节最早出现在英国的时间，其组成部分习俗的起源--例如，据说是复活节‘兔子’送出的彩蛋--以及它们是如何结合在一起形成目前的习俗知之甚少。复活节及其相关的动物--即棕兔、兔子和鸡--都是英国的外星人。然而，人们对他们的看法是积极的，因为他们来到了被遗忘已久的过去。因此，复活节是一个很好的例子，可以突出基线变化的影响，挑战对文化和生物‘外星人’的消极态度。我们的团队将通过整合人类学、(动物园)考古学、(艺术史)历史学、进化生物学、法学、历史语言学、自然历史学和宗教研究的证据来实现这一点，以回答以下问题：1.现代复活节传统最早在哪里和什么时候开始，它们是什么时候到达英国的，宗教传统和棕色兔子的到来有多密切的联系？2.什么是生物文化，政治和宗教机制：-在中世纪早期的欧洲基督教社会中，拉丁复活节和日耳曼复活节的派生形式传播并相互作用？-兔子传播到整个欧洲，并在后来的英国传统中取代野兔成为主要的复活节动物？3.古代当地山地野兔之间的互动，被引进的棕兔和兔子将被重建，以提供一个更深层次的视角，来了解“外来物种”的影响？4.填补关于人与动物生物文化史的知识空白，如何在社会层面和野生动物管理政策中转变“本地”与“外来”的话语？解决这些问题，不仅将缩小关于英国最重要的宗教(也包括世俗)节日的知识鸿沟，还将缩小与标志性动物物种有关的知识鸿沟。这些数据集将一起进行整理，以适应和挑战现代文化对社会、宗教信仰和自然世界的态度。这将通过一个令人兴奋和创新的外联和参与方案来实现。

Very little of what we see around us in Britain today can be classed as 'native'. When the sea cut off the island from the rest of the continent (c. 8,000 years ago) the flora, fauna and human population were very different. Over millennia, Britain's ecology and culture have been transformed. Change has been the only constant, with population movements being responsible for the island's unique bio-cultural heritage. Ancient migrations of people, ideas and animals are widely celebrated and incorporated into expressions of British cultural identity. However, the more recent the migrations, the more negative the attitudes towards them. Nowhere is this better exemplified than in discussions about 'native' versus 'alien' status, be it in relation to animals, people, or religious ideologies. In general, native is perceived as positive and 'natural', whereas the term 'alien' is attached negatively to cultural and environmental problems. These perceptions often translate into societal attitudes and policy making, in particular that relating to biodiversity, even though they may result from "shifting baselines". "Shifting baseline" refers to the phenomenon whereby people consider the socio-environmental circumstances of their childhood to be 'natural' and morally absolute. In the absence of deeper historical and archaeological understanding, these nostalgic ideals are adopted blindly (and often erroneously) as the foundation for decision-making both at a personal level and more broadly in science and policy. This project sets out to investigate the role of shifting baselines and their impact on the value-judgements placed on 'native' and 'alien' animals, people and ideologies through the high-profile and publicly engaging example of Easter.Easter is the most important event in the Christian calendar, yet astonishingly little is known about when it first appeared in Britain, the origins of its component customs - e.g. the gifting of eggs purportedly delivered by the Easter 'bunny' - or how they coalesced to form current practices. Easter and its associated animals - namely the brown hare, rabbit and chicken - are all 'alien' to Britain. However, they are viewed positively because they arrived in the long-forgotten past. Easter is therefore an excellent example to highlight the impact of shifting baselines and challenge negative attitudes to cultural and biological 'aliens'. Our team will achieve this by integrating evidence from anthropology, (zoo)archaeology, (art) history, evolutionary biology, law, historical linguistics, natural history and religious studies to answer the following questions:1. Where and when did modern Easter traditions first begin, when did they arrive in Britain, and how closely correlated are the arrival of religious traditions and the brown hare? 2. What were the bio-cultural, political and religious mechanisms by which:-The derivatives of Latin Pascha and Germanic forms of Easter spread and interacted with each other in Christian communities in early medieval Europe?- The rabbit diffused across Europe and replaced the hare as the main Easter animal in later British traditions?3. Can ancient interactions between the native mountain hare, the introduced brown hare and the rabbit be reconstructed to provide a deeper-time perspective on the impact of 'alien species'?4. How can the filling of knowledge gaps about human-animal bio-cultural history transform 'native' versus 'alien' discourse at both a societal level and within wildlife management policy?Addressing these questions will not only close knowledge gaps about Britain's most important religious (but also secular) festival but also those pertaining to iconic animal species. Together these datasets will be workshopped to contextualize and challenge modern cultural attitudes to society, religious beliefs and the natural world. This will be achieved through an exciting and innovative outreach and engagement programme.