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

我们今天在英国看到的东西很少能被归类为“本土”。当大海将岛屿与大陆的其他部分隔开时（c。8,000年前）的植物群、动物群和人类种群都大不相同。几千年来，英国的生态和文化已经发生了变化。变化是唯一不变的，人口流动是岛上独特的生物文化遗产的原因。古代人、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，移民时间越近，人们对他们的态度就越消极。没有什么比讨论“本地人”与“外来人”的地位更好的例子了，无论是与动物，人还是宗教意识形态有关。一般来说，本地人被认为是积极的和“自然的”，而“外来人”一词则与文化和环境问题联系在一起。这些观念往往转化为社会态度和决策，特别是与生物多样性有关的社会态度和决策，尽管它们可能是“不断变化的基线”造成的。“基线偏移”是指人们认为他们童年的社会环境是“自然的”和道德上绝对的现象。在缺乏更深层次的历史和考古学理解的情况下，这些怀旧的理想被盲目地（而且往往是错误地）作为个人层面和更广泛的科学和政策决策的基础。本项目旨在通过复活节这个引人注目的公众参与的例子，调查基线变化的作用及其对“本土”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中最重要的事件，但令人遗憾的是，人们对它何时首次出现在英国知之甚少，它的组成部分习俗的起源-例如，据称由复活节'兔子'交付的鸡蛋礼物-或它们如何结合形成当前的做法。复活节和与之相关的动物--即棕色的兔子、兔子和鸡--对英国来说都是“陌生的”。然而，他们被积极地看待，因为他们来到了被遗忘的过去。因此，复活节是一个很好的例子，突出了基线变化的影响，并挑战了对文化和生物“外星人”的负面态度。我们的团队将通过整合来自人类学，（动物园）考古学，（艺术）历史，进化生物学，法律，历史语言学，自然历史和宗教研究的证据来回答以下问题：1。现代复活节传统最早开始于何时何地，何时到达英国，宗教传统和棕色兔子的到来有多密切相关？2.什么是生物文化，政治和宗教机制：-拉丁复活节的衍生物和日耳曼形式的复活节传播和相互作用，在基督教社区在中世纪早期的欧洲？兔子在整个欧洲传播，并取代野兔成为后来英国传统中的主要复活节动物。3.能否重建本地山兔、引入的棕色野兔和兔子之间的古老互动，以提供对“外来物种”影响的更深层次的时间视角？4.如何填补有关人类-动物生物文化历史的知识空白，在社会层面和野生动物管理政策中改变“本土”与“外来”的话语？解决这些问题不仅可以缩小对英国最重要的宗教（也是世俗）节日的知识差距，还可以缩小与标志性动物物种有关的知识差距。这些数据集将一起进行研讨会，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.