RE: legend of Greyfriar's Bobby

From: Price, Ilfryn (I.Price@shu.ac.uk)
Date: Thu 26 Jan 2006 - 13:18:38 GMT

  • Next message: Scott Chase: "RE: legend of Greyfriar's Bobby"

    These may be 'pre urban' legends

    Another is the dog that sat on the tuckerbox nine miles from Gundagai (NSW Australia)

    An excerpt from http://goaustralia.about.com/od/nswsightseeing/a/gundagai2.htm

    "The story of the faithful dog is quite possibly a romanticised version. The refrain from the supposedly original verse about the dog was:

    Then the dog sat on the Tucker Box Nine miles from Gundagai.

    But it's been said that in the "actual" original, it wasn't "sat" that the dog did."

    If

    > -----Original Message-----
    > From: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk [mailto:fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk] On Behalf
    > Of Scott Chase
    > Sent: 26 January 2006 12:52
    > To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
    > Subject: legend of Greyfriar's Bobby
    >
    > http://findagrave.org/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=5637
    >
    > I was watching a show called "A Dog's Life" on the cable channel Science
    > Channel this morning and one segment introduced the Scottish legend of a
    > Skye terrier named Bobby that was so devoted to its master that after he
    > died of tuberculosis, the dog kept a graveside vigil for many years until
    > its own death. The story was a basis for a 1961 film.
    >
    > The legend itself could be construed as memetic. But, beyond that, what is
    > it about such stories that have an emotional impact upon people. I admit
    > to
    > geting choked up as I watched the depiction of the terrier's behavior on
    > TV.
    > There's gotta be something innate in this phenomonon, that such altruistic
    > acts can result in a deeply felt emotional reaction. We are affected by
    > stories of selfless bravery, such as that of former US Cavalry soldier
    > Rick
    > Rescorla who died saving the people working for his company in the World
    > Trade Center on September 11th. Being emotionally impacted by accounts of
    > human bravery shows some innate response to acts of altruism, but why are
    > we
    > so afftacted by selflessness in animals too. And what about the other side
    > of the terrier's story. What is it in a dog that would cause it to be so
    > devoted that it stays put long after its master has passed away? Is this
    > due
    > to the innate aspects of pack behavior, where a dog will look up to the
    > alpha of the pack? Would a dog stay by the death spot of a fellow pack
    > member for such a long time? I've heard something of how elephants return
    > to
    > bones of their deceased, but what about dogs? Surely the legend of
    > Greyfriar's Bobby falls outside the norm for typical dog behavior.
    >
    > I do recall a comedian who said something to the effect that upon an
    > owners
    > death a dog would feel upset as the coroner takes the body away, but a cat
    > would play with the toe tag.
    >
    > The bottom line is that despite an innate predilection for self-centered
    > behavior, both humans and dogs seem to have a sense of devotion that
    > crosses
    > species boundaries. Stories about dogs are very popular and seem to hit us
    > somewhere deep within our psyche, such as the tragedy of "Old Yeller".
    > Does
    > the supposedly neotenic cuteness of dogs impact us like that of babies?
    > Does
    > a relationship with a dog dupe us into entering some sort of pseudo-
    > parental
    > response, not too far removed from the explanation of why people care for
    > adopted and foster children not related to them. Are we merely a pack
    > leader
    > in the dog's eyes, the latter possibly regressing to innate patterns if it
    > becomes a stray and meets up with a pack of feral dogs, following the
    > alpha
    > of that pack and forgetting its owner?
    >
    >
    >
    > ===============================================================
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    =============================================================== This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing) see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit

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