Interfaith Group

I would also argue that morality is pre-human. Konrad Lorenz did some good work on this, but the haunting narrative that most exemplifies this was Robert Ardrey's repetition of an incident reported by George Schaller.

A South African farmer shot an elephant in a herd whose range included his property. He did not see that elephant again, and assumed he'd killed her. Weeks later, the herd returned. In the lead, the matriarch carried an elephant shall, which she laid down in sight of the farmer, then led her sisters and daughters away.

At a minimum, this incident constellates the ideas of accusation, guilt, and recognition of wrongdoing by the aggrieved, who are, in this case, not only non-human but non-primates. In turns, this raises not only the question of the origin of abstract moral thinking but puts that morality in the context of a ritualized, embodied response.