One of the most challenging subjects I did at university was Systematics, the study of classification and order within the family tree of life… basically what it is that separates, for example, Homo sapiens from Homo neanderthalensis. It was difficult for me because I couldn’t see the point of putting things into arbitrary categories that would not last beyond a few generations.
Fundamentally I feel there is something wrong about the field altogether. Genetics on the scale of whole organisms is continuous and not discrete, even within the species. Nonetheless, classification is the only way that the human mind can get its way around the awesome and infinite scope of life.
We often forget that we don’t – can’t – know everything, that our brains are just not wired to comprehend certain things. So why is it that we keep trying to convince ourselves that there is an end to knowledge when really, we couldn’t know everything even if we wanted to? The end result is that we lose ourselves in a world where we are ruled by words. The judicial system is probably the most potent symbol of this in civilisation. The common example is where someone who should be behind bars is set free on the basis of semantics.
We are so bound by what we say that we forget the power of silence; on a deeper level, being alone and concealed from the world for periods of time gives you a feeling that words don’t matter any more. Because really… they don’t.
Jane Goodall says it with such grace:
I think we live with words. We look at the world around us and we classify everything. If you can see things without words – I mean when this came to me strongly is, a very amazing fly, not just like a housefly but it had golden bristles and red eyes and golden wings, and it landed on my finger. I’m looking at this thing and I thought, “A fly,” and then I thought, “But look at it.” If you take away the word ‘fly’, you get this incredible creature which is part of the whole tapestry and interwoven web of life. Magic. We just – it’s a fly, and I realised how we destroy a lot of the magic in the world by always wanting to label everything. We can’t help it. We just put things in boxes and then we don’t sometimes see the magic.