2012-07-22 "Women’s Day of Peace: The Life Givers of the Nations say no more alcohol in White Clay" from "Deep Green Resistance"
[http://deepgreenresistance.org/feature-help-support-indigenous-solidarity-in-whiteclay/]:
Donate Today and help make this march a success!
Lifting our Hearts, from Wounded Knees
August, 26th 2012 12:00 p.m. (noon) Billy Mills Hall Pine Ridge, SD
Action against White Clay Nebraska
“Our Stand Is Locked to the Land, Shut Down White Clay Today!”
Facts about White Clay, NE -
White Clay is an unincorporated village with a population of 14
people in northwest Nebraska. The town sits on the border of the Pine
Ridge Indian Reservation, home to the Oglala Lakota (also known as the
Oglala Sioux Tribe).
White Clay lies on disputed land, merely 200
feet from the official reservation border and less than 3 miles from
the center of Pine Ridge, South Dakota, the largest town on the
reservation.
Sale and possession of alcoholic beverages on the
Pine Ridge is prohibited under tribal law. Except for a brief experiment
with on-reservation liquor sales in the early 1970s, this prohibition
has been in effect since the reservation lands were created.
White
Clay has four off-sale beer stores licensed by the State of Nebraska
which sell the equivalent of 4.5 million 12-ounce cans of beer annually
(12,500 cans per day), mostly to the Oglalas living on Pine Ridge. These
retailers routinely violate Nebraska liquor law by selling beer to
minors and intoxicated persons, knowingly selling to bootleggers who
resell the beer on the reservation, permitting on-premise consumption of
beer in violation of restrictions placed on off-sale-only licenses, and
exchanging beer for sexual favors .The vast majority of those who
purchase beer in White Clay have in fact no legal place to consume it,
since possession and consumption of alcoholic beverages on the Pine
Ridge Reservation remain illegal under tribal law. Many people have died
in the streets due to exposure, as the state of Nebraska fails to
uphold state law or police White Clay. As long as the liquor stores in
White Clay remains in business, the genocide of the Oglala Lakota people
will continue.
Tribal activists of the Strong Heart Warrior
Society have conducted annual blockades since 1999, trying to intercept
alcohol and drugs being brought into the reservation. In June 2006
tribal activists protested beer sales by blockading the road from Pine
Ridge to White Clay and confiscating beer bought in White Clay. These
activists hoped to prevent bootlegging and illegal sales on the
reservation. On June 9th of this year, young Lakota activists and their
non-native allies held a blockade of the highway leading into White
Clay, and gained concessions from law enforcement. This action in August
will be a continuation of these efforts.
A Message to participants joining in the march:
This
will be a Women’s led march, only women will be speaking during and
after the march. Men are encouraged to come and will be there to show
support and provide security for the women. We will also provide support
work at the campsite so the women can get together and have women only
circles. The men will also get together at the camp and have male ally
circles. There will be more information provided at the campsite.
Donate Today to the Women’s Day of Peace Fund
To get involved contact:
Olowan Martinez Lead Organizer
605.407.1773 or truelyn8tive[at]yahoo[dot]com
or
T.R. McKenzie Coordinator for Deep Green Resistance Great Plains
trmckenzie[at]riseup[dot]net or 605.868.8111
and/or
the point person in your region. If you would like to be a point person
for this action in an area not already covered please contact Olowan or
T.R.
Point People:
Western South Dakota – Olowan Martinez
truelyn8tive[at]yahoo[dot]com
(605) 407-1773
Eastern Iowa – Nate Adeyemi:
adeyemi_dgr_gp[at]riseup[dot]net
(815) 632-7243
Wisconsin – Ben Cutbank:
ben_dgr[at]riseup[dot]org
(262) 208-5347
Omaha, NE – Christie Schoening:
tuffenoughtorock[at]gmail[dot]com
(402) 250-8140
Lincoln, NE – Jeffrey Eggerss
jefferyalaneggerss[at]gmail[dot]com
(402) 601-6985
Colorado – Jennifer Murnan:
jennifer[at]riseup[dot]net
(303) 823-6336
Western IA/Eastern SD – T.R. McKenzie:
trmckenzie[at]riseup[dot]net
(605) 868-8111
West Coast – Xander Knox:
xander_dgr[at]riseup[dot]net
(253) 906-4740
Southwest (AZ, NM, UT) – Hershe Michele
hershe310[at]gmail[dot]com
(505) 340-3362
More
Info: Everyone is responsible for their own food for this action, there
may or may not be camping fires to use for cooking while camping on
Pine Ridge, due to the chance of starting a wild fire. Everyone in the
caravan is responsible for the gas in the vehicle they are driving and
riding in. DRUGS AND ALCOHOL will not be tolerated at all during this
entire caravan and action. You will be escorted out of camp and asked to
immediately leave. Please do not test us on this rule. Thank you
everyone for your commitment and love for the cause.
Camping and Caravan Info: To join in the caravan heading from the
East, groups will meet again at T.R. and Joey’s place in Jefferson SD,
on Thursday August 23rd after 3p.m., dinner will be provided. We will
leave from Pine Ridge the next morning around 8am Friday August 24th.
All groups are encouraged to meet at Wounded Knee on August 24th at 3pm.
The campsite on Pine Ridge will be announced at a later date. If you
are traveling from the West please get in contact with Jennifer Murnan
from DGR Colorado she will have lodging for folks the night of August
23rd. August 25th will be a day of social gatherings, Women circles,
Male Ally circles, and trainings for the March on the 26th.
***Information on the Camping situation in Pine Ridge will come later stay tuned***
Deep Green Resistance Indigenous Solidarity Guidelines.
1.
First and foremost we must recognize that non-indigenous people are
occupying stolen land in an ongoing genocide that has lasted for
centuries. We must affirm our responsibility to stand with indigenous
communities who want support and give everything we can to protect their
land and culture from further devastation; they have been on the
frontlines of biocide and genocide for centuries, and as allies, we need
to step up and join them.
2. You are doing Indigenous solidarity
work not out of guilt, but out of a fierce desire to confront
oppressive colonial systems of power.
3. You are not helping
Indigenous people, you are there to: join with, struggle with, and fight
with indigenous peoples against these systems of power. You must be
willing to put your body on the line.
4. Recognize your privilege as a member of settler culture.
5.
You are not here to engage in any type of cultural, spiritual or
religious needs you think you might have, you are here to engage in
political action. Also, remember your political message is secondary to
the cause at hand.
6. Never use drugs or alcohol when engaging in Indigenous solidarity work. Never.
7. Do more listening than talking, you will be surprised what you can learn.
8.
Recognize that there will be Indigenous people that will not want you
to participate in ceremonies. Humbly refrain from participating in
ceremonies.
9. Recognize that you and your Indigenous allies may be in the minority on a cause that is worth fighting for.
10. Work with integrity and respect, be trustworthy and do what you say you are going to do.
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Lakotah: Save Pe'Sla!!!
Please go to Indiegogo and donate to save the heart of the Sioux land from public auction.
[http://www.indiegogo.com/PeSla-LakotaHeartland]
2012-08-21 "The Heart of All That Is - Saving the Sacred Black Hills" by Corina Roberts:
In the heart of the Great Sioux Nation lies the Black Hills, and on Saturday, August 25, roughly 1,943 acres will be auctioned off to the highest bidder. Although the irony is obvious, the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota people are in a race against time to raise enough money to buy their land back, and they need all the help they can get.
The auction takes place Saturday, August 25. Up for sale; roughly 1,942.66 acres in the heart of the Black Hills of South Dakota...in the heart of Indian Country, of the Great Sioux Nation.
The native people want to buy it back...and they don’t have very much time to raise several million dollars to do so.
Known as Pe’Sla to the Lakota, Nakota and Dakota people, it is a land full of history. More importantly, it is the center of the universe for the native people.
Being one with the land is a difficult thing for many of us to understand. It’s not just a cool thing to say. It means you are born of it; it is recognition that you are made from and given life by the air you breathe, which gives you oxygen from the land. It means the earth that nourishes the plants and animals that feed you is a part of you; that the blood in your veins is moistened by the water of the land, and that you will return to that earth some day to continue that cycle.
It means that your ancestors are part of that land, and a part of you. It is a connection that cannot be broken without consequence. It is far more than words. It is being a part of a place, and the place being a part of you. It is knowing who you are, and what you are.
Dr. Sara J. Jumping Eagle, MD, Oglala Lakota from Kyle, South Dakota, described her feelings this way.
"When someone asked me today, how would I feel if Pe’ Sla were to be bought by a developer, and destroyed, or paved with a road…. I couldn’t talk for awhile – I couldn’t speak – there was a pain in my chest, and I cried….the person on the phone thought I had hung up “Hello, Hello”. “Yes, I am here.”
"How I would feel? How would you feel if your whole way of life was threatened? If a place that was holy and mysterious was covered up by a parking lot? Bethlehem was an amusement park? How would I feel if Pe’ Sla was destroyed? It would be a pain that it is difficult to describe..I suppose because I have not felt it before….. It would only be comparable to another Wounded Knee Massacre… or to having one of my relatives killed in front of me… When we say Mitakuye Oyasin..It is a prayer…it is a way of life. It is not something we just say. We are all related, and Pe’ Sla is our relative and should be treated as such! Hecetu Ye!"
The land, being auctioned to satisfy a tax lien, is currently in the ownership of Leonard and Margaret Reynolds, and has been privately owned for some 126 years. The Fort Laramie Treaties should have prevented this kind of thing from happening - non Indian purchase of lands in the heart of Indian Country - but treaty violations are nothing new to the tribes,and there is no time to waste...the auction is this Saturday.
“People have asked how the land came to be owned by private owners” said Rob Fife, DQU graduate, horseman and artist. “After the (Fort Laramie) treaty of 1868 was violated by the US Government, they then passed new laws (Dawes Act), again violating their own laws, and parcelling out the Great Sioux Nation into allotments. Each Sioux (Lakota) head of household (men) was designated 160 acres and orphans or those under 18 years old were designated 40 – 80 acres. The remainder of land was opened up to settlers to purchase, especially in the Black Hills where Custer’s expedition had found gold.”
James Magaska Swan, a supporter of efforts to purchase Pe'Sla, asked a very good question.
"In 1980 the US Supreme Court affirmed the Ft. Laramie Treaty of 1868, and found that the taking of the Black Hills violated that treaty and awarded liquidated damages of one hundred twenty million dollars, which mostly remains held in trust for the Sioux tribes. Why can't the Sioux tribes use that money to purchase this block of land in the Black Hills?"
Save Pe'Sla co-organizer Karen Ducheneneaux's answer is critical, and illustrates the resolve of the native people to keep their sacred land and their sacred connection to it:
"That money is not for 'damages,' that amount represents a 'payment' for the theft of the He Sapa (Black Hills). If we accept any portion of it, we say we are giving up claims to the Hills, since we've been paid."
Support and awareness is coming from around the world. Individual contributors are making an impact; there is no donation amount too small to be important. As of 9 AM on Tuesday, August 21, $144,880.00 have been raised on Indiegogo.com This is the official site for making donations.
This is more than a fight to save land. This is in many ways a spiritual awakening and journey for a people who have been romanticized and brutalized, admired and ignored, and desperately misunderstood, since the invasion of their homeland began five hundred years ago. This is a chance to take back what is theirs...and that they should have to buy it back seems criminal in itself...but there is no time left to lament about that now. There are only a few days left before the auction...before the heart of their land goes to the highest bidder.
It does not matter what color you are. We are all related. We can, and should, come forward, come together, and help the Lakota, Nakota and Dakota people buy their land back. You can make your donation here: [http://www.indiegogo.com/PeSla-LakotaHeartland]
You can join the Save Pe’Sla Facebook group at [http://www.facebook.com/groups/490836130943714]
There is also an event page - another planning meeting is coming up on Thursday, August 23. [http://www.facebook.com/events/424416784276719]
Young Lakota Warrior: Makaheya Inyan Hoksila Yracheta, courtesy Karen Ducheneaux
Indian Land For Sale courtesy Rob Fife: Today's land sale alongside a land-sale poster from the past -
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Sarayaku
2012-08-30 "Ecuador: Ruling In Favor Of Sarayaku Tribe" by Latinamerica Press
[http://www.eurasiareview.com/30082012-ecuador-ruling-in-favor-of-sarayaku-tribe/]:
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights, a judicial institution of the Organization of American States that is headquartered in San José, Costa Rica, found the Ecuadorian state responsible “for not having carried out a free and informed prior consultation process in accordance with international standards, violating the rights to communal indigenous property and cultural identity of the [Kichwa] Sarayaku people, as well as for not granting effective protection and for putting in danger the life and integrity of their members in the presence of high powered explosives in the territory.”
Notified to the Ecuadorian government on July 25, the decision refers to the concession of two contiguous blocks for oil exploration and exploitation in the indigenous territory, located in the Amazonian province of Pastaza, granted in 1996 to Argentina’s Compañía General de Combustibles (CGC) — subsidiary of the US-based company Chevron — and US-based Burlington Resources. The concession was granted without having ensured its residents their right to free and informed prior consultation. The case was submitted to the Court in November 2010.
The ruling stated that Ecuador “did not conduct any form of consultation with the Sarayaku people with their institutions and representative bodies during any of the oil exploration phases.”
The tribunal concluded that some of the company’s doings, which governmental authorities claimed were forms of consultation, did not comply with international standards or procedures, which encourage sustained, effective, and reliable channels of dialogue with the indigenous peoples and participation through their representative institutions.
To be considered prior consultation, the consultation “has to be done in good faith and in an adequate, accessible, and informed manner,” the ruling pointed out. “Thus, the state’s failure to consult created a climate of unrest, division, and confrontation with the indigenous communities of the area, particularly with the Sarayaku people. Additionally, the environmental impact plan was prepared by a private entity subcontracted by the petroleum company, without state control, without the indigenous people’s participation, and with no consideration for the social, spiritual, and cultural impact that the planned activities could have on the Sarayaku people.”
In an Aug. 12 press release, the Kichwa First People of Sarayaku celebrated the ruling and called the Presidential Decree 1247, promulgated on July 19, “illegitimate.” The decree regulates the execution of free and informed prior consultation in bidding proceedings and allocation of hydrocarbon-rich areas and blocks. For Sarayaku people, this decree is a device that “aims to limit consultation with a simple socialization and information procedure.”
As far as reparations, the Court ordered the Ecuadorian state to pay Sarayaku people a sum of US$1.4 million, to remove the explosives present in the Sarayaku territory, to carry out an adequate and effective prior consultation process that complies with international standards if any other extractive activities or projects are intended to be done in the territory, and to perform a public act accepting responsibility for the events.
The legal secretary of the Presidency, Alexis Mera, announced that the government would abide by the Inter-American Court’s decision.
“The Court asked that we publicly apologize. We will do so in due time,” Mera told the press. “There are reparations that we will pay.”
[http://www.eurasiareview.com/30082012-ecuador-ruling-in-favor-of-sarayaku-tribe/]:
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights, a judicial institution of the Organization of American States that is headquartered in San José, Costa Rica, found the Ecuadorian state responsible “for not having carried out a free and informed prior consultation process in accordance with international standards, violating the rights to communal indigenous property and cultural identity of the [Kichwa] Sarayaku people, as well as for not granting effective protection and for putting in danger the life and integrity of their members in the presence of high powered explosives in the territory.”
Notified to the Ecuadorian government on July 25, the decision refers to the concession of two contiguous blocks for oil exploration and exploitation in the indigenous territory, located in the Amazonian province of Pastaza, granted in 1996 to Argentina’s Compañía General de Combustibles (CGC) — subsidiary of the US-based company Chevron — and US-based Burlington Resources. The concession was granted without having ensured its residents their right to free and informed prior consultation. The case was submitted to the Court in November 2010.
The ruling stated that Ecuador “did not conduct any form of consultation with the Sarayaku people with their institutions and representative bodies during any of the oil exploration phases.”
The tribunal concluded that some of the company’s doings, which governmental authorities claimed were forms of consultation, did not comply with international standards or procedures, which encourage sustained, effective, and reliable channels of dialogue with the indigenous peoples and participation through their representative institutions.
To be considered prior consultation, the consultation “has to be done in good faith and in an adequate, accessible, and informed manner,” the ruling pointed out. “Thus, the state’s failure to consult created a climate of unrest, division, and confrontation with the indigenous communities of the area, particularly with the Sarayaku people. Additionally, the environmental impact plan was prepared by a private entity subcontracted by the petroleum company, without state control, without the indigenous people’s participation, and with no consideration for the social, spiritual, and cultural impact that the planned activities could have on the Sarayaku people.”
In an Aug. 12 press release, the Kichwa First People of Sarayaku celebrated the ruling and called the Presidential Decree 1247, promulgated on July 19, “illegitimate.” The decree regulates the execution of free and informed prior consultation in bidding proceedings and allocation of hydrocarbon-rich areas and blocks. For Sarayaku people, this decree is a device that “aims to limit consultation with a simple socialization and information procedure.”
As far as reparations, the Court ordered the Ecuadorian state to pay Sarayaku people a sum of US$1.4 million, to remove the explosives present in the Sarayaku territory, to carry out an adequate and effective prior consultation process that complies with international standards if any other extractive activities or projects are intended to be done in the territory, and to perform a public act accepting responsibility for the events.
The legal secretary of the Presidency, Alexis Mera, announced that the government would abide by the Inter-American Court’s decision.
“The Court asked that we publicly apologize. We will do so in due time,” Mera told the press. “There are reparations that we will pay.”
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Non-Humans think critically and feel empathy, much like humans do but differently
2012-08-23 "Prominent scientists sign declaration that animals have conscious awareness, just like us" by George Dvorsky
[http://io9.com/5937356/prominent-scientists-sign-declaration-that-animals-have-conscious-awareness-just-like-us]:
An international group of prominent scientists has signed The Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness in which they are proclaiming their support for the idea that animals are conscious and aware to the degree that humans are — a list of animals that includes all mammals, birds, and even the octopus. But will this make us stop treating these animals in totally inhumane ways? [http://fcmconference.org/img/CambridgeDeclarationOnConsciousness.pdf]
Full size -
While it might not sound like much for scientists to declare that many nonhuman animals possess conscious states, it's the open acknowledgement that's the big news here. The body of scientific evidence is increasingly showing that most animals are conscious in the same way that we are, and it's no longer something we can ignore.
What's also very interesting about the declaration is the group's acknowledgement that consciousness can emerge in those animals that are very much unlike humans, including those that evolved along different evolutionary tracks, namely birds and some cephalopods.
"The absence of a neocortex does not appear to preclude an organism from experiencing affective states," they write, "Convergent evidence indicates that non-human animals have the neuroanatomical, neurochemical, and neurophysiological substrates of conscious states along with the capacity to exhibit intentional behaviors."
Consequently, say the signatories, the scientific evidence is increasingly indicating that humans are not unique in possessing the neurological substrates that generate consciousness.
Full size -
The group consists of cognitive scientists, neuropharmacologists, neurophysiologists, neuroanatomists, and computational neuroscientists — all of whom were attending the Francis Crick Memorial Conference on Consciousness in Human and Non-Human Animals [http://fcmconference.org/]. The declaration was signed in the presence of Stephen Hawking, and included such signatories as Christof Koch, David Edelman, Edward Boyden, Philip Low, Irene Pepperberg, and many more.
The declaration made the following observations:
* The field of Consciousness research is rapidly evolving. Abundant new techniques and strategies for human and non-human animal research have been developed. Consequently, more data is becoming readily available, and this calls for a periodic reevaluation of previously held preconceptions in this field. Studies of non-human animals have shown that homologous brain circuits correlated with conscious experience and perception can be selectively facilitated and disrupted to assess whether they are in fact necessary for those experiences. Moreover, in humans, new non-invasive techniques are readily available to survey the correlates of consciousness.
* The neural substrates of emotions do not appear to be confined to cortical structures. In fact, subcortical neural networks aroused during affective states in humans are also critically important for generating emotional behaviors in animals. Artificial arousal of the same brain regions generates corresponding behavior and feeling states in both humans and non-human animals. Wherever in the brain one evokes instinctual emotional behaviors in non-human animals, many of the ensuing behaviors are consistent with experienced feeling states, including those internal states that are rewarding and punishing. Deep brain stimulation of these systems in humans can also generate similar affective states. Systems associated with affect are concentrated in subcortical regions where neural homologies abound. Young human and nonhuman animals without neocortices retain these brain-mind functions. Furthermore, neural circuits supporting behavioral/electrophysiological states of attentiveness, sleep and decision making appear to have arisen in evolution as early as the invertebrate radiation, being evident in insects and cephalopod mollusks (e.g., octopus).
* Birds appear to offer, in their behavior, neurophysiology, and neuroanatomy a striking case of parallel evolution of consciousness. Evidence of near human-like levels of consciousness has been most dramatically observed in African grey parrots. Mammalian and avian emotional networks and cognitive microcircuitries appear to be far more homologous than previously thought. Moreover, certain species of birds have been found to exhibit neural sleep patterns similar to those of mammals, including REM sleep and, as was demonstrated in zebra finches, neurophysiological patterns, previously thought to require a mammalian neocortex. Magpies in articular have been shown to exhibit striking similarities to humans, great apes, dolphins, and elephants in studies of mirror self-recognition.
* In humans, the effect of certain hallucinogens appears to be associated with a disruption in cortical feedforward and feedback processing. Pharmacological interventions in non-human animals with compounds known to affect conscious behavior in humans can lead to similar perturbations in behavior in non-human animals. In humans, there is evidence to suggest that awareness is correlated with cortical activity, which does not exclude possible contributions by subcortical or early cortical processing, as in visual awareness. Evidence that human and nonhuman animal emotional feelings arise from homologous subcortical brain networks provide compelling evidence for evolutionarily shared primal affective qualia.
Read more about this here [http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/octopus-chronicles/2012/08/21/octopuses-gain-consciousness-according-to-scientists-declaration/] and here [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christof-koch/consciousness-is-everywhere_b_1784047.html].
2012-08-21 "Octopuses Gain Consciousness (According to Scientists’ Declaration)" by Katherine Harmon from "Scientific American" [http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/octopus-chronicles/2012/08/21/octopuses-gain-consciousness-according-to-scientists-declaration/]. Image via Vittorio Bruno/Shutterstock.com
2010-10-26 "Mirror makes elephants reflect" by Roger Highfield from "(London) Telegraph" [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1532889/Mirror-makes-elephants-reflect.html].
2008-12-27 "Animal Einsteins: New research shows that monkeys make art, dolphins chat and there's no such thing as a birdbrain" by Michael J. Weiss [http://hi.baidu.com/%C2%ED%B9%FA%B6%B0Ӣ%CEĿ%E2/blog/item/a20f46162b08d356f2de326b.html].
Photograph showing Irene Pepperberg and Alex the African Grey Parrot:
[http://io9.com/5937356/prominent-scientists-sign-declaration-that-animals-have-conscious-awareness-just-like-us]:
An international group of prominent scientists has signed The Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness in which they are proclaiming their support for the idea that animals are conscious and aware to the degree that humans are — a list of animals that includes all mammals, birds, and even the octopus. But will this make us stop treating these animals in totally inhumane ways? [http://fcmconference.org/img/CambridgeDeclarationOnConsciousness.pdf]
Full size -
While it might not sound like much for scientists to declare that many nonhuman animals possess conscious states, it's the open acknowledgement that's the big news here. The body of scientific evidence is increasingly showing that most animals are conscious in the same way that we are, and it's no longer something we can ignore.
What's also very interesting about the declaration is the group's acknowledgement that consciousness can emerge in those animals that are very much unlike humans, including those that evolved along different evolutionary tracks, namely birds and some cephalopods.
"The absence of a neocortex does not appear to preclude an organism from experiencing affective states," they write, "Convergent evidence indicates that non-human animals have the neuroanatomical, neurochemical, and neurophysiological substrates of conscious states along with the capacity to exhibit intentional behaviors."
Consequently, say the signatories, the scientific evidence is increasingly indicating that humans are not unique in possessing the neurological substrates that generate consciousness.
Full size -
The group consists of cognitive scientists, neuropharmacologists, neurophysiologists, neuroanatomists, and computational neuroscientists — all of whom were attending the Francis Crick Memorial Conference on Consciousness in Human and Non-Human Animals [http://fcmconference.org/]. The declaration was signed in the presence of Stephen Hawking, and included such signatories as Christof Koch, David Edelman, Edward Boyden, Philip Low, Irene Pepperberg, and many more.
The declaration made the following observations:
* The field of Consciousness research is rapidly evolving. Abundant new techniques and strategies for human and non-human animal research have been developed. Consequently, more data is becoming readily available, and this calls for a periodic reevaluation of previously held preconceptions in this field. Studies of non-human animals have shown that homologous brain circuits correlated with conscious experience and perception can be selectively facilitated and disrupted to assess whether they are in fact necessary for those experiences. Moreover, in humans, new non-invasive techniques are readily available to survey the correlates of consciousness.
* The neural substrates of emotions do not appear to be confined to cortical structures. In fact, subcortical neural networks aroused during affective states in humans are also critically important for generating emotional behaviors in animals. Artificial arousal of the same brain regions generates corresponding behavior and feeling states in both humans and non-human animals. Wherever in the brain one evokes instinctual emotional behaviors in non-human animals, many of the ensuing behaviors are consistent with experienced feeling states, including those internal states that are rewarding and punishing. Deep brain stimulation of these systems in humans can also generate similar affective states. Systems associated with affect are concentrated in subcortical regions where neural homologies abound. Young human and nonhuman animals without neocortices retain these brain-mind functions. Furthermore, neural circuits supporting behavioral/electrophysiological states of attentiveness, sleep and decision making appear to have arisen in evolution as early as the invertebrate radiation, being evident in insects and cephalopod mollusks (e.g., octopus).
* Birds appear to offer, in their behavior, neurophysiology, and neuroanatomy a striking case of parallel evolution of consciousness. Evidence of near human-like levels of consciousness has been most dramatically observed in African grey parrots. Mammalian and avian emotional networks and cognitive microcircuitries appear to be far more homologous than previously thought. Moreover, certain species of birds have been found to exhibit neural sleep patterns similar to those of mammals, including REM sleep and, as was demonstrated in zebra finches, neurophysiological patterns, previously thought to require a mammalian neocortex. Magpies in articular have been shown to exhibit striking similarities to humans, great apes, dolphins, and elephants in studies of mirror self-recognition.
* In humans, the effect of certain hallucinogens appears to be associated with a disruption in cortical feedforward and feedback processing. Pharmacological interventions in non-human animals with compounds known to affect conscious behavior in humans can lead to similar perturbations in behavior in non-human animals. In humans, there is evidence to suggest that awareness is correlated with cortical activity, which does not exclude possible contributions by subcortical or early cortical processing, as in visual awareness. Evidence that human and nonhuman animal emotional feelings arise from homologous subcortical brain networks provide compelling evidence for evolutionarily shared primal affective qualia.
Read more about this here [http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/octopus-chronicles/2012/08/21/octopuses-gain-consciousness-according-to-scientists-declaration/] and here [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christof-koch/consciousness-is-everywhere_b_1784047.html].
2012-08-21 "Octopuses Gain Consciousness (According to Scientists’ Declaration)" by Katherine Harmon from "Scientific American" [http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/octopus-chronicles/2012/08/21/octopuses-gain-consciousness-according-to-scientists-declaration/]. Image via Vittorio Bruno/Shutterstock.com
2010-10-26 "Mirror makes elephants reflect" by Roger Highfield from "(London) Telegraph" [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1532889/Mirror-makes-elephants-reflect.html].
2008-12-27 "Animal Einsteins: New research shows that monkeys make art, dolphins chat and there's no such thing as a birdbrain" by Michael J. Weiss [http://hi.baidu.com/%C2%ED%B9%FA%B6%B0Ӣ%CEĿ%E2/blog/item/a20f46162b08d356f2de326b.html].
Photograph showing Irene Pepperberg and Alex the African Grey Parrot:
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