Playing Possum: How Animals Understand Death
$29.95
3177 in stock
Refresh Stock LevelInformation
Shipping
We currently offer free shipping on all orders over $100. Standard media mail shipping is $5 plus $1 for each additional book. Electronics are $35 shipping on all items.
Books
We get our books from a national distributor and although we strive to present up to date stock counts, stock constantly fluctuates. We perform a stock check when you add your book to the cart to ensure that it is available for shipping from the distributor. You can also check stock status by clicking the refresh stock link on the product page for the most up to date stock at the distributor. If an item is on backorder, you may place an order and we will update you on the estimated ship date as soon as we can confirm with the distributor.
Return & exchange
If you are not satisfied with your purchase you can return it to us within 14 days for an exchange or refund. More info.
Assistance
Can’t find what you’re looking for? We have access to over 13 million titles, reach out and see if we can help!
Contact us on (575) 322-6867, or email us at business@rabsbooks.com.
| Weight | 1.1 lbs |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 8.6 × 5.5 × 1.1 in |
Description
How animals conceive of death and dying–and what it can teach us about our own relationships with mortality
When the opossum feels threatened, she becomes paralyzed. Her body temperature plummets, her breathing and heart rates drop to a minimum, and her glands simulate the smell of a putrefying corpse. Playing Possum explores what the opossum and other creatures can teach us about how we and other species understand mortality, and demonstrates that the concept of death, far from being a uniquely human attribute, is widespread in the animal kingdom.
With humor and empathy, Susana Monsó tells the stories of ants who attend their own funerals, chimpanzees who clean the teeth of their dead, dogs who snack on their caregivers, crows who avoid the places where they saw a carcass, elephants obsessed with collecting ivory, and whales who carry their dead for weeks. Monsó, one of today’s leading experts on animal cognition and ethics, shows how there are more ways to conceive of mortality than the human way, and challenges the notion that the only emotional reactions to death worthy of our attention are ones that resemble our own.
Blending philosophical insight with new evidence from behavioral science and comparative psychology, Playing Possum dispels the anthropocentric biases that cloud our understanding of the natural world, and reveals that, when it comes to death and dying, we are just another animal.
Princeton University Press
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.