"A New Kind of Family"

“A New Kind of Family”

In “An Elephant Crackup?” Siebert describes the fabric of elephant society and how the elephant families and relationships work. In this specific passage, Siebert demonstrates a different kind of society- a “mutually benefiting interspecies culture”, in which humans and elephants regard one another with mutual respect and love. The word “mutual” is so key in the idea of “trans-species psyche” because both species really need to understand one another’s essence. They need to become sort of like a family. In this passage about the Sheldrick Trust, we see that the trust and sanctuary is essentially, a family environment. The fact that elephants come back to visit their allomothers, even bringing their children, creates a family web that bonds elephants and humans in a way that has never existed before. As humans, we have always been taught that “birds of a feather flock together”. These new human- elephant relations toss that cliché out the window and their existence proves that humans can, and must, adopt a new way of looking at animals- a “trans-species psyche”, for both species to heal. This word “healing” stood out to me because I feel that both species benefit from the Sheldrick Trust. Elephants get the attention they need and humans get a sense of humanity restored in them by helping these elephants. The “trans-species psyche” helps both species connect and realize that while their anatomies may differ, their spirits are more similar than anyone could have imagined.