Sacred groves and serpent‐gods moderate human–snake relations
Abstract Serpent‐god worship is an ancient tradition still practiced in many sacred groves across the Western Ghats of India. Although sacred groves there hold ecological conservation value, few studies have focused on arguably the most iconic taxon in the region, snakes. We thus investigated the im...
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doaj-2fc6579d26c542889e3291f18b29646b2020-11-25T02:28:40ZengWileyPeople and Nature2575-83142020-03-012111112210.1002/pan3.10059Sacred groves and serpent‐gods moderate human–snake relationsFélix Landry Yuan0U. Prashanth Ballullaya1Ramesh Roshnath2Timothy C. Bonebrake3Palatty Allesh Sinu4School of Biological Sciences The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong SAR ChinaDepartment of Animal Science School of Biological Science Central University of Kerala Kasaragod IndiaDepartment of Animal Science School of Biological Science Central University of Kerala Kasaragod IndiaSchool of Biological Sciences The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong SAR ChinaDepartment of Animal Science School of Biological Science Central University of Kerala Kasaragod IndiaAbstract Serpent‐god worship is an ancient tradition still practiced in many sacred groves across the Western Ghats of India. Although sacred groves there hold ecological conservation value, few studies have focused on arguably the most iconic taxon in the region, snakes. We thus investigated the impact of sacred groves and snake deity worshipping on attitudes towards snakes by conducting surveys with people who had entered sacred groves in the past. We found that very few participants who had encountered snakes inside sacred groves in the past harmed them during these encounters. However, nearly a quarter of all participants do harm snakes if encountered outside sacred groves. We also found that a larger proportion of participants who do not harm snakes outside sacred groves worship snake deities, relative to those that do harm them. Our work thus highlights the influence of sacred groves and snake deity worshipping on pacifistic human–snake relations in Southwestern India. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10059biocultural landscapeenvironmental perceptionhuman–snake relationreligionsacred grovesnakebite |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Félix Landry Yuan U. Prashanth Ballullaya Ramesh Roshnath Timothy C. Bonebrake Palatty Allesh Sinu |
spellingShingle |
Félix Landry Yuan U. Prashanth Ballullaya Ramesh Roshnath Timothy C. Bonebrake Palatty Allesh Sinu Sacred groves and serpent‐gods moderate human–snake relations People and Nature biocultural landscape environmental perception human–snake relation religion sacred grove snakebite |
author_facet |
Félix Landry Yuan U. Prashanth Ballullaya Ramesh Roshnath Timothy C. Bonebrake Palatty Allesh Sinu |
author_sort |
Félix Landry Yuan |
title |
Sacred groves and serpent‐gods moderate human–snake relations |
title_short |
Sacred groves and serpent‐gods moderate human–snake relations |
title_full |
Sacred groves and serpent‐gods moderate human–snake relations |
title_fullStr |
Sacred groves and serpent‐gods moderate human–snake relations |
title_full_unstemmed |
Sacred groves and serpent‐gods moderate human–snake relations |
title_sort |
sacred groves and serpent‐gods moderate human–snake relations |
publisher |
Wiley |
series |
People and Nature |
issn |
2575-8314 |
publishDate |
2020-03-01 |
description |
Abstract Serpent‐god worship is an ancient tradition still practiced in many sacred groves across the Western Ghats of India. Although sacred groves there hold ecological conservation value, few studies have focused on arguably the most iconic taxon in the region, snakes. We thus investigated the impact of sacred groves and snake deity worshipping on attitudes towards snakes by conducting surveys with people who had entered sacred groves in the past. We found that very few participants who had encountered snakes inside sacred groves in the past harmed them during these encounters. However, nearly a quarter of all participants do harm snakes if encountered outside sacred groves. We also found that a larger proportion of participants who do not harm snakes outside sacred groves worship snake deities, relative to those that do harm them. Our work thus highlights the influence of sacred groves and snake deity worshipping on pacifistic human–snake relations in Southwestern India. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article. |
topic |
biocultural landscape environmental perception human–snake relation religion sacred grove snakebite |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10059 |
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