- Title
- Reflecting on donkeys: images of death and redemption
- Creator
- Bough, Jill
- Relation
- Animal Death p. 137-150
- Relation
- http://purl.library.usyd.edu.au/sup/9781743320235
- Publisher
- Sydney University Press
- Resource Type
- book chapter
- Date
- 2013
- Description
- At the recent funeral at Palmdale on the Central Coast of NSW of Elizabeth Harris, a fellow donkey enthusiast, her cortege, led by her two donkeys, served as a reminder of the special link between humans and donkeys, not only in life but also in death. As an active member of the local donkey sanctuary, her donkeys, like so many companion donkeys, including my two, were rescued. These much loved animals once again reminded me that donkeys are so much more than hard working beasts of burden or gentle companions. The human-like qualities accorded them have placed them in a special relationship with humans who construct them as symbols, both in this life and the next. Donkeys had particular symbolic and spiritual meaning in ancient cultures of the Middle East, while their association with Jesus in the New Testament has seen them regarded as an allegory of human suffering and of hopes for salvation. The link between the donkey as victim and as saviour is nowhere more pronounced than in Australia in the modern era, as is the gulf between the representation of the symbolic animal and that of the mass of donkeys.
- Subject
- donkey; death; Australia; history
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1342826
- Identifier
- uon:29041
- Identifier
- ISBN:9781743320235
- Language
- eng
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