Perceptions of Vultures across Cultures

In the beginning, the world was sick and full off dead, decaying, and rotting creatures. There were no spirits to renew the dead into the living, and so, as it goes in <a href="https://www.whats-your-sign.com/native-american-death-eaters-and-buzzard-meaning.html" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Cabbo mythology</a>, the living world suffered. It was not until an old, outcasted woman befriended three vultures and taught them how to become who they are — to be the harbingers of life from the pits of death — that the world found balance. There are dozens of <a href="https://prizedwriting.ucdavis.edu/sites/prizedwriting.ucdavis.edu/files/sitewide/pastissues/02%E2%80%9303%20BYRD.pdf" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">stories like this</a> in Native American, Celtic, African, and Tibetan culture— stories that praise the vulture as a beacon of spiritual renewal, cleansing, purification, and patience. In Cherokee, turkey vultures are called the <a href="http://blogs.evergreen.edu/ebestiary/blog/2012/05/29/turkey-vulture/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">“Peace Eagle”</a> because they don’t kill anything in order to live. And yet, some cultures saw vultures as greedy, bullyish, and untrustworthy creatures. In <a href="https://worldbirds.com/vulture-symbolism/#native" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">one Native American story</a>, the Jaguar had to rescue the sun and the moon from the Vulture People, who had stolen it for themselves. <a href="https://medium.com/the-environment/perceptions-of-vultures-across-cultures-5b195fb385f8">Read More</a>