The Bestiary in the Candy Aisle

Archaeology and anthropology treat the presence of animals in mythology and folklore as axiomatically about a culture’s ideas of nature. Sociology often assumes modernity no longer has such myths, but animal imagery abounds. In this article, the authors argue that our relationships with animals and nature are not primarily rational or scientific but formed through these images and the mythologies that come with them. The authors call these images “modern bestiaries” in reference to the medieval proto-encyclopedias that cataloged animals for moral instruction. Modern bestiaries (including alphabet books, sports teams, and car names, among others) generate a holistic worldview that marries a deep love of animals and “nature” to a fundamentally anti-ecological cosmology. The authors examine a particular modern bestiary—the menagerie of gummi animals in the candy aisle. Eating a gummi bear is never merely gastronomic but also an act of mimesis, sympathetic magic, and storytelling in which cultural relationships to animals are formed.