If you don't grieve a dead relative does that make you less human than an elephant?

Question

or other animals that have been known to do that? (if there are any more)

if not then why is that (grieving) a sign of humanity in animals? Certain circumstances affect family relations and humans have more complex relationships than elephants, so isn't the grieving just as human as when we see a dog raise an eyebrow?

Answer 1

It is the nature of many living creatures to mourn their dead! Why must it be "human". Ant's carry away their dead, little sparrows fight with crows to save their mates, it isn't human it's of the spirit of all Gods creatures.

Answer 2

Not sure how you went from a dog's raised eyebrow to grieving a loved one.if you are not grieving for your relative it's because you didn't love them.Or..could also be that you are just plain heartless,..But whatever you do, make sure you don;t bring animals into this.They are more intuned than you are.

Answer 3

Ah, I think it shows that our emotions are more developed than an elephants.  If anything, it makes us more "human".

Edit:  Dammit, pelican, i didn't see your answer.  I hate repeating people.

Answer 4

I think that because we are human, we have more control over our emotions.  While an elephant might grieve over a relative, we as humans might take more factors into account.  Like, if that relative beat us when we were young, we might not grieve.  Just because we choose not to grieve does not mean we are any less human, it actually means that we have more control over our emotions, which makes us more human.

For us to be able to control our grieving, that is an added complexity level to our emotions.  We do not take a blanket situation and apply a blanket emotion to said situation.  However, we take a situation and on many occasions grieve internally on another level than purely physical.

I think that grieving in animals is less of a sign of humanity, and more of a sign of social structure and family hierarchy.