False faces

The number of times that natural selection has pulled eyespots from its magic hat tells us that humans are not the only animals for whom a face is a beacon.

The difference is that we draw inferences that a bird, for example, would not.

Wherever we see eyes: that could be me. So a number of imaginary friends!

But maybe it’s only the backside of a click beetle, or some other prodigy of a trickster universe. The trap springs. The mask possesses its wearer.

Whereas a cardinal can spend all summer warring with its reflection in the implacable eyes of the house.
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“False Faces” was the name the Jesuits gave to the preeminent medicine society of the Haudenosaunee and other Iroquoian peoples.

As for my blogging and internetting, I’m trying to think positively about slowness. Posted by: Vianegativa    Source