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Accepted Paper
Eyes of a Serpent, Heart of a Dove: Animal Metaphors and Moral Imagination in Vernacular Expression
Mandahakani Shylla
(North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong)
This paper examines how animal metaphors like “wise as serpents, harmless as doves” function as carriers of vernacular moral reasoning. Rooted in biblical and oral traditions, these metaphors encode ethical dualities, blending figurative language with sensory experience to mediate collective values.
Paper long abstract
Animal metaphors hold enduring power in shaping moral imagination and vernacular ethics within folk expression. This paper focuses on the phrase “wise as serpents, harmless as doves” – reimagined here as “eyes of a serpent, heart of a dove” – to explore how figurative language encodes complex ethical tensions between strategic awareness and moral restraint. While the phrase originates in the Christian New Testament, it is also deeply rooted in oral traditions, where animal imagery serves not as static symbolism but as moral agents and affective mediators.
Through a folkloristic lens, this study examines how moral judgments are formed and transmitted through shared sensory experience and habitual storytelling. Far from mere rhetorical flourishes, animal metaphors in folk expression function as vital tools of moral pedagogy and ecological ethics, offering culturally grounded frameworks that help communities navigate the social and moral complexities of everyday life.
In doing so, this paper contributes to broader conversations on the power of metaphor, oral tradition, and the role of folklore in sustaining cultural resilience and ethical pluralism.