ABSTRACT
Vultures have helped humans confront death quite possibly for as long as we have been human. The complex interactions between human and vulture sociabilities are mediated through spatial and social boundaries. Each community of vulture experts has evolved gestures and rituals that allow them to call the vultures as needed, and negotiate with these remarkably skilled and hygienic cleaners. The heartfelt grief of the conservation biologists, and their acute awareness of the possibility of extinction, is just as effective a sentiment as the more traditionally religious or spiritual concerns of the Parsis and Tibetans. All three communities have evolved an architecture and a set of signals shared between vultures and humans; and, importantly, in all three cases, the place where they interact is a protected area created through other effective means that is rich in biodiversity.
