Anthropomorphism Anthropomorphism American Media Category="Anthropomorphism"This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality

[image] Anthropomorphism, similar to personification (applying human qualities to inanimate objects) or prosopopoeia (adopting the persona of another person), is the attribution of Human characteristics and qualities to non-human beings, objects, or natural phenomena. Animals, forces of Nature, and unseen or unknown authors of chance are frequent subjects of anthropomorphosis. "Anthropomorphism" comes from two Greek words, ανθρωπος (anthrōpos), meaning "human", and μορφη (morphē), meaning "shape" or "form".

The word "anthropomorphism" is a modern coinage, possibly from 18th century French.

In religions and mythologies

In Religion and Mythology, "anthropomorphism" refers to the attribution of a human body or of human qualities generally, to God or the gods. Many mythologies are almost entirely concerned with anthropomorphic gods and goddesses who express human characteristics such as Jealousy, Hatred, or Love. The Greek gods such as Zeus and Apollo were often depicted in human form exhibiting both commendable and despicable human traits.

The ten avatars of the Hindu supreme god Vishnu possess both human and divine forms and qualities, although their divinity varies in degree. In Vaishnavism, a monotheistic faith, Vishnu is omniscient and benevolent, unlike gods of the Greek and Roman religions. See Conceptions of God in Hinduism.

Numerous religions and philosophies have condemned anthroporphism for various reasons. Some Ancient Greek philosophers did not condone, and were explicitly hostile to, their people's mythology. These philosophers often developed monotheistic views. Plato's (427-347 BCE) Demiurge (craftsman) in the Timaeus and Aristotle's (384-322 BCE) prime mover in his Physics are examples. The Greek philosopher Xenophanes (570-480 BCE) said that "the greatest God" resembles man "neither in form nor in mind." (Clement of Alexandria, Miscellanies V xiv 109.1-3). The similarity of these philosophers' concepts of God to that of the Bible's facilitated the incorporation of much pre-Christian Greek philosophy into the Medieval Christian World view by the Scholastics, notably Thomas Aquinas.

Although the tenets of the Abrahamic religions generally hold that it is improper to describe the God of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as human, it appears extremely difficult for the average person to conceive of God without an anthropomorphic framework. Supporting this conception is the first Creation story in the Book of Genesis, which holds that God created man in his image, implying an anthropomorphic God. An additional encouragement for this application is that most branches of Christianity maintain that Jesus became Human while remaining fully God, uniting the divine and human natures in his person, and retaining his resurrected body when he ascended to Heaven. Anthropomorphism is, however, discouraged by many Muslim sects.

In rhetoric

Anthropomorphism in the form of personification consists of creating imaginary persons who are the embodiment of an abstraction such as Death, Lust or War. See the article on the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse for notable examples.

In classical Rhetoric, personification is a Figure of speech (more specifically a Trope) that employs the deliberate use of anthropomorphism, often to make an emotional appeal. In rhetorical theory, a distinction is often drawn between personification (anthropomorphism of inanimate, but real, objects) and figures such as Apostrophe, in which an absent people or abstract concepts are addressed.

An example of rhetorical personification:

: A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
: Against the earth's sweet-flowing breast. Joyce Kilmer, Trees

An example of rhetorical apostrophe:

: O eloquent, just, and mighty Death! Walter Raleigh, History of the World

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In literature

Anthropomorphism is a well established device in literature, notably in books for children, such as those by Beatrix Potter and Lewis Carroll, which involve characters such as Peter Rabbit and the Cheshire cat.

Terry Pratchett is notable for having several anthropomorphic personifications in his Discworld books. Perhaps most well known is the character Death. Piers Anthony also wrote a series regarding the seven incarnations of Death, Nature, Time, War, Fate, Good and Evil. Neil Gaiman is notable for anthropomorphising seven aspects of the world in his series The Sandman - they are called The Endless: Destiny, Death, Dream, Destruction, Desire, Despair, and Delirium.

The Indian books Panchatantra (The Five priniciples) and The Jataka tales employ this trick of anthromorphized animals very effectively to illustrate various principles of life.

Mrs Grundy is a personification of conventional propriety.

Common usage

It is a common tendency for people to think of inanimate objects as having human-like characteristics. Few, if any people, believe this to have real significance. Common examples of this tendency include naming one's car or begging a machine to work. Advances in Artificial intelligence are beginning to identify such foibles as a potentially more significant phenomenon, however, as computers begin to reach the point where they can recognize spoken language. Some computers are already very good at displaying very specific and specialized categories of human-like behaviour, such as learning from their mistakes or anticipating certain input; playing chess and other games with human-like capability; and even, in the case of robots, potentially taking on humanlike form. Anthropomorphobia, a Phobia traditionally associated with anxiety responses to nonhuman living things displaying human behavior, is now used to define the Phobia of nonliving things that exhibit human qualities.

Technical use

Hackers have always anthropomorphised technology, mostly as a time-saving device. Complex technology, specifically computers, can exhibit complex behavior that can be lengthy to describe in purely inanimate terms. Hackers, therefore, may use human actions and even emotions to describe a computer system's behavior. For example, in a situation where a program encounters minor errors but can still accomplish its task, it may do so but emit an error message. Especially in cases where the error encountered is thought to be trivial, a hacker might say that the computer is complaining. This human action (complaining) conveys that there is a difficulty while acknowloging the triviality of the difficulty, and perhaps the fact that the program does what was required despite the difficulty. See the section on anthropomorphismin the Jargon File for more information.

Modern occurrences

[image] The use of anthropomorphized animals has a long tradition in art and literature. Frequently they are used to portray stereotypical characters, in order to quickly convey the characteristics the author or artist intends for them to possess. Examples include Aesop's fables, George Orwell's Animal Farm and political cartoons, e.g. Maus. Many of the most famous children's television characters are anthropomorphized funny animals: Mickey Mouse, Kermit the Frog, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Calimero, for example. While 'funny' is common, it is not a hard rule; Bert the Turtle, star of Duck and Cover is a children-oriented exception. While cartoons have often featured these characters, a newer sitcom-style show with this theme is Father of the Pride. The human characteristics commonly ascribed to animals in popular culture usually centers around either their perceived personality or disposition (for example, owls are usually designated as wise); their appearance alone (penguins are usually portrayed as plump Aristocrats, because their plumage resembles a tuxedo); or a combination of both (raccoons are commonly portrayed as bandits, both because of the characteristic black stripe over their eyes, which resembles the stereotypical mask of a bandit, and because they roam at night breaking into peoples' garbage).

Since the 1980s, subcultures such as Furry fandom have focused on the appreciation, promotion, and production of stories and art about anthropomorphic animals, as well as the exploration, interpretation and examination of humanity and human values through anthropomorphic expression. These subcultures thrive primarily on the Internet and have only recently been given attention by the media.

In logical reasoning

[image]Using anthropomorphized caricatures or projecting human qualities on conceptual entities or inanimate objects in Reasoning is also known as committing a Pathetic fallacy.

Opposite view

While anthropomorphism is the practice of giving animals human qualities, Zoomorphism is the practice of giving humans animal qualities. These qualities can include everything from physical shape or movements ("She moves like a cat", "He looks as strong as a bear") to mentalities ("He is savage as a lion", "She's a dumb bunny") or a mix of the two ("I sting like a bee").

In the sense that anthropomorphism can include the giving of human qualities to deity, the opposite is Theomorphism, the giving of divine qualities to humans.