Anthropomorphism a word not often used but we often practise

I posted this in another thread but maybe it's worthy of a discussion in it's own right for the more philosophical among us.

One of the biggest follies any animal keeper has to guard against is anthropomorphism.  In its widest usage this is the tendency to ascribe human form, feelings, motivation and behaviour to animals or inanimate (none human) things.  It’s not surprising it’s deeply imbedded in the human psyche.  From an early age religious belief is ingrained in a whole system of symbolic anthropomorphic form.  God is seen as a human figure with super-human virtuous motivations.  If a disastrous happenstance occurs it is seen as the wrath of god and due to some evil we have committed or if good fortune “smiles” we think it is because we are being rewarded for being ‘good’, heaven is seen as an elysian paradise and hell a burning inferno and so on.

Pet keeping is unfortunately riddled with it and is promoted by marketing to spawn a hugely lucrative industry.  On this site you hardly have to look at more than a couple of posts to find examples of people referring to themselves as chicken mothers or their birds as girls or some such.  I even find myself doing it, in a recent post I described a bantam as “our little princess”.  All harmless innocent stuff you may think however it does have its dangers when we start to anthropomorphise animal behaviour we can actually be doing considerable harm.  Take the above as a “humorous” example but there are plenty of serious ones which are not so benign.  We live in houses with windows, comfortable furnishings and spacious rooms equipped for specific purposes like dining rooms kitchens, bathrooms and bedrooms.  These are what we think are the most commodious to our needs.  We should resist the temptation when designing or choosing chicken coops to favour ones build to suit our particular prejudices.  Unfortunately marketers know that we buy the things for our pets not our animals so they promote coops with lots of floor space for lounging about on, windows so our chickens can enjoy the view from their des res’ and so on.  These aren’t driven by our chickens needs they are intended to play on our anthropomorphic prejudices.  

Animal behaviour is not generally prompted by deep inner feelings or significant cognitive processes but by millenniums of evolution and the natural selection of the most successful adaptive behaviour.  When chicken rush out to greet us we may be gratified that they are showing us the deep affection they have for us but in reality it’s because we return their show of apparent affection with a handful or two of treats.  A form of conditioned response on both sides.

Learn to understand our animals and their behaviour for what they are and what it is and we will get even greater pleasure from that understanding and knowing that we are actually helping them to lead a healthy, stress free natural life too.

Just off to feed my ladies with their elevenses corn now!
HF

Great post HF, and certainly very true, especially in this house. It starts Im sure with naming our animals, then with taking the time to learn their little quirky mannerisms and habits. For some of us, its a yearning to be needed, especially after our own human young flee the nest. For children, pets take the place of a favourite toy or doll. They practice emotional bonding, other than that for a parent. How many times did I dress my cat up in a bonnet, put her in my dolls pram and wheel her down the road? Dont ask!
 I still get a little lump in my throat when I think of our boy (cockerel) Monty, but had we not had him in the house for so long with his illness, his passing wouldnt have been anywhere near so sad.
I just dread the day with all my heart, that anything happens to one of our cats, who we've had from kittens. Freedie went awol all day today, I couldnt eat my dinner tonight until he was home. Boy did HE get a telling off!!

Great points and a very interesting thread.  Maybe our emotional attachment says more about us than it does about the hens. 

I am convinced that my new Splash Orpingtons are more friendly.  They will come running and eat out of your hand.  The Sabelpoots are a little more wary but are becoming accustomed to their new turf and will eat first from the feeders in the morning.  Turn it on its head and  the Sabelpoots are showing some pretty handy survival mechanisms as are the Orpingtons.

What I find fascinating is studying their behaviour.  Their social manoeuvring for pecking order and the way broodies look after their chicks.

Reckon the coop home cinema equipment was probably a waste of money then.....

To a certain extent anthropomorhism, at least the element that encourages us to consider that beasties also need security, shelter, appropriate food etc just like we do, is useful as it reminds us that they are in fact living critturs and not just units of produciton.  The value of it is clearly visible when absent - battery hens anyone?  Problem can be when the anthropomorhic projection is over complete and the needs of the beasties are assumed to need to be met in exactly the same way as for us.

My personal problem with anthropomorphism is with inanimate objects - I ascribe para-human characteristics to some things when 'they are being' particularly recalcitrant, purely to annoy me!

Well it would be a shame to get too philosphical Lindeggs as that wouldn't do full justice to the topic so just to restore some balence and suggest some other directions this post might go, in true Esther Rantzen "That's Life" fashion.  How about this for Groucho Marks or possibly Chris Evans?



...............and look what popped out of the breadmaker this morning



Rude bread

..............Cyril......

HF

Strange but true, my son wrote his degree thesis on anthropomorphism in art, because of the way the so many of us consider our animals a little furry/feathery people.

Unfortunately when he googled the word, there was much unpleasantness, which really shocked me 

just a thought hf but would you agree that our need to humanise and assign emotions to our pets makes us more sympathetic towards other creatures?

there are few countries where animals are loved and respected like the uk.

we see cruelty and are horrified. we take in orphaned creatures and try to help them. if they are beyond intervention we try to do the kindest thing possible. even if we need to cull a chook, we considered the emotional repercussions on the remaining flock and do the deed away from them. and i am sure that most of these reactions stem from the assignment of feelings for and from the animal in question.

there are many, many countries where the 'feelings' of animals aren't considered. just look at the number of orphaned apes who see their mother's butchered for bush meat, starving animals forced to pull over loaded carts etc.

of course there are exceptions and no country or person's thinking is exclusively 'good' or 'bad'

I think that treating our pets and animals in a humane way is important and is part of what makes us what we are.  If we respect our animals and try to alleviate suffering and don't mistreat them then that also makes us more caring of human life too. 

I don't think we need to view them as human in another form.  Although as I said it is mostly harmless it is important to realise that they aren't humans and they have their own special needs.  As long as we have this in the back of our minds I see no harm in anthropomorphising our pets.  It's when things get out of proportion that the worst excessess of the animal rights lobby take over and the greater good of human life and animal life aren't considered in the balance.

If a fox were attacking my birds I would have no hesitation in shooting it but I would never shoot a fox for sport or needlessly otherwise.  The same with putting down chx.  Some times it must be done and although I don't like to do it I don't shy away from it either and in fact I'd rather do it myself than let someone else do it.  In a way it's all part of the responsibility I accept when I decide to keep them and something that in a strange way I can take a pride in that it's done well with the minimum of suffering by someone who has cared for them in life.

HF