Anthropomorphism (redirected from Antropomorphism)

anthropomorphism (ăn'thrəpōmôr`fĭzəm) [Gr.,=having human form], in religion, conception of divinity as being in human form or having human characteristics. Anthropomorphism also applies to the ascription of human forms or characteristics to the divine spirits of things such as the winds and the rivers, events such as war and death, and abstractions such as love, beauty, strife, and hate. As used by students of religion and anthropology the term is applied to certain systems of religious belief, usually polytheistic. Although some degree of anthropomorphism is characteristic of nearly all polytheistic religions, it is perhaps most widely associated with the Homeric gods and later Greek religion. Anthropomorphic thought is said to have developed from three primary sources: animism, legend, and the need for visual presentation of the gods.

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Anthropomorphism 

a resemblance to man; the attribution of human psychological characteristics to objects and phenomena of inanimate nature, celestial bodies, animals, and mythical beings.

Naive, dogmatic anthropomorphism is a primitive ideology which is expressed in the endowment of inanimate objects with the ability to act, live, die, have experiences, and so forth. (For example, the land sleeps, or the sky frowns.) Such an anthropomorphism was the prevailing world view during the early stages of development in human society. Echoes of such a conception of the world exist even in the languages of modern cultures—for example, numerous impersonal verbs such as morosit (it is drizzling), svetaet (it is dawning), and others. They exist also in the arts, especially poetry. As a way of thinking, however, such a type of anthropomorphism is today characteristic only of a child’s psychology; among adults it is usually a symptom of infantilism. Naive, dogmatic anthropomorphism developed into religious anthropomorphism; the image and characteristics of human beings were transferred to fantastic objects. This transference is inherent in religious conceptions of gods and other supernatural beings. The gods of the so-called higher religions are also anthropomorphic, although this is denied in theology.

Elements of anthropomorphism have even penetrated into scientific consciousness. For example, such terms as rabota (work) and napriazhenie (voltage) are anthropomorphic in their derivation, although their real meanings long ago lost any connection with their derivation. With the development of science, anthropomorphism has been replaced by the scientific world view, although in certain branches of knowledge anthropomorphic concepts remain ex tremely strong—for example, in animalpsychology: Some researchers have ascribed human thoughts, feelings, and even ethics to animals. In modern scientific, technical, and especially cybernetic literature, there are uses of anthropomorphic concepts (the “prolonged life” of particles, the concept that the machine “remembers” and “solves problems,” and so forth). Such usages are based upon the objective similarity between the functions and results of human actions and the functions and results of machine actions. They are fully justified, if essential, differences between human and machine processes are taken into account.

V. A. KOSTELOVSKII