ANTHROPOMORPHISM: AN EXPRESSION OF RATIONAL THOUGHT
Channel: European Association of Archaeologists
Date: 2020-09-28

Human cognition is embodied in material culture as utility for survival. For humans, survival is achieved through a combination of reasoned and emotional responses, executed within social structures through the cognitive ability to project into the future and reflect upon the past. Intention and a sense of purpose is established this way, learning between generations is enabled and cognition is distributed through culture. Human beings are active agents of change within the world, observing, evaluating and building

that which is needed to transduce energies and direct their vectors. During this process, people have observed human and animal qualities, and made conclusions concerning similarities and dissimilarities in their typological analysis. Anthropomorphic symbols represent accumulated knowledge about the world and its inhabitants, human and non-human. Anthropomorphism expresses the particular human ability to solve problems through social interaction that breeds trust and cooperation. As symbols, they represent the power humans wield through rationality, logic and reason. Anthropomorphism represents our effective interaction with our environment mediated by reasoned exchange. The power and influence that reasoned thought holds within human communities is extended via anthropomorphized non-human entities. Bringing non-human entities into the human community by ascribing to them human traits provides a sense that they can be influenced. The power of persuasion is believed to increase over “others”, both animate and inanimate. The representation of human/animal physical integration symbolizes observations and conclusions concerning animal qualities and their supposed correlates in human traits and actions, as well as benefits gained through their combination.


Author(s): Paladino, Vincent (American Anthropological Association)