Zoomorphism
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Zoomorphism, from the Greek ζωον (zōon), meaning animal, and μορφη (morphē), meaning shape or form. It is defined as:
- The representation of gods as animals or the attributing of animal characteristics to gods.
- The use of animal figures in art and design or of animal symbols in literature.
- The viewing of human behavior in terms of the behavior of animals.
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Examples
- Art that imagines humans as animals
- Art that creates patterns using animal imagery, or animal style
- Animal-deities, such as exist in Egyptian mythology
- Therianthropy: the ability to shapeshift into animal form
- The tendency of viewing human behaviour in terms of the behaviour of animals, analogous to anthropomorphism, which views animal behaviour in human terms
Common misconceptions
Zoomorphism is often mistaken for anthropomorphism, or the act of attributing human qualities to non-human things, while in fact, zoomorphism can often be better described as "the act of attributing animal qualities to non inanimate things".
In literature
Lautréamont
One of the key motifs which Lautréamont employs is zoomorphism. In Les Chants de Maldoror (1869), the protagonist and other human characters are often seen metamorphosing into, or taking on the characteristics of animals in a literal or behavioral sense. Thus the narrator substitutes various body parts with animals: his own phallus is substituted by a snake and from his neck grows a large "mushroom with umbelliferous stalks." See description of narrator in Les Chants de Maldoror
HP Lovecraft
A motif that predominates H. P. Lovecraft's fiction is zoomorphism. A strong example of this motif can be found in the short story "The Festival" (1925), in which Lovecraft's protagonist describes the Byakhee, a fictional race: "there flopped rhythmically a horde of hybrid winged things ... not altogether crows, nor moles, nor buzzards, nor ants, nor decomposed human beings but a combination of these things that I can not and must not fully recall...".
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