Anthropomorphism

Anthropomorphism, a long word to explain how we attribute human characteristics to animals (but you already knew that, didn't you?!). It's fair to say that scientists still have a lot to learn about what animals do and don't feel or understand, it's also fair to say that some species are a great deal more evolved than others in these respects, e.g. compare a pheasant to an orang utan.

I started giving it some deeper thought the other day when an advert on TV talked of animals feeling humiliated - is that possible? Isn't humiliation about shame and embarrassment, social anxieties which are very much part of being human? Or does an animal feel humiliated when they're thrown out of the pack? Or have some of them, the domesticated ones, simply learned some new behaviours which keep them safer when co-existing with people? I don't have the answer, by the way.

My thoughts along similar lines continued when somebody said that in WW1 photographs depicting dead adults and horses, children are almost invariably more upset about the horses. So, more questions - do children feel more keenly the loss of the soft, warm, furry qualities of animals? Do they empathise with their helplessness? Do they see adult humans as the masters of their own downfall and therefore not worthy of sympathy? Do they feel sorry for the animals because they are the only thing more vulnerable than a child? Maybe children have experienced the death of a pet, but not a close adult, so know what that feels like? Or is it something else altogether? Still don't know the answers, still a lot to discover!