Anthropomorphism

I was going to entitle this Mama Turkey but I couldn’t resist using this word.  Anthropomorphism.  It means to give human attributes to non-human things like animals, objects or abstract concepts.  I was telling my brother, Ted, about Tom Turkey the other night and he said giving human characteristics to animals is anthropomorphism.  As if this is something bad to do.  I pointed out to him that it worked for Walt Disney and numerous other people who made vast fortunes out of making cute characters out of animals with human characteristics.

Which brings us to Mama Turkey.  Ever since Tom Turkey was killed last weekend, there has been a female turkey wandering around our property looking very sad and forlorn.  She looks positively depressed!  I think that she desperately misses her husband, Tom, and may not even know what became of him. She probably has a young family she has to care for and now she is a single mom doing it all on her own.  Are there any special programs for single turkey moms?  Noooo.  Is there a welfare system where she can get free food?  Nooo.  She just has to peck and scratch all on her own and feed her little family without anyone’s help.

I think that the person (the boneheaded idiot) who killed Tom Turkey should be forced to provide for Mama Turkey and her family.  Of course, Boneheaded Idiot will probably just want to fatten them up so he can kill them when they are full-grown.  So maybe it is best that he, Boneheaded Idiot, stay away from the Turkey family.

Getting back to the big word of the day: anthropomorphism.  Maybe Ted is right and I shouldn’t be giving human characteristics to animals.  But I swear Mama Turkey is looking sad just as Stevie, the flying squirrel (see posting from October 20, 2009) looked scared when I first saw him in the building in the middle of the night.  I think that animals do have human characteristics.  They are not as advanced as humans (although I think most of them are more advanced then Boneheaded Idiot) but they certainly act like they have feelings.  I know my cats look sad when I get after them when they do something bad.  And Cupid, my cuddly black cat, smiles when I hold him in my arms and pet him.  Maybe the problem isn’t so much that I am giving human characteristics to animals as much as Ted doesn’t see the human characteristics in animals.  Just because he doesn’t see it doesn’t mean it isn’t there.  Of course, if I were him, I would give animals the benefit of the doubt before they all get angry with him and attack him.  It could happen.  It happens in movies all the time and we all know that they accurately reflect real life!