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| {{distinguish|Theriomorphism}} | |||
| {{short description|Mythological ability or affliction to metamorphose into animals}}{{For|people who identify as not entirely human|Otherkin}}]s, having shed their swan skins, appear as swan maidens. ]] | |||
| {{pp|small=yes}} | |||
| '''Therianthropy''' is the ] ability or affliction of individuals to ] into animals or ] by means of ]. It is possible that cave drawings found at ], in France, depict ancient beliefs in the concept. {{Citation needed|date=October 2021}} | |||
| '''Therianthropy''' may refer to: | |||
| * Human-animal ] in mythology, folklore, and fiction | |||
| * ], a psychiatric delusion of transforming into an animal | |||
| ⚫ | ] | ||
| The best-known form of therianthropy, called lycanthropy, is found in stories of ]. | |||
| ⚫ | ] | ||
| == Etymology == | |||
| The term ''therianthropy'' comes from the ] ''thēríon'' , meaning "wild animal" or "beast" (implicitly mammalian), and ''anthrōpos'' , meaning "human being". It was used to refer to animal transformation folklore of Europe as early as 1901.<ref name="De Groot 171">{{cite book | last= De Groot| first= J.J.M.| year=1901| title=The Religious System of China: Volume IV| location= Leiden| publisher= Brill| page=171}}</ref> Sometimes the term "]" is used instead.<ref>{{cite book| last=Guiley| first=R.E.| year=2005| title=The Encyclopedia of Vampires, Werewolves & Other Monsters| location=New York| publisher=Facts on File| isbn=0-8160-4685-9| page=| url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofva0000guil/page/192}}</ref> | |||
| Therianthropy was used to describe spiritual beliefs in animal transformation in a 1915 Japanese publication, ''A History of the Japanese People from the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era''.<ref>{{cite book| url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_NnsEAAAAMAAJ| quote=therianthropy.| title=A History of the Japanese People from the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era| first=Frank| last= Brinkley|author2=Dairoku Kikuchi | year=1915| publisher=The Encyclopædia Britannica Co}}</ref> One source, ''The Human Predator'', raises the possibility the term may have been used as early as the 16th century in criminal trials of suspected werewolves.<ref>{{cite book | title=The Human Predator: A Historical Chronicle of Serial Murder and Forensic Investigation| first=Katherine| last=Ramsland| publisher= Berkley Hardcover| year= 2005| isbn= 0-425-20765-X}}</ref> | |||
| ==History of therianthropy and theriocephaly== | |||
| Therianthropy refers to the fantastical, or mythological, ability of some humans to change into animals.<ref>{{cite book | title = Encyclopedia of Aberrations: A Psychiatric Handbook | author = Edward Podolsky | publisher = Philosophical Library | year = 1953}}</ref> Therianthropes are said to change forms via shapeshifting. Therianthropy has long existed in ], and seems to be depicted in ancient cave drawings<ref name=BritannicaOnline>{{cite encyclopedia | encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica| title=Trois Freres| access-date=2006-12-06| url=http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9073471/Trois-Freres}}</ref> such as ], a ] executed at the Palaeolithic cave drawings found in the ] at the ], France, archeological site. | |||
| '']'' (Greek "animal headedness") refers to beings that have an animal head attached to an anthropomorphic, or human, body; for example, the animal-headed forms of gods depicted in ] (such as ], ], ]). | |||
| ==Mythology of human shapeshifting== | |||
| ⚫ | |||
| ]'' ("The Frog Princess") by ].]] | |||
| ''Shapeshifting'' in ], mythology and ] generally refers to the alteration of physical appearance from that of a human to that of another species. Lycanthropy, the transformation of a human into a wolf (or werewolf), is probably the best-known form of therianthropy, followed by ] (transformation into a canine) and '']'' (transformation into a cat).<ref name="Greene 229">{{cite book |last=Greene |first= R. |year=2000| title=The Magic of Shape-shifting |location=York Beach, Me |publisher=Weiser |isbn= 1-57863-171-8 |page=229}}</ref> ]s are present in the stories of several ] and ]n cultures. Ancient ] legends from Asia talk of form-changing ] known as ''kurtadams'', which translates to "wolfman".{{Citation needed |date=September 2014}} Ancient Greeks wrote of ''kynanthropy'', from κύων ''kyōn''<ref>; Woodhouse's English-Greek Dictionary; (1910)</ref> (or "canine"), which applied to mythological beings able to alternate between animal form and human form, or who possessed combined animal and human anatomical features.{{Citation needed|date=September 2014}} | |||
| The term existed by at least 1901, when it was applied to stories from China about humans turning into dogs, dogs becoming people, and sexual relations between humans and canines.<ref name="De Groot 184">{{cite book |last= De Groot |first= J.J.M. |year=1901| title=The Religious System of China: Volume IV |location= Leiden| publisher= Brill| page=184}}</ref> Anthropologist David Gordon White called Central Asia the "vortex of cynanthropy" because races of dog-men were habitually placed there by ancient writers. The weredog or cynanthrope is also known in ]. It is described as a human-canine shapeshifter who is capable of transforming other people into animals, even against their will. {{Citation needed|date=September 2014}} | |||
| European folklore features ]s, who can transform into panthers or domestic cats of an enlarged size.<ref name="giant werecat">{{cite book |last = Greene |first = Rosalyn |title = The Magic of Shapeshifting |publisher = ] |year = 2000 |page = 9}}</ref> African legends describe people who turn into ]s or ]s, while Asian werecats are typically depicted as becoming ]s.{{Citation needed|date=September 2014}} | |||
| ===Skin-walkers and naguals=== | |||
| {{Main|Skin-walker|Nagual}} | |||
| Some ] legends talk about skin-walkers—people with the supernatural ability to turn into any animal they desire. To do so, however, they first must be wearing a pelt of the specific animal. In the folk religion of ], a ''nagual'' (or ''nahual'') is a human being who has the power to magically turn themselves into animal forms—most commonly donkeys, turkeys, and dogs—but can also transform into more powerful jaguars and pumas. {{Citation needed|date=September 2014}} | |||
| ===Animal ancestors=== | |||
| ], the ] could transform into swans.]] | |||
| Stories of humans descending from animals are found in the oral traditions of many tribal and clan origins. Sometimes the original animals had assumed human form in order to ensure their descendants retained their human shapes; other times the ] is of a human marrying a normal animal. | |||
| North American ] mingle the ideas of ] ancestors and ursine shapeshifters, with bears often being able to shed their skins to assume human form, marrying human women in this guise. The offspring may be creatures with combined anatomy, they may be very beautiful children with uncanny strength, or they may be shapeshifters themselves.<ref>{{cite book |last=Pijoan |first= T. |year=1992 |title=White Wolf Woman & Other Native American Transformation Myths |url=https://archive.org/details/whitewolfwomanna0000pijo |url-access=registration |location= Little Rock |publisher= August House |isbn= 0-87483-200-4 |page=}}</ref> | |||
| P'an Hu is represented in various ] as a ] dog, a dog-headed man, or a canine shapeshifter that married an emperor's daughter and founded at least one race. When he is depicted as a shapeshifter, all of him can become human except for his head. The race(s) descended from P'an Hu were often characterized by Chinese writers as monsters who combined human and dog anatomy.<ref>{{cite book |last=White |first= D.G. |year=1991 |title=Myths of the Dog-Man |url=https://archive.org/details/mythsdogman00whit |url-access=limited |location= Chicago |publisher=The University of Chicago Press |isbn= 0-226-89509-2 |page=}}</ref> | |||
| In ], the wolf is a revered animal. The Turkic legends say the people were descendants of wolves. The legend of ] is an old Turkic myth that tells of how the Turkic people were created. In the legend, a small Turkic village in northern China is raided by Chinese soldiers, with one baby left behind. An old she-wolf with a sky-blue mane named Asena finds the baby and nurses him. She later gives birth to half-wolf, half-human cubs who are the ancestors of the Turkic people.<ref> Turkey Interactive CD-ROM; 2007-08-11.</ref><ref>T.C. Kultur Bakanligi; {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070404172049/http://www.discoverturkey.com/english/kultursanat/h-nevruz.html |date=2007-04-04 }}; Ministry of Culture, Republic of Turkey; accessed 2007-08-11</ref> | |||
| ===Shamanism=== | |||
| Ethnologist Ivar Lissner theorized that cave paintings of beings with human and non-human animal features were not physical representations of mythical shapeshifters, but were instead attempts to depict ] in the process of acquiring the mental and spiritual attributes of various beasts.<ref name="Steiger 1999">{{cite book |last=Steiger| first= B.| year=1999| title=The Werewolf Book: The Encyclopedia of Shape-Shifting Beings |location=Farmington Hills, MI| publisher=Visible Ink |isbn=1-57859-078-7}}</ref> Religious historian ] has observed that beliefs regarding animal identity and transformation into animals are widespread.<ref name=Eliade>{{cite book |last=Eliade |first=Mircea |title=Rites and Symbols of Initiation: the mysteries of birth and rebirth |publisher=Harper & Row |year=1965}}</ref> | |||
| === Animal spirits === | |||
| ]'', a painting by ].]] | |||
| In ]n cultures there exists the belief in the ''tamaniu'' or ''atai'', which describes the animal counterpart to a person.<ref name=":1" /> Specifically among the Solomon Islands in Melanesia, the term ''atai'' means "soul" in the Mota language and is closely related to the term ''ata,'' meaning a "reflected image" in Maori and "shadow" in Samoan. Terms relating to the "spirit" in these islands such as ''figona and vigona'' convey a being that has not been in human form<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ivens |first=Walter |date=January 1934 |title=The Diversity of Culture in Melanesia. |journal=The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland |volume=64 |pages=45–56 |doi=10.2307/2843946 |jstor=2843946}}</ref> The animal counterpart depicted may take the form of an eel, shark, lizard, or some other creature. This creature is considered to be corporeal and can understand human speech. It shares the same soul as its master. This concept is found in similar legends which have many characteristics typical of shapeshifter tales. Among these characteristics is the theory that death or injury would affect both the human and animal form at once.<ref name=":1">{{cite book |last=Hamel |first= F. |year= 1969 |title=Human Animals, Werewolves & Other Transformations |location= New Hyde Park, NY |publisher= University Books |isbn= 0-8216-0092-3|page=21}}</ref> | |||
| == Psychiatric aspects == | |||
| Among a sampled set of psychiatric patients, the belief of being part animal, or '']'', is generally associated with severe psychosis but not always with any specific psychiatric diagnosis or neurological findings.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Keck PE, Pope HG, Hudson JI, McElroy SL, Kulick AR |title=Lycanthropy: alive and well in the twentieth century |journal=Psychol Med |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=113–20 |date=February 1988 |pmid=3363031 |doi=10.1017/S003329170000194X|s2cid=27491377 }}</ref> Others regard clinical lycanthropy as a delusion in the sense of the ] found in ] and ] disorders, or as a symptom of other psychiatric disorders.<ref name="Garlipp">{{cite journal | title=Lycanthropy—psychopathological and psychodynamically aspects | journal=] |date=January 2004 | volume=109 | issue=1 | pages=19–22 | last=Garlipp | first=P |author2=Godecke-Koch T |author3=Dietrich DE |author4=Haltenhof H. | doi=10.1046/j.1600-0447.2003.00243.x | pmid=14674954| s2cid=41324350 }}</ref> | |||
| == Modern therianthropy == | |||
| '''Therians''' are individuals who feel that they are something other than a human in a non-biological sense. While therians mainly attribute their experiences of therianthropy to either spirituality or psychology, the way in which they consider their therian identity is not a defining characteristic of therianthropy; as long as a person identifies their sense of self as being that of a non-human animal, they can be considered a therian.<ref>{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1525/nr.2012.15.3.65| title = We Are Spirits of Another Sort| journal = Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions| volume = 15| issue = 3| pages = 65–90| year = 2012| last1 = Laycock| first1 = Joseph P.}}</ref><ref name="Cohen 104">{{cite book| last=Cohen| first=D.| year=1996| title=Werewolves| location=New York| publisher=Penguin| isbn=0-525-65207-8| page=| url-access=registration| url=https://archive.org/details/werewolves00cohe_0/page/104}}</ref> The animal which a therian identifies as is known by the community as a "theriotype", and this can refer to either the animal they identify as or, more specifically their own non-human animal identity. For example, a therian who believes in reincarnation may use the word "theriotype" to refer specifically to their past life or, more generally, to indicate that they are speaking about the animal species they identify as. Therians often use the term "species dysphoria" to describe their feelings of disconnect from their human bodies and their underlying desire to live as their theriotype.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=A Field Guide to Otherkin|last=Lupa|publisher=Megalithic Books|year=2007|isbn=978-1905713073}}</ref> The concept of species dysphoria has often been compared to ], in that there is a similar sense of incongruence between the person's physical body and their internal sense of self. Some non-human identifying people oppose this comparison, stating that "they are separate ... identities". Others intentionally parallel the two, highlighting the similarities.<ref>{{Cite journal|first1=Venetia Laura Delano |last1=Robertson |date=2006|title=The Law of the Jungle: Self and Community in the Online Therianthropy Movement|journal=The Pomegranate|volume=14 |issue=2 |at=page 274 of 256–280|doi=10.1558/pome.v14i2.256 }}</ref> Species dysphoria, or species identity disorder, has been proposed as a mental disorder.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last1=Gerbasi|first1=Kathleen|last2=Bernstein|first2=Penny|last3=Conway|first3=Samuel|last4=Scaletta|first4=Laura|last5=Privitera|first5=Adam|last6=Paolone|first6=Nicholas|last7=Higner|first7=Justin|date=2008-08-01|title=Furries from A to Z (Anthropomorphism to Zoomorphism)|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228468848|journal=Society and Animals|volume=16|issue=3 |pages=197–222|doi=10.1163/156853008X323376}}</ref> A now-defunct therian website suggested a criterion for a diagnosis, based on the diagnosis of gender dysphoria. Gerbasi et al. noted the "striking" similarities between species and gender dysphoria, leading them to tentatively suggest a medical diagnosis of species identity disorder.<ref name=":2" /> Others have compared species dysphoria with ], terming it "species dysmorphia" instead.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Clegg|first1=Helen|last2=Collings|first2=Roz|last3=Roxburgh|first3=Elizabeth C|date=2019|title=Therianthropy: Wellbeing, Schizotypy, and Autism in Individuals Who Self-Identify as Non-Human|journal=Society & Animals|volume=27|issue=4 |pages=403–426|doi=10.1163/15685306-12341540 |s2cid=149663734 |url=http://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/34612/1/12131_1131a_Roxburgh.pdf }}</ref> A participant in Proctor's paper stated that they would consider it a form of ], rather than a medical diagnosis, "unless it had major and negative impact on someone's life".<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Proctor|first=Devin|date=2018-09-29|title=Policing the Fluff: The Social Construction of Scientistic Selves in Otherkin Facebook Groups|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327969897|journal=Engaging Science, Technology, and Society|volume=4|pages=485–514|doi=10.17351/ests2018.252|s2cid=55833371 |doi-access=free}}</ref> The identity "transspecies" is used by some, furthering the similarities between identifying as a different species and a different gender.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Grivell|first1=Timothy|last2=Clegg|first2=Helen|last3=Roxburgh|first3=Elizabeth C|date=2014|title=An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of Identity in the Therian Community|journal=Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research|volume=14|issue=2 |pages=113–135|doi=10.1080/15283488.2014.891999 |s2cid=144047707 |via=Routledge}}</ref> | |||
| === Prevalence === | |||
| In an online community survey of 523 non-human identifying people, 75.1% said they experienced species dysphoria, and 8.2% were unsure.<ref>Who-is-page, 2021, The 2021 Nonhumanity & Body | |||
| Modification/Decoration Survey Results Breakdown, https://invisibleotherkin.neocities.org/files/BodyModification-DecorationSurveyResults.pdf</ref> In four surveys of ] (n = 4338/1761/951/1065), depending on the sample, between 25% and 44% responded that they consider themselves to be "less than 100% human", compared to 7% of a sample (n = 802) of the general American population.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Plante|first1=Courtney, N|url=https://furscience.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Fur-Science-Final-pdf-for-Website_2017_10_18.pdf|title=FurScience! A Summary of Five Years of Research from the International Anthropomorphic Research Project|last2=Reysen|first2=Stephen|last3=Roberts|first3=Sharon E|last4=Gerbasi|first4=Kathleen C|publisher=FurScience|year=2016|isbn=978-0-9976288-0-7|location=Waterloo, Ontario, Canada|language=English}}</ref> | |||
| === Shifting === | |||
| Many therians describe experiences of temporarily feeling more in touch with their theriotype than they do at other times, and this phenomenon is known by the community as "shifting", with the experiences being known as "shifts". Shifts can vary indefinitely in the length of time for which they are experienced, and the intensity with which they are felt. They can also be triggered intentionally, or unintentionally, usually by stimuli relating to a person's theriotype. While shifting is often regarded as a positive experience, the disruption caused by unintentional triggers, and heightened feelings of species-dysphoria, can also lead to therians experiencing shifts as negative experiences too. Shifts are normally experienced in a state of consciousness, although dream shifts (in which a therian has the body of their theriotype) are an exception to this. Some therians attribute their knowledge of their own therianthropic identities to their experiences of shifting. For example, a coyote therian most likely will begin to identify as a coyote after experiencing dreams in which their body takes the form of a coyote. | |||
| The therian community is generally considered to be connected with the ] community, which consists of individuals who connect with any non-fictional being. However, unlike otherkin, therians identify as animals, or the being that is themselves in their whole being, and the two movements are culturally and historically distinct.<ref name=":0" />{{Page needed|date=December 2021}} | |||
| == See also == | == See also == | ||
| * ], a subclass of mammals | |||
| {{col div|colwidth=30em}} | |||
| * ] "therians", people who identify as partially or entirely animal | |||
| * ] | |||
| {{dab}} | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * '']'' | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| {{colend}} | |||
| WE KNOW WERE HUMANS,THIS ISNT A CHOICE!YOU CANT HATE US!WE.ARE.STILL.HUMANS UNDER THE MASK! | |||
| ==References== | |||
| {{Reflist}} | |||
| ⚫ | ] | ||
Latest revision as of 21:56, 2 January 2025
Not to be confused with Theriomorphism.Therianthropy may refer to:
- Human-animal shapeshifting in mythology, folklore, and fiction
- Clinical lycanthropy, a psychiatric delusion of transforming into an animal
See also
- Therians, a subclass of mammals
- Otherkin "therians", people who identify as partially or entirely animal
This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Therianthropy.If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Categories: