Definition: noun The attribution of human characteristics or behaviour to a god, animal or object.

Earliest example I can find is of a god/mystic from a cave in France painted 40,000 years ago. Zeus Apollo and other Greek deities all had human characteristics too. Hindu animal gods all have human traits to enhance their mystic properties.

First recorded use of the word in western culture is 1745-55 for applying human traits to Christian god! Male image at that.

Aesop’s fables all show animals with human personalities and morals.

Literature has many examples mainly in children’s novels. Here are five fron just the last century.

1. 1865 Alice in wonderland Lewis Carroll.

2. 1894 The Jungle book Rudyard Kipling.

3. 1928 The house at Pooh corner A.A. Milne.

4. 1954 Lord of the rings J.R.R. Tolkien.

5. 1972 Watership Down Richard Adams.

All have been made into films mainly by Disney Studios. Most have some animation within them.

Recent films include Cars, Planes, and Toy Story 1, 2, 3, 4. which move away from showing animals to depicting objects.

Car design itself is a science of face usage from Smart Car and its friendly face to Ferrari and its angry face. Even the Trabant has a face on its front. Online you can find pages of car face design tips.

In art Giuseppe Arcimboldo uses inanimate fruit to form portraits the detail is sublime. Vegetables show the form and character of the subject. I wonder what they made of the images?

Shinseungback Kimyonghun used face recognition surveillance software to look at the clouds in the sky. From 40,000 captured images 1000 clearly show detailed faces. The images were displayed in Bradford. At first I didn’t see them but when you do it is amazing how much detail you see.

As children we do this, playing with our imaginations, we grow out of it! Let’s not, let us use our imagination like a child again, the world would be better for it.

Finally…..for now! Agent Smith says in the Matrix “Humans are a disease Mr Anderson”. He is a Robot displaying feelings so even this pivotal scene in a film displays Anthropomorphism. It is everywhere look for yourself! What can you find?