ABSTRACT
Anthropom orphism is not a term used with great rigor in psychology or other academic fields, and hence, it is difficult to define pre cisely. The term, along with its verb form, an thropom orphize, has Greek roots meaning “formed like a man.” In English and American dictionaries, it is usually defined broadly as “the attribution of human form or characteristics to nonhuman entities.” The connotation is gener ally negative. Early uses in the English language in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries almost always referred to misguided tendencies to as cribe human form or human characteristics to the Judeo-Christian deity. Such attributions were considered by some theologians to be de meaning, given that the deity was believed to be immortal, incorporeal, omniscient, and omni present, with humans falling far short of the mark. Some authors speak of “animism”—the ancient belief that all objects, living and nonliv ing, are occupied by living spirits-as an early form of anthropomorphism.
