ABSTRACT
The conclusion addresses the key themes that emerge from examining the texts within cosmogony, ethnography, and biology. Although the types of monsters that appear in these genres can have significantly different forms, there are some consistencies in the ideas their bodies are connected to. Many monsters are presented as having an excessive or deficient ability to think and communicate, they often eat in abnormal ways, and present a sense of danger around procreation. The fact that their bodies connect to concepts that are fundamental to ideas about our own identity and are often surrounded by specific social conventions means that one of the fundamental functions of monstrosity is to allow us to identify what it is to be human.
