find the term “folkbiological reasoning” and peruse this paragraph in the psmag article:
“Studies show that Western urban children grow up so closed off in man-made environments that their brains never form a deep or complex connection to the natural world. While studying children from the U.S., researchers have suggested a developmental timeline for what is called “folkbiological reasoning.” These studies posit that it is not until children are around 7 years old that they stop projecting human qualities onto animals and begin to understand that humans are one animal among many. Compared to Yucatec Maya communities in Mexico, however, Western urban children appear to be developmentally delayed in this regard. Children who grow up constantly interacting with the natural world are much less likely to anthropomorphize other living things into late childhood.”
now consider, and i say this in the least pejorative way possible, that furry culture seems to arise at least partially from a desire/instinct to anthropomorphize and identify with non-human animals, often in broad, non-species-specific categories (cat, dog, etc.).
i need to lie down
As an outsider to furry culture the whole thing is really interesting.
I approach animals from a certain point of view (veterinary medicine) and I think I understand them, what they are and what they do pretty well. I assumed somebody who goes around introducing themselves as a cat, for example, actually knows something about cats.
Not in this case.
So one evening my brother brought a few of his friends around to my home with fursonas consisting of a dog, cat and kangaroo.
I was bottle raising a litter of seven adorable kittens at the time (a handful and a half, let me tell you) and I thought this was brilliant. Three animal lovers, in my home, which don’t have any pets of their own. Perfect future kitten owners, right?
I mean, at a certain stage in kitten season you start trying to pimp out those cute little fuzzballs to anybody.
Mr Cat Fursona had no idea what to do with a real live cat or kitten. He’d never interacted with one, he’d only seen pictures and videos. He was so thoroughly awkward, and possibly a little bit afraid, completely unsure about how to hold them, what to do if they wiggled and even if they were happy. He marveled at the way their ears twitch when they swallow but freaked out about their toileting habits. And to my surprise he wasn’t actually interested in these real cats for more than three minutes.
They had minimal interest in this litter of kittens, they were not interested in real animals. They were not familiar with real animals.
I don’t think they’re ascribing human characteristics to an animal. This group seemed to be taking perceived animal qualities (eg dog=loyalty, cat=aloof) and applying it to themselves. Even if the real animals don’t actually have those qualities at all, they were interested in the qualities that society had assigned those animals and then applying that to themselves. Is was society’s concept of a cat that was of interest to him, not the real thing.
So you can be a cat, it seems, without knowing a single thing about cats. And perhaps if he had grown up with cats then he wouldn’t have chosen one for his fursona.
Fascinating!
I grew up in the woods, in farm country, very close to nature and animals. I wonder if that’s why I’m not a furry? *shrug*
id like to thank god, jesus, and those bullshit lake camps my parents sent me to when I was ten
sparksoffandommagic 