Anthropomorphism
Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, and intentions to non-human entities and is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology.
Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics to abstract concepts such as nations and natural forces likes seasons and the weather.
Both have ancient roots as storytelling and artistic devices, and most cultures have traditional fables with anthropomorphized animals as characters. People have also routinely attributed human emotions and behavioural traits to wild as well as domestic animals.
Name
Anthropomorphism derives from its verb form anthropomorphize, itself derived from the Greek ánthrōpos (ἄνθρωπος, lit. "human") and morphē (μορφή, "form"). It is first attested in 1753, originally in reference to the heresy of applying a human form to the Christian God.
Examples in prehistory
From the beginnings of human behavioural modernity in the Upper Paleolithic, about 40,000 years ago, examples of zoomorphic (animal-shaped) works of art occur that may represent the earliest evidence we have of anthropomorphism. One of the oldest known is an ivory sculpture, the Löwenmensch figurine, Germany, a human-shaped figurine with the head of a lioness or lion, determined to be about 32,000 years old.
Audianism
Audianism was a fourth-century group in Christianity, named after their leader, Audius (or Audaeus). They were seen as a heresy.
Beliefs
The distinguishing beliefs and practices included both theological anthropomorphism and quartodecimanism.
History
Audius lived in Syria in the fourth century. His views extended into Scythia. Towards the end of the fourth century the opinion of the Audians appeared among some African Christians.
In 325 at the First Council of Nicaea, it was decreed that all Christians should follow the Roman tradition of celebrating Pascha (Easter) at the Easter Sunday, and no longer at the date of 14 Nisan, like the Jewish Passover, as the so-called Quartodecimans were used to do. The Audians, however, continued the Quartodeciman practice.
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