Department of Anthropology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Am J Primatol. 2011 Mar;73(3):238-44. doi: 10.1002/ajp.20832.
Anthropomorphism (and its obverse, zoomorphism) continues to shift and propel us toward changing perspectives on ourselves and other animals. Discussions of anthropomorphism in primate behavior are ostensibly about our use and definition of terms, but ultimately reflect our views of what is unique to humans or unknowable in other animals. Primatologists doing long-term fieldwork report on the bonds that are inevitably formed through familiarity with their study subjects and how anecdotes and anthropomorphism help them to gain a contextualized view of animal lives. This fuller view of animal society serves as an aid to understanding different rationalities and provides a more effective modern role for anthropomorphism than does seeking to demonstrate isomorphic capacities in alloprimates. Although most ordinary language terms are accepted among primatologists, "primate culture" serves as an example of a term and a concept that overreached acceptable anthropomorphic limits when defined to accord with definitions of modern human culture. Comparing similar behavioral forms as the product of similar selective pressures acting on specific early traits, producing homoplasies through convergent evolution, provides a nonanthropomorphic basis for seeking similarities in human and alloprimate behavior.
拟人论（及其反面，即拟兽论）不断转变并促使我们改变对自身和其他动物的看法。关于灵长类动物行为拟人论的讨论表面上是关于我们对术语的使用和定义，但最终反映了我们对人类独特或其他动物未知的看法。从事长期实地工作的灵长类动物学家报告了通过熟悉研究对象不可避免地形成的联系，以及轶事和拟人论如何帮助他们获得对动物生活的背景化观点。这种更全面的动物社会观有助于理解不同的合理性，并为拟人论提供了比试图证明所有灵长类动物具有同构能力更有效的现代角色。尽管大多数普通语言术语在灵长类动物学家中得到认可，但“灵长类文化”一词及其概念是一个例子，当按照现代人类文化的定义来定义时，它超出了可接受的拟人论限制。通过比较相似的行为形式，作为特定早期特征受到相似选择压力作用的产物，通过趋同进化产生同功现象，为在人类和所有灵长类动物行为中寻找相似性提供了一种非拟人论的基础。
