pithecomorphism

English

Etymology

From pitheco- +‎ -morphism.

Noun

pithecomorphism (uncountable)

1. (rare) The state or quality of having the form of an ape; resemblance to apes.
   • 1877, Henry MacCormac, “God's Kingdom is a Kingdom of Reason”, in The Conversation of a Soul with God: a Theodicy, London: Trübner & Co., page 108:

     Some are dissatisfied, call it anthropomorphism, when we venture to compare man with God. After all, men are not apes or ape-like, pithecomorphism is but an insensate dream. Without or doubt or question, man, I affirm, assert, and declare, is not an ape or ape-like.

   • 2002, Bénédicte de Villers, “Paleoanthropology from a Phenomenological Point of View. Some Remarks about the Genetic Structures of Human Life”, in Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka, editor, Life Energies, Forces and the Shaping of Life: Vital, Existential: Vital, Existential (Analecta Husserliana: The Yearbook of Phenomenological Research; 74), book I, Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, →DOI, →ISBN, page 74:

     Indeed, Leroi-Gourhan's objective, as I have said, was not to find hypothetical transitions between pithecomorphism and anthropomorphism but to spot an evolutive divergence towards a totally original way of being, that of man.

   • 2017, Chris Herzfeld, “Skeletons, Skins, and Skulls: Apes in the Age of Colonial Expansion and Natural History Collections”, in Kevin Frey, transl., The Great Apes: A Short History, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, →ISBN, page 50:

     […] Cuvier and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire had already “refuted,” in 1817 and again in 1824, a black origin for the Egyptian civilization, […] . They evoked the “pithecomorphism,” or resemblance to apes, of the “black race,” and said moreover that the skulls of Egyptian mummies were similar to those of Europeans.

Related terms

• pithecomorphic

 

Further reading

• “pithecomorphism”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.