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Pascal Boyer provides a persuasive argument for what makes anthropomorphism natural: the very fact that it is counter-intuitive (J. Roy. anthrop. Inst. (N.S.) 2, 83-97). Drawing on recent research in [...]

The projection of human attributes onto non-human domains is often explained in anthropology as the consequence of a tendency to animism and anthropomorphism present from the earliest stages of cognitive development. However, the experimental evidence suggests that intuitive ontological principles exclude such projections. So anthropomorphism, though widespread, is counter-intuitive. This apparent paradox can be solved by means of a cognitive theory of cultural representations, in which representations are likely to become stable and widespread if they have both salience and inferential potential. Anthropomorphic projections have inferential potential because they activate a powerful modular capacity for mentalistic accounts of behaviour. They are salient because they are counter-intuitive, and therefore attention-grabbing., Introduction In most cultural environments, one finds representations concerning the lifelike and human-like features of non-living or non-human objects: trees that protect people in exchange for sacrifices, animals that have [...]

Culturally successful religious concepts are the outcome of selective processes that make some concepts more likely than others to be easily acquired, stored and transmitted. Among the constructs of human [...]