Human–animal hybrid: Difference between revisions
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Revision as of 20:57, 6 August 2015
The term human-animal hybrid refers to an entity that incorporates elements from both humans and non-human animals.[1][2] In various mythologies and fictional works throughout world history, many famous human-animal hybrids have existed, playing roles from that of tricksters and villans to gods and heroes in very different contexts depending on the given culture.
For example, Pan is a deity in Greek mythology that rules over and symbolizes the untamed wild, being worshiped by hunters, fishermen, and shepherds in particular. The mischievous yet cheerful entity has the hindquarters, legs, and horns of a goat while otherwise being essentially human in appearance, with stories of his encounters with different gods, humans, and others being retold for centuries on by groups such as the American Delphian Society.[3] The human-animal hybrid also has appeared in acclaimed works of art by figures such as Francis Bacon.[2]
When looked at scientifically, such beings, defined by the magazine H+ as "genetic alterations that are blendings [sic] of animal and human forms", may be referred by other names occasionally such as "para-humans", with one of them also sometimes being called a "humanized animal". Technically speaking, they also related to "cybrids" (cytoplasmic hybrids), with "cybrid" cells featuring foreign human nuclei inside of them being a topic of interest. A human-animal hybrid may be an entity formed from either a human egg fertilized by a nonhuman sperm or a nonhuman egg fertilized by a human sperm.[1] While at first being only a fictional concept that was hard to define precisely, the first stable human-animal chimeras to actually exist were first created by Shanghai Second Medical University scientists in 2003, the result of having fused human cells with rabbit eggs.
In terms of scientific ethics, the creation of human-animal hybrids is a topic that has been subject to some debate in the U.S. and the U.K., with the state of Arizona banning the practice altogether in 2010. A proposal on the subject sparked some interest in the U.S. Senate from 2011 to 2012 but ended up going nowhere. Although the two concepts are not strictly related, discussions of experimentation into blended human and animal creatures has paralleled the discussions around embryonic stem-cell research (the 'stem cell controversy').
The creation of genetically modified organisms for a multitude of purposes has taken place in the modern world for decades, examples being specifically designed foodstuffs made to have features such as higher crop yields through better disease resistance. Scientists have done extensive research generally into the mixing of genes or cells from different species, e.g. adding human (and other animal) genes to bacteria and domesticated animals to mass-produce insulin and spider silk proteins as well as introducing human cells into mouse embryos for drug testing.
The concept of humanoid creatures with hybrid characteristics from animals, played in a dramatic and sensationalized fashion, has been a recurrent topic in fictional media such as Hollywood films as well. An example is Splice, a 2009 movie about experimental genetic research.[1]
Historical and mythological hybrids
Creatures displaying a mixture of human and animal traits and behaviors while having a similarly blended appearance frequently appear in both Greek mythology and Roman mythology.
For instance, the Greek figure of Pan is a god that rules over and symbolizes the untamed wild, expressing the inherent beauty of the natural world as the Greeks saw things. He specifically received reverence by hunters, fishermen, shepherds, and other groups with a close connection to nature. Pan possesses the hindquarters, legs, and horns of a goat while otherwise being essentially human in appearance; with stories of his encounters with different gods, humans, and others have been a part of popular culture in several different cultures for many years.[3] The human-animal hybrid also has appeared in acclaimed works of art by figures such as Francis Bacon,[2] as well being mentioned in writings such as by john Fletcher.[3]
