Plantness, Animalness, and Humanness

Plant placement within animacy and adjacent scales

Bibliographic Data

ID8975696
AuthorsFrederick Curtis Lubbe (0000-0002-1272-6226, Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences Třeboň Czech Republic, corresponding author), Kenny G Castillo Alfonzo (0000-0002-6214-8452, Department of French Studies University of Western Ontario London Ontario Canada)
Year2024
Volume54
Issue2
Pages136-166
Publication date2024-01-06
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal for the Theory of Social Behaviour (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0021-8308 • E-ISSN: 1468-5914
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/jtsb.12410
OpenAlexW4390636664
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited171

Animacy is an important framework through which humans view and categorize the world, but many objects do not easily fit within this scale. Plants are unique because they are very familiar to humans, yet the features and traits relevant for placement within the animacy scale are generally poorly understood by the public. Animacy occurs at three levels, with the inherent attributes of the object (biology), how they are perceived (cognition), and how they are expressed in languages (linguistics). Animacy is dependent on qualification and perception as alive, mobile, and intentional. In the absence of visible movement, classification is dependent on featural attributes indicating mobility or placement in a group recognized as animate (animalness). Plants have complicated bodies whose forms and structures are frequently clear representations of their life history and function (plantness), more than many animals, yet these signs of movement and activity are rarely recognized. The animacy scale may be more closely based on human similarity (humanness) with humans as the peak of life, mobility, and intentionality. As humans, we can have an anthropocentric viewpoint, rendering plants as scenery or utility, or use anthropomorphic interaction to better understand and recognize the dynamic lives of plants. The goal of this review is to compare the current evidence on the placement of plants within animacy and adjacent scales with the biology and habit of land plants, to better understand human perception and behaviour, and work with this process to educate and inform people about the complex lives of plants

Animacy · Cartography · Categorization · Cognition · Cognitive psychology · Cognitive science · Geography · Object (grammar · Perception · Scale (ratio · Similarity (geometry · Animal and Plant Science Education · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Neuroscience · Plant and animal studies · Plant and Biological Electrophysiology Studies · Psychology · Social Psychology

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