[ **up: [[Storytelling]]** ] --- # Animal–human hybrids (Storytelling) [[2025-0325. Many cultures (e.g. Greek, Roman, Latin American) have 'attempted to make sense of the making of the world through historical accounts of their travels in which such hybridisation is part and parcel of those narratives'.|Many cultures (e.g. Greek, Roman, Latin American) have 'attempted to make sense of the making of the world through historical accounts of their travels in which such hybridisation is part and parcel of those narratives'.]][^1] [[2025-0325. Sarah Blakewell argues that tales of human-animal transformation are about 'issues of human identity'.|Sarah Bakewell, in her analysis of images of bodily transformation, notes that people ‘have always been fascinated by stories of humans changing into animals, and animals behaving anthropomorphically’. She argues that these tales have to do with issues of human identity and that they are often ‘adapted to elicit either laughter or wide-eyed terror from the crowd around the campfire’.]][^2] [[2025-0325. 'General public consumption of magic realist and science fiction texts suggests that these genres appeal to people precisely because the boundaries between fantasy and reality, humans and animals, are fluid and interchangeable.'|Consuelo Rivera-Fuentes argues that 'general public consumption of magic realist and science fiction texts suggests that these genres appeal to people precisely because the boundaries between fantasy and reality, humans and animals, are fluid and interchangeable.']][^3] --- ## Separation from animals [[2025-0325. The 'separation from animals is centrally part of Judeo-Christian heritage.'|The 'separation from animals is centrally part of Judeo-Christian heritage.']][^4] --- ## Inbreeding/rape (esp. in folklore) [[2025-0325. 'Inbreeding as a source of hybrids is another culturally gendered belief originating in creation stories and myths.'|'Inbreeding as a source of hybrids is another culturally gendered belief originating in creation stories and myths.']][^5] [[2025-0325. 'Inbreeding as a source of hybrids is another culturally gendered belief originating in creation stories and myths.'|’Nevertheless, many oral folktales have featured women being ‘raped’ by all sort of animals including snakes and then giving birth to hybrids. … Not surprisingly, then, the topic of women’s fear of giving birth to monsters who are neither human nor animals - yet are both - is often explored in the literary genre of magic realism ....’]][^6] [[2025-0325. 'Inbreeding as a source of hybrids is another culturally gendered belief originating in creation stories and myths.'|’Whoever the creators are in different cultures, they are always warning humans of the terrible consequences of having sexual intercourse with close relatives: we could bear animals or a mixture of human/non-human animal.’]][^7] --- ## Shape-shifters ### Chinese shapeshifters [[2025-0325. 'Tales reflecting homosexual relationships between foxes and humans had appeared as early as the Ming Dynasty.'|'Tales reflecting homosexual relationships between foxes and humans had appeared as early as the Ming Dynasty.']][^8] [[“When Kun was revived, he was transformed into a brown bear, and he opened up his own belly and brought out his son, Yü.”|'For three years, Yü lay inside his father’s dead body. When Kun was revived, he was transformed into a brown bear, and he opened up his own belly and brought out his son, Yü. Immediately, Yü also changed himself into a bear, and we are told that, throughout his life, Yü shape-shifted between man and bear, and always walked with a shuffle that was known as a bear’s gait.']][^9] [[“Zhiguai, or strange tales in English, is a genre of writing featuring ghosts, magical animal-human shapeshiftings, dreams that intervene in reality, and other supernatural characters and events.”]][^10] [^1]: Consuelo Rivera-Fuentes, ‘[[Rivera-Fuentes. ‘Gender and Hybridity’, 2000.|Gender and Hybridity: The Significance of Human/Animal Characters in Magic Realist Fiction]]’, *Animal Issues*, vol. 4, no. 1 (2000), p. 30. [^2]: Consuelo Rivera-Fuentes, ‘[[Rivera-Fuentes. ‘Gender and Hybridity’, 2000.|Gender and Hybridity: The Significance of Human/Animal Characters in Magic Realist Fiction]]’, *Animal Issues*, vol. 4, no. 1 (2000), p. 30. [^3]: Consuelo Rivera-Fuentes, ‘[[Rivera-Fuentes. ‘Gender and Hybridity’, 2000.|Gender and Hybridity: The Significance of Human/Animal Characters in Magic Realist Fiction]]’, *Animal Issues*, vol. 4, no. 1 (2000), p. 30. [^4]: Consuelo Rivera-Fuentes, ‘[[Rivera-Fuentes. ‘Gender and Hybridity’, 2000.|Gender and Hybridity: The Significance of Human/Animal Characters in Magic Realist Fiction]]’, *Animal Issues*, vol. 4, no. 1 (2000), p. 32. [^5]: Consuelo Rivera-Fuentes, ‘[[Rivera-Fuentes. ‘Gender and Hybridity’, 2000.|Gender and Hybridity: The Significance of Human/Animal Characters in Magic Realist Fiction]]’, *Animal Issues*, vol. 4, no. 1 (2000), p. 35. [^6]: Consuelo Rivera-Fuentes, ‘[[Rivera-Fuentes. ‘Gender and Hybridity’, 2000.|Gender and Hybridity: The Significance of Human/Animal Characters in Magic Realist Fiction]]’, *Animal Issues*, vol. 4, no. 1 (2000), p. 35. [^7]: Consuelo Rivera-Fuentes, ‘[[Rivera-Fuentes. ‘Gender and Hybridity’, 2000.|Gender and Hybridity: The Significance of Human/Animal Characters in Magic Realist Fiction]]’, *Animal Issues*, vol. 4, no. 1 (2000), p. 35. [^8]: Thomas William Whyke, ‘[[Whyke. ‘Male Homosexuality and Foxes in Ji Yun’s Zhiguai Collection Tales of the Thatched Cottage’, 2020.|Male homosexuality and foxes in Ji Yun’s zhiguai collection 'Tales of the Thatched Cottage']]’, *Fudan Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences*, vol. 13 (2020), p. 357. [^9]: Eva Wong, *[[Wong. 'Taoism', 2011.|Taoism: An Essential Guide]]* (Boulder, CA: Shambhala, 2011), p. 12. [^10]: Thomas William Whyke, ‘[[Whyke. ‘Male Homosexuality and Foxes in Ji Yun’s Zhiguai Collection Tales of the Thatched Cottage’, 2020.|Male homosexuality and foxes in Ji Yun’s zhiguai collection 'Tales of the Thatched Cottage']]’, *Fudan Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences*, vol. 13 (2020), p. 357.