Season 1, episode 1 of Meerkat Manor is very anthropomorphic. Meerkat Manor constantly displays this quality in its descriptions of the meerkats show in the TV show. According to Greg Garrard in his book Ecocriticism, anthropomorphic is defined as a ‘term implying sentimental projection of human emotions onto animals.” Meerkat Manor is constantly projecting human emotions onto animals with its use of phrases such as babysitting, growing in confidence, teenagers, Knight in shining armor, and trying to evict the snake. These phrases are typically used for humans and normally are not applied to animals. Looking at the multiple times they call the meerkats watching over the newborn pup’s babysitters we see the beginning of anthropomorphic tendencies in the show. The newborn meerkats are called pups yet we are told the older meerkats are babysitting which implies a human taking care of their baby and gives us the sense that they have a job. The pups are also said to be growing in confidence. Confidence is a human trait that is being applied to the pups. Along with the human trait of confence is the term of teenagers given to the middle aged meerkats that are still considered young in the group. We are told that they are like kids and play around without much understanding of the risks they put their sibling in when they kidnap him. Meerkats are not actually in their teens because according to Kalahari Meerkat website they typically have a lifespan of about 10 years. The older brother that rescues the pup is told to be a knight in shining armor for the young pup. While the meerkat is not really a knight we get the sense that he is kind hearted and looking out for him. The last phrase I noticed was when the group of meerkats were said to be trying to evict the snake. Evict normally used when a person is kicked from their home due to missing payments or the owner not wanting them to be there for some reason. The fact that the meerkats are evicting give you a negative feeling to the fact that they are trying to kick the snake out of a home he found.
The anthropomorphism in this show is not problematic because it is trying to give you an understanding of how meerkats live. While they may not necessarily have these traits you want to understand them and why they do things and in order to do so you try to relate them to yourself or something you understand. The phrases and terms they use give you the sense that they have these emotions and characteristics of humans that you can relate to and do so in a fascinating and entertaining way.
Works cited
Garrard, Greg. Ecocriticism. London: Routledge, 2004. Print.
“Meerkat Manor – S1-E1 – Part 1.” Animal Planet. YouTube. 2011. Web. 12 Feb 2012.<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-W0gwCiLas>.
“Meerkat Manor – S1-E1 – Part 2.” Animal Planet. YouTube. 2011. Web. 12 Feb 2012.<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8qpAvdQreA>.
“The Meerkat’s Life style.” Friends of the Kalahari Merrkat Project. 2007. Web. 13 Feb 2012.<http://www.kalahari-meerkats.com/index.php?id=lifecycle#c735>
I disagree with your interpretation that the anthropomorphism in this show is not problematic. You said that you think anthropomorphism helps people to understand the way that meerkats live, but I think it’s really just skewing the reality of the species. Jeffery Masson and Susan McCarthy said in Ecocriticism that scientists use language such as “a monkey is not angry, it exhibits agression; a crane does not feel affection it displays courtship or parental behavior” (138). The reason sccientists do this is so that they do not project human qualities onto nonhuman species. The meerkats in this show are simply trying to survive and reproduce so as to continue the species. They do not feel guilt, responsiblity, or love. They are simply doing what their natural instincts have taught them to do. I think this is problematic because people cannot expect other species to act and think as humans do. It causes people to project “evil” or “good” onto species. For example, a shark is not evil just because it can kill a human, yet many people find sharks evil and are scared of them. I think this is caused by anthropomorphism. We expect too much from other species.
I really enjoyed your blog post because I learned something new, which is that meerkats typically have a lifespan of about 10 years. However, I would like to know what is the equivalency rate of meerkat years to human years. For example, just as there are 7 dog years for every 1 human year, how old would a meerkat be in meerkat years if he was 10 years old in human years? You said that “Meerkat Manor” is constantly projecting human emotions onto animals, and I also saw this when the narrator notes, “Back at the babysitting borough, the pups are just starting to enjoy their first taste of freedom.” This sense of freedom is a human yearning and want that is being anthropomorphized onto the baby animals. I have to disagree with you when you say, “The anthropomorphism in this show is not problematic.” I understand that it is a good technique to lure in the audience and increase ratings, but the commentary from the narrator is distorting the audience’s view of nature. By viewing the meerkats through an anthropomorphic lens, we are inferring that they behave and feel exactly the same as we do, which is false.
I completely agree with the fact that Meerkat Manor depicts the cats in an anthropomorphic way. I also noticed that the narrator used phrases such as babysitting and teenagers which are very human comments. I agree that this depiction is not problematic at all. It just is trying to make us be able to understand the lives of Meerkat’s and be able to relate our lives to how they live their lives. I also wanted to mention that I did not consider this to be ecoporn. There was nothing really violent or sexual about the episode.
I could not help to agree more with you. As stated in your blog, “anthropomorphic is defined as a ‘term implying sentimental projection of human emotions onto animals”, and such rhetoric is certainly shown throughout the MeerKat Manor Show. As other commenters refute your argument with the fact that this may be problematic, I disagree. Utilizing anthropomorphism in literature helps individuals correlate to very different things, such as the life of wild animals. In a sense it is somewhat an opinionated manner of providing information, however it is not giving false information. Indeed the Meerkats fight between each other, they take care of young ones and show certain aspects of friendship. Such facts have no faulty information, this is why I certain side with your position.