The Common Qualities of Man and Beast

By Alan M. Beck

Anthropomorphism -- the attribution of human feelings to non- human animals, objects, or natural phenomena -- is a popular device in literature, and a powerful social tool. Smokey Bear -- created by the artist Rudolph Wendelin in 1946 for the U.S. Forest Service -- has delivered the message about preventing forest fires so effectively that it has overshadowed ecologists' concerns that some fires may be needed for proper management of forests.

But many scientists disdain