What's the word for...

[Steken]

OK, so we all know what “anthropomorphism” means – roughly, imagining human characteristics/thoughts/emotions where such things simply don’t exist.

(Assuming, for example, that a horse is burning with patriotic fervor, or that a rock is plagued by a bad conscience.)

But what about when you make the mistake of imagining specifically modern thoughts and distinctions in an earlier era, where such thoughts and distinctions simply did not yet exist?

For example, assuming that Ötzi The Iceman was either a “capitalist” or a “communist”, or that the folks on the Mayflower were either “Unionists” or “Confederates”, when it’s safe to assume that such terms were completely alien to them?

Is there a word for that? (If not, let’s come up with one! “Contempomorphize”, anyone…? :dubious:)

[iamnotbatman]

I don’t know, but I would think one might often just use “anachronism” and assume the reader/listener can infer the time-directionality from the context.

[Leo_Bloom]

@iamnotbatman

I don’t know, but I would think one might often just use “anachronism” and assume the reader/listener can infer the time-directionality from the context.

This sounds right to me. You can of course, use multiple words and recast the sentence.

[Alka_Seltzer]

@iamnotbatman

I don’t know, but I would think one might often just use “anachronism” and assume the reader/listener can infer the time-directionality from the context.

I agree. “Anachoristic ideology” is the best fit I find for the OP’s first two examples, “historical anachorism” probably covers the second two.

[Steken]

Ah! Interesting.

Thanks, lads.