Origin of the Word Therianthropy

Historical Accounts in Literature

One source, "The Human Predator," written in 2005 by Katherine Ramsland, raises the possibility that the term Therianthropy may have been used as early as the 16th century in criminal trials of suspected werewolves.

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One of the first known written and published appearances of the word therianthropy can be seen in "The Religious Systems of China" written by J.J.M De Groot in 1901.The usage of therianthropy can be found on page 171 of Volume IV,Book II, "On the Soul and Ancestral Worship, Part I."

"The tale of Cheu Chen's slave shows a new feature in Chinese tiger-lore, which, like so many others, we find also in therianthropy elsewhere in Asia and in Europe, namely, that the change into a beast may be brought about artificially and willfully by means of charms, spells, and other instruments of witchcraft."

Volume IV also includes a few interesting tales of shape-sifting, human-like creatures with blue skin and tusks, "beings resembling men, squatting down sometimes like dogs", walking trees, and women giving birth to monsters, devils, also referred to in the book as specters. 

Page 793 -A baby is called a yaksha, a broad class of nature-spirits, usually benevolent, who are caretakers of the nature treasures hidden in the earth and tree roots, and described as "blue over its whole body, with a wide mouth gaping upward...it had cock-spurs and horse-hoofs."

Page 823 - Begins a section that includes sorcery and tales of sorcerers changing themselves into animals.

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Therianthropy was used to describe spiritual beliefs in animal transformation in a 1915 Japanese publication, "A History of the Japanese People from the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era."

Page 65 - In a section titled "Therianthropic Elements" the first sentence is "That the religion of ancient Japan - known as Shinto, or "the way of the gods" - had not fully emerged from therianthropic polytheism is proved by the fact that, though the deities were generally represented in human shape, they were frequently conceived as spiritual beings, embodying themselves in all kinds of things, especially animals, reptiles, or insects."