I know that "werewolf" lore goes back very very far back though the ages.  I am thinking that the whole idea of a man shapeshifting into a wolf (or any other animal for that matter) may be as simple as a man being seen wearing a wolf pelt in some kind of a pagan religious ceremony, but I will get back to you on that one after I finish reading the numerous books I have on werewolf lore (as I know I will change my mind on that one or have my own theories after I read more facts).

I also like the idea of werewolf as metaphor.  In a "civilized" sociiety, man must sublimate his more primal urges.  The very concept of a werewolf gives man an opportunity to express his animalistic side.  That aspect that makes us want to lash out when hurt or angered.

The original Werewlves, the Neuri were incredibly violent and people that survived their attacks thought that they were demons that changed into animals. That combined with the fact that they tended toward shamanism...although shamans change into animals in Dreamtime, outsiders got that confused and thought that they changed in real life.

Regarding where the idea of werewolves came from, I'd like to refer to an interesting tid-bit of info I got from the history channel...

It seems the idea of anthropomorphic animals has INDEED been around as long as people have.  Egypt, long regarded as the apiteme of the ancient world, is known for having one particular god everyone at this cafe can compare to a werewolf: Anubis.

I did some research into Anubis on my own, naturally , and it turns out the 'ol jackal-headed lord-of-the-dead is regarded as one of the most ancient among the Egyptian pantheon.  His job's been shifted around a bit, from being the total god of dead to being something of a judge of the dead and the guy in charge of changing mummy wrappings, but he's always been important to the Egyptians.

Now before Egypt settled down along the Nile, out in the desert apparently there is some evidence their predecessors ALSO recognized Anubis - i.e. some rock paintings basically that look particularly interesting.  Egypt goes back to 3000B.C. by itself, so this means way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way back people had believed in half-man, half-canine critters.

Not really an explanation, but this gives a good idea how long the werewolf's existed as a belief if nothing more.

RedStreak wrote:

It seems the idea of anthropomorphic animals has INDEED been around as long as people have.  Egypt, long regarded as the apiteme of the ancient world, is known for having one particular god everyone at this cafe can compare to a werewolf: Anubis.

Don't forget about Osiris (bird-headed) and Set (serpent). Egyptians were all about that shizzy.

If man evolved from "lower" species, then his ancestory includes animals all the way back to amoeba and beyond. But evolution or not, we're closer to them than most people realize. Physiologists call the midbrain the "reptilian brain". Our spinal column, hind brain and midbrain is, for all intents and purposes, the brain of a snake. Deduct the extremely developed frontal lobe and temporal lobes and replace them with the older models and we have a nonhuman mammalian brain.

Mentally, (and notice that I'm not making any statements here about spirit) the difference between human and nonhuman can be boiled down to two facts. Humans are verbal-language based and humans have opposable thumbs.

O.k., here's where we get into religion vs. science, so be careful here...

Some quick comments...

Regarding dinosaurs and man, according to science, they didn't exist at the same time (and were wiped out, so they would be on different branches of an evolutionary timeline).  Early man evolved much later on an evolutionary timeline. 

Regarding Egyptology, only some of the gods were associated with animals (examples are: Anubis-jackel/dog, Hathor-cow, Horus-falcon, Taweret-hippo, Selket-scorpion, Thoth-ibis (a bird), Set-ardvark looking, Bast-cat, Sobek-crocodile).  Only some were believed to change from god form to human form with different animal parts (having an animal head, animal on their head or etc.).  (Speedy, Osiris wasn't the bird one, the bird one (ibis) is associated with Thoth (a great parade on Magazine Street in New Orleans by the way) and they werewn't really too sure what Set was).  Other gods were associated with the sun, moon, etc.

BlueEyesWolf, there is a rare disease of sorts that can cause all over body hair.  I know it is mentioned on a forum here somewhere.

Last edited by The Busboy (2004-12-10 10:50:00)

comment on the science vs religion: I realize that many people are trained to put it into those categories, however they are more political than actual. Evolution is a nature based religion that falls into the pantheist other than theist. Nature is the unseen god of othes naturalistic or nature based religion. Like many of the egyptian deities, there are mythological animal-human hybrids just like other religions. Yes, apemen are mythological creatures just like mermaids, werewolves (not so much as werewolves) but evolution is not science, technology is science and if something requires me to believe in a universal consciousness or connection, between all things a "force", well then its not very scientific then is it?

BlueEyesWolf wrote:

The Busboy wrote:

BlueEyesWolf, there is a rare disease of sorts that can cause all over body hair.  I know it is mentioned on a forum here somewhere.

That is what I was talking about, The Busboy, but I can't think the name of it. anyway, it does give people somewhat the appearance of werewolves.

I think I saw a Discovery-channel special about people with that condition.  There was one family of circus performers who inherited that trait.

All over body hair is hypertrichonosis (or nowever it's spelled). Porphyria causes hypersensitivity to light.

The Busboy wrote:

WVZ, so does the hypersensitivity to light cause the hair to grow then (helping to protect oneself from the sun), so the person ends up with two problems ultimately?

It means they're a vampire/werewolf hybrid!

It's the devil, I tells ya. At least that's what all the paranoid Christians believed at the time.