Human Attitudes Toward the Cat

Human attitudes toward the cat are constantly changing. Ideas and images that appeal to one generation pass rapidly out of fashion as tastes change and we learn more about feline behavior.

In many early civilizations, big cats, especially the lion, were used to symbolize power and royalty in official sculptures and royal crests, much as they still are today.

 Meanwhile, the domestic cat has been modeled in softer images such as religious an collectible ornaments. Examples of ancient, rare, and priceless artifacts are now housed in museums and galleries dm world, so that the cats place in aesthetics is easily traced.

Since records began, people have used artistic representations as part of folklore, customs, and religious beliefs. Early civilizations, such as those of the Egyptians, Aztecs, and Babylonians, produced a range of feline-inspired artifacts, some of which still survive.

 Many of these primitive images represent members of the big cat family - lions, tigers, leopards, and cheetahs - that were prevalent at the time. But a greater selection of cat images were produced by later societies, when the domestic cat became a part of everyday lives.