Fraternity with monkeys was (and remains) a standard trope of racializing discourse. So, in my ongoing efforts to (a) understand late nineteenth-century Mormon identity construction and (b) graduate, I poked around for comparisons between Mormons and animals in the 19^th century. I was pretty excited when I found a baboon labeled “mormon.” I thought that, together with Mormon crickets, I had a high-protein entrée for my thesis. I mean, if I were manufacturing monstrosities for 19^th-century anti-Mormons, it would be hard to beat the prolific, ravenous, cannibalistic Mormon cricket and a certified Mormon, polygamous baboon. [1]

The animal we know and love as “mandrill” (Mandrillus sphinx) first ran into white guys with notepads in the mid-1700s and went away labeled Simia mormon. According to a subsequent observer, “the Mormon resembles the dog and bear” (Figure 1). [2]

Figure 1: Papio Mormon (Rib-nosed Baboon, Mandrill)

Later it became Cynocephalus mormon and sometimes the Rib-nosed Baboon and then Papio mormon and I know this taxonomy stuff is interesting, but: 1700s. With a “7.” [3] Recall that Joseph Smith was born in 1805. With an “8.” Quoth 19^th-century anti-Mormon RF Burton:

…I may compare the two leading interpretations of the word “Mormon,” which…truly convey the widely diverging opinions of the opposers and supporters of Mormonism. Mormon (mormwn) signifies literally a lamia, a maniola, a female spectre; the mandrill, for its ugliness, was called Cynocephalus mormon. …[According to Joseph Smith], the word Mormon…means literally “more good.” [4]

Mormons and ugly monkeys: the anti lit almost writes itself. Or not. Burton is the only one I’ve found who brought in the mandrill and he didn’t push it—even though others had been bringing up the etymology since 1834 (and still do). [5]

The word mormwn is an inflected form of mormw, which was the name of a demon who ate children; it also referred to a generic she-monster with similar tastes used in tales to scare youngsters. The mormo– root signified aspects of fear: to frighten, to be frightened, to be frightening to look at, terrible, and so on. By the seventeenth century, mormo had acquired “mask” and “larva” as meanings while keeping the “hobgoblin” denotation. [6] It even became an English word, “mormo,” meaning “hobgoblin” or “bugbear.” [7]

Figure 2: Mormoops megalophylla (Ghost-faced Bat)
Figure 3: Fratercula cirrhatus (Tufted Puffin)

At any rate, mormo– was a useful word-root for academic Adams/esses heading out into the world to name all God’s creatures great and weird. A pile of species wear/wore nametags with some form of mormo on them. [8] For examples: the Mormoops, Mormon, and Mormosaurus. “Mormoops” means “having the appearance of a hideous monster,” and I think it fits its family of bats very well (Figure 2). [9] The less-monstrous looking puffins were so named because they appear to be wearing masks (Figure 3). [10] Mormosaurus (= Bogeyman Lizard) is my personal favorite (Figure 4); note the similarity to the gatekeeper/keymaster (Figure 5). [11]

Figure 4: Mormosaurus seeleyi (Mormosaurus)

Figure 5: Zuul, the Gatekeeper (Ghostbusters, Columbia Pictures, 2004)

Many of the Mormos fall in the creepy-crawly-flyey category; for examples: Mormo maura (Old Lady Moth), Mormolyce phylloides (Violin Beetle; Figure 6), and the fossilized Mormolucoides articulatus. [12] Scarabæus mormon (Figure 7) from 1799 is an ugly, poop-eating beetle brute (in my humble opinion; I’m sure their mothers and entomologists love them). [13]

Figure 6: Mormolyce phylloides (type of Violin Beetle)

Book-of-Mormon Mormons appear more frequently in species and common names—the Mormon cricket (Anabrus simplex) being the most famous, of course, and giving rise to the pejorative appellation, “cricket stomper.” [14] “Mormon Oats” as a name for the invasive grass Anisanthus tectorum might also have arisen with a negative connotation. [15] Some species, such as Coluber mormon (Yellow-Bellied Racer [snake]), became Mormon because Science first recognized them as distinct species using samples collected in Utah. [16] Apocheiridium mormon (type of False Scorpion) and Strategus mormon (type of Ox Beetle) distinguish themselves by association with Mormon-dominated regions of Idaho/Oregon and Texas, respectively, rather than Utah, while Speyeria mormon (Mormon Fritillary [butterfly]) was a mistake. [17]

Figure 7: Dichotomius mormon (type of Dung Beetle)

Other species names reflect socio-religious content. One description of the Mormon Skipper or Mormon came in 1881 after lepidopterists had “for years…sought [the female Skipper’s] mate in vain, until at last we found him, united, alas! to another wife; …so now we christen this twin-wived species the Mormon.” [18] That is, there is only one form of male while the females are di- or polymorphic. The Mormons of Asia—Common, Great, Yellow, Blue (Figure 9), and Scarlet—were so named for the same reason, while the Jewel Wasp, being polyandrous, received a feminine Mormoniella. [19]

It is possible that Hydroeciodes mormon, a moth specimen collected in the state of Veracruz, Mexico, in January 1917, memorializes the Mormon exodus from northern Mexico that month. [20] How Australia’s Mopsus mormon (Green Jumping Spider) came to hold a membership certificate remains unclear to me, but I bet it’s the “mask” on the female’s cephalothorax (Figure 8.). [21]

Figure 8: Mopsus mormon (Green Jumping Spider)

Like Gulliver, the last Mormo species we’ll discuss is human. In 1650 a character named “Mormon” was the protagonist of a French play entitled “Le Parasite Mormon [The Parasite Mormon].” The authors explained the name choice thus:

…in the history of Mormon, we have taken the idea of a Parasite in general, & have imposed a Greek name, to get away as much as is possible from the particular and from our century. In fact, you may have read that Mormon, or mormon [sic] in Greek, means the same thing as scarecrow in French [English]—a name that seemed to us to indicate a parasite very clearly, because as a scarecrow in a field prevents the birds from eating the grain that is sown, our parasite, when he is at the table, knows very well to ensure that nobody touches the dishes in front of him. [22]

There are dozens and dozens of genus and species names with etymological relations to the waters of Mormon or Mormo, the child-eating demon. There is even an order: Mormonilloida, describing Antarctic copepods. For many of these animals and plants, it is not clear why they received the name. At any rate, most of this information is rather beside the point of my research on Mormon identity construction and assignment. In a subsequent post, “Monkeys and Horses and Lice, O My!” I’ll take up a more focused examination of the relationships among animals, their names and attributes, and Mormon identity.

Figure 9: Papilio polymnestor (Blue Mormon)

_______________________

Photo credits:
Fig 1: “Papio Mormon” engraved by WH Lizars in W Jardine, The Naturalist’s Library, vol 1 (Edinburgh, 1833) plate 17, p 158; image file: antiqueprints.com [for sale, £5]
Fig 2: Steve Rossiter, pixelbirds.co.uk
Fig 3: Wikipedia: Puffin
Fig 4: Wikipedia: Mormosaurus
Fig 5: “Vinz Clortho” from movie Ghostbusters (Columbia Pictures, 1984)
Fig 6: entweb.clemson.edu
Fig 7: insectdatabases.oeb.harvard.edu
Fig 8: Peter Chew, Brisbane Insects and Spiders
Fig 9: Heinz Koloska, TrekNature

Notes

[2] Clas Alströmer, “Beskrifning på en sällsam babian: Simia mormon,” Kongliga Vetenskaps Akademiens Handlingar 27 no 4-6 (1766):138. Linnaeus made the 1758 identification with the name Simia sphinx; Systema naturae…, 10^th ed (1758) p25. Cynocephalus = dog face. AM Redfield, Zoölogical Science, or, Nature in Living Forms…. (New York, 1858) p36-7. “Papio Mormon” engraved by WH Lizars in W Jardine, The Naturalist’s Library, v 1 (Edinburgh, 1833) plate 17, p 158.

[3] On the Mormon’s nomenclature, systematist George Wald had this to say:

Since…1904, these names have undergone the following vagaries: Cynocephalus mormon became Papio mormon, otherwise Papio maimon, which turned to Papio sphinx. This might well have been confused with Cynocephalus sphinx, now become Papio sphinx, had not the latter meanwhile been turned into Papio papio. This danger averted, Papio sphinx now became Mandrillus sphinx, while Papio papio became Papio comatus. All I can say to this is, thank heavens one is called the mandrill and the other the guinea baboon.

(As quoted on a Wikipedia talk-page [2009 Jul 08]).

[4] I haven’t figured out how to get all the Greek characters to appear, so we’re missing a few orthographic marks. RF Burton, The City of the Saints, and Across the Mountains to California (New York, 1862) p361. Burton references JW Gunnison (The Mormons, or Latter-Day Saints (Philadelphia, 1852)), who brings up the “two opinions” idea but not the monkey. Burton’s paragraph was copied, with a few changes in J McClintock, J Strong, “Mormons,” Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature (Harper, 1880) p618.

The “more good” definition comes under Joseph Smith’s byline: “It has been stated that this word [mormon] was derived from the Greek word mormo. This is not the case. …with the addition of more, or the contraction, mor, we have the word Mormon, which means, literally, more good.” Joseph Smith [probably ghost written], Times and Seasons 12 (May 1843):194. Lamia: “A fabulous monster supposed to have the body of a woman, and to prey upon human beings and suck the blood of children. Also, a witch, she-demon” (OED). In Greek mythology, Lamia was a specific person who became a child-eating demon. I found no definitions for maniola.

[5] The Mormon etymology continues as a part of anti-Mormonism in both environmentalist and occultist incarnations. The earliest instance (to my knowledge) was 1834:

The word Mormon, the name given to his book, is the English termination of the Greek word ‘Mormoo,’ which we find defined in an old, obsolete Dictionary, to mean ‘bug-bear, hob-goblin, raw head, and bloody bones.’ It seems, therefore, that the writer gave his book not only a very appropriate, but classical name. His experiment upon the human mind, he thought, would be more perfect, by giving it a name, in addition to its contents, which would carry upon its very face the nature of its true character—a fiction of hob-goblins and bugbears.

Eber D. Howe, Mormonism Unvailed… (Painesville, OH, 1834) p21, (emphasis in original). “Raw head and bloody bones” refers to a specific Celtic bogeyman. JE Hunt, JH Hunt, and GW Westbrook copied Howe in Mormonism: Embracing the origin, rise and progress of the sect… (1844) p17. JW Gunnison in 1852 gave the “mormonos” etymology but did not mention the mandrill (The Mormons: Or, Latter-day Saints, in the Valley of the Great Salt Lake… (Philadelphia, 1852) p18. “…we presume our readers know that the word ‘Mormon‘ in Greek signifies a ‘bugbear,’ or imposition.” E DeLeon, “The Rise and Progress of the Mormon Faith and People,” The Southern Literary Messenger 10 (1844 Sep):526-538, punctuation modernized.

For an example of present-day environmentalist usage, see Sandra Tanner, “Possible Sources for Book of Mormon Names,” Utah Light Ministery, [2009 Jul 09]: “Here are a few Book of Mormon names and possible sources: …The words ‘mormo’ and ‘Mormon’ are found in Webster’s…Dictionary….” For occultist usage, see E Decker and D Hunt, The God-Makers (Eugene OR: Harvest House, 1984) p72: “Opening a copy of Anton LaVey’s Satanic Bible to the page listing ‘Infernal Names,’ Ed says, ‘Look at this. The god of the ghouls is named ‘Mormo,’ His followers would be Mormons.'”

[6] Enid Welsford, The Court Masque: A Study of the Relationship Between Poetry & the Revels (Cambridge University Press, 1927) p94-7. Larva is Latin for “ghost, spectre, hobgoblin”; in medieval Latin it also meant “mask.” The modern definition of “larva”—an insect before it metamorphs—arose in the sense that the early form “masks” the mature form. The Greek mormo followed a similar trail: hobgoblin to mask to (modern) larva. In some 19^th-century dictionaries, “mask” was the only definition given for mormon in the etymologies. The word “mormo” in Portuguese identifies the disease Glanders; it derives etymologically from the Latin morbus = disease. OED; John Ogilvie, The Imperial Dictionary of the English Language (London, 1883); John Craig, A New Universal Etymological Technological, and Pronouncing Dictionary of the English Language… (London, 1849).

[7] OED, “mormo”: “an imaginary monster, esp[ecially] one invoked to frighten children; a hobgoblin.” “Mormo” in this sense had mostly, but not entirely, passed out of use by the 19^th century. One of the witches in Stardust (N Gaiman; and movie, Paramount, 2007) is named “Mormo.”

[8] Present-day classifications use Mormo, Mormodes, -lucoides, -lyca, -lyce, -lycia, -lycini, -lycites, -munna, -myia, -nia, -niella, -nilla, -nillidae, -nilloida, -nomyia, -opidae, -ops, -ps, -pterus, -saurus, -schema, -scopa, -sintes, -tomyia, -tomyiidae, -tus. I was unable to assign an etymology for genus “Mormia.”

[9] The genus Mormoops is part of the family Mormoopidae. MR Gannon, A Kurta, A Rodríguez-Durán, and MR Willig, Bats of Puerto Rico: An Island Focus and a Caribbean Perspective (Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2005) p61.

[10] Mormon cirrhatus used to be called a Tufted Mormon (or Puffin) but now it goes by Tufted Puffin (Fratercula cirrhatus). The common name survives in Slovenian and Lithuanian as mormon and mormonas, respectively. John J Audubon, The Birds of America… (New York, 1844) v7 p233-243; John Craig, “Mormon,” New Universal Etymological… (London, 1849).

[11] Ghostbusters, movie (Columbia, 1984). Keys and gates find themselves quite at home in Mormondom, though Zuul and Vinz seem unclear on the concepts of agency and chastity. (Is it still fornication if you use someone else’s body?)

[12] The Violin Beetle grows to be about 10 cm (4 in) long and shoots butyric acid strong enough paralyze human fingers for twenty-four hours at its enemies. One interpretation of Mormolyce is terrible wolf. John Ash, Mike Vinson, “Mormolyce phylloides,” 2000; Hitchcock wrote “…but as a name is convenient for reference, I venture to propose that of Mormolucoides articulates, (from mormwlukh a larva, and eidoV an appearance; meaning an articulated animal resembling a larva.” Edward Hitchcock, Ichnology of New England, a Report on the Sandstone of the Connecticut Valley… (Boston, 1858) p7. The Mormyrus genus (Elephant-snout Fish) is not etymologically related to the Mormos, descending rather from a classical name for a (different) fish and related to the English word, “murmur.”

[13] Dichotomius mormon = Scarabæus mormon = Copris mormon = Pinotus mormon is a type of Dung Beetle. Sven Ingemar Ljungh, “Nya Insecter, utur egen Samling,” Kongliga Vetenskaps Akademiens nya Handlingar 20 (Stockholm 1799 Apr-Jun):145-6.

[14] I am curious when the “Mormon Cricket” got its name. An 1856 article uses that name, but I wonder how soon after the cricket/seagull incidents people began referring to the beasts as “Mormon.” Leidy, J. 1856. “A Synopsis of Entozoa and Some of Their Ectocongeners Observed by the Author.” Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 8:42-58.

[15] Anisanthus tectorum = Bromus tectorum is also known as Drooping Brome and several other names. It first reached the Columbia Plain in the 1880s and Utah later; it’s a noxious weed for wheat farmers and a significant boon to ranchers. It is possible that Mormon Oats reflect merely geography. However, I conjecture a negative connotation on the grounds that the grass did not first appear in the MCR and, as a common name, it is unlikely that the Mormons, who tended to be farmers rather than ranchers, would identify a serious pest with their own name. Richard N Mack, “Invasion of Bromus tectorum L. into Western North America: An Ecological Chronicle. Agro-Ecosystems 7 (1981):145-165.

[16] Examples include: Apodemia mormo (Mormon Metalmark [butterfly]), Methia mormona (type of Longhorned Beetle), Euhagena mormoni (a type of Clearwing Moth), Apantesis mormonica = Notarctia proxima mormonica (Tiger Moth), Ambrysus mormon montandon (Creeping Water Bug), Platandria mormonica (type of Rove Beetle), and Perdita mormonica (type of Mining Bee).

[17] Ellen M. Benedict, “False Scorpions of the Genus Apocheiridium Chamberlin from Western North America (Pseudoscorpionida, Cheiridiidae),” Journal of Arachnology 5 no 3 (1977 Autumn):231-41. They etymology of Strategus mormon is conjectural: the collection was in Texas and published in 1847, suggesting association with the Lyman Wight group in central Texas. Hermann Burmeister, Handbuch der Entomologie (Berlin, 1847) v5 p130-1. Speyeria mormonia = Argynnis mormonia; the systematist incorrectly thought the samples were from Utah. Crispin Spencer Guppy, Jon Shepard, Butterflies of British Columbia… (University of British Columbia Press, 2001) p281. On the other hand, the Little Goblin (Botrychium mormo) follows the Greek antecedent.

[18] Samuel Hubbard Scudder, Butterflies: their structure, changes and life-histories, with special reference to American forms… (New York, 1881), p182-3. The Mormon Skipper = Zabulon Skipper or Southern Dimorphic Skipper (Atrytone zabulon = Poanes zabulon).

[19] Harish Gaonkar, as quoted in Mary Harris, “Asian Mormon Butterflies,” Extension News (Iowa State University Extension, 2003 Nov 26). The Mormons are: Papilio polytes (Common), Papilio memnon (Great), Papilio lowii (Great Yellow), Papilio rumanzovia (Scarlet). Mormanity wrote about the Scarlet Mormon 2007 May 04. The etymology of the Jewel (or Chalcid) Wasp’s classification is conjectural (Mormoniella vitripennis = Nasonia vitripennis). JA Zeh and DW Zeh, “The Evolution of Polyandry I: Intragenomic Conflict and Genetic Incompatibility,” Biological Sciences 263 no 1377 (1996 Dec 22):1711-7; AR Whiting, “The Biology of the Parasitic Wasp Mormoniella vitripennis [=Nasonia brevicornis] (Walker),” The Quarterly Review of Biology 42 no 3 (1967 Sep):333-406.

[20] As historical evidence goes, it’s weak-sauce, but mormo doesn’t seem to fit and, as far as I know, there was nothing like a Mormon colony nearby. In January 1917 some 1,500 Mormons fled northern Mexico to escape Pancho Villa. Harrison G. Dyar, “New Moths from Mexico and Cuba (Lepidoptera),” Insecutor Inscitiæ Menstruus 6 no 7-9 (1918 Jul-Sep):130-40; Thomas G Alexander, Mormonism in Transition… (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1996) p208; Thomas Cottam Romney, The Mormon Colonies in Mexico (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2005) p243-5.

[21] The original published description does not explain the name choice. I am at a loss to suggest a religious connection; the spider does have what could be described as “mask” markings/hairs, so perhaps it alludes to the Greek. F Karsch, “Diagnoses Attoidarum aliquot novarum Novae Hollandiae collectionis Musei Zoologici Berolinensis,” Mitteilungen der Münchener Entomologischen Verein 2 (1878):31 (22-32). For images, see: here and here.

[22] Epouvantail can be “scarecrow” or “bugbear.”

Tu verras par exemple que dans l’histoire de Mormon, nous auons pris l’idée d’vn Parasite en general, & que nous luy auons imposé vn nom Grec, pour nous esloigner le plus qu’il nous a esté possible, du particulier, & de nostre siecle. En effet tu peux auoir leu que Mormon, ou mormon en Grec signifie la mesme chose qu”spouuantail en François; Nom qui nous a semblé tres-propre pour denotet vn Parasite, à cause que comme vn espouuantail dans vn champ, empesche les oyseaux de manger le grain qui y est semé; Nostre Parasite de mesme quand il est vne fois à table, sçait bien faire en sorte que personne ne touche aux plats qui sont deuant luy.

François de la Mothe le Vayer, Jean Le Royer de Prade, Charles Sorel, Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac, “Le Parasite Mormon: Histoire Comique,” from the preface, [accessed 2009 Jul 09]. The play, which satirizes literary conventions and social/personality types, opens at Mormon’s execution for sodomy and atheism. Later we learn that the other two main characters set him up. A plot summary in English is here (IAR de Smet, Menippean Satire and the Republic of Letters, 1581-1655, p235).