personhood

From person +‎ -hood.

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɝ.sən.hʊd/

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personhood (plural personhoods)

1. The state or period of being a person.
   • 2008, Gary L. Francione, Animals as Persons:

     [Animals] are conscious; they are subjectively aware; they have interests; they can suffer. No characteristic other than sentience is required for personhood.

   • 2014, Christopher Watts, Relational Archaeologies: Humans, Animals, Things, page 101:

     These examples reveal that the shared personhood of hunters and prey was mutually comprehensible, such that hunters could see the animalness of themselves and the humanness of prey, and prey could see the humanness of themselves […]

2. The status of being considered as a person.

   A majority of the present world's peoples delay the conferral of personhood (to children).

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