"What is an
avatar?" The popular imagery of the 2009 film of the same name by James
Cameron and its two sequels has significantly influenced the public's
conception of the term "avatar." Although the term is derived from Sanskrit
and refers to the incarnation of a divine being in human or animal form,
popular culture instinctively associates it with the blue mythical creatures
that inhabit the planet Pandora in Cameron's films and are called Na'vi. In the
film's mythological narrative, the Na'vi—the indigenous inhabitants of the
planet—are depicted as both natural beings and subjects of biotechnological
experimentation. Their DNA can be engineered in a laboratory setting to be
controlled by a human via a neural interface. As suggested by the name, the
Na'vi are "natives" as an original biological species. However, as
biotechnological clones, they assume the role of navigators ("Navi"
in the abbreviation), who can also be controlled and moved by humans who, like
the protagonist Jake Sully in Avatar, are paraplegic. In order to visually
distinguish Sully as the film's hero from the mass of other Na'vi, his face is
designed to be somewhat more anthropomorphic. However, there are no visual
markers that would indicate an ontological difference between the original and
the avatar.
