something from a site on Therianthropy.
"Therianthropy
There's a saying floating around the net that if you ask 10 therians what it is to be a therian you'll get 11 answers. Like vampirism the exact definition of what it takes to be a therian could be debated for years and still just come down to personal beleif. So what follows is simply my take on what it is.
A therian (or 'were') has a connection with an animal. This connection can come in many forms, some examples include:
* the beleif that their soul is that of the animal trapped in a human body
* the beleif that part of thier soul is animal
*the beleif they were of the animal in a past life (the idea of reincarnation)
* the beleif the spirit of the animal are part of them but seperate to their human souls (sort of like two sharing the same body)
A therian's inner animal is known as thier phenotype. While wolf is the most common phenotype around so far, it is not limited to this. Other common phenotypes include foxes, cyotes, panthers and tigers. A phenotype can be any animal. There are bears, birds, horses, deer, sharks... anything you can think of. Though admittedly I have yet to meet a were-dolphin! It is also possible for a were to have more than one phenotype. These are known as polyweres. Over the past couple of years there has been a huge increase in phenotypes other than wolves as well as an increase in those who's phenotype are more 'astral' creatures - such as dragons, elves, pheonixes, etc."
taken from
http://natureoracle.mysitespace.com/therianthropy.html