microcosms

Noun

microcosm (plural microcosms)

1. Human nature or the human body as representative of the wider universe; man considered as a miniature counterpart of divine or universal nature.
   • The Christian humanists were emphatic in their demand that a man who wishes to understand himself must realize that he is a little world that reflects on a smaller scale the larger world of the universe. […] On the other hand, the whole idea of man as a microcosm was questioned by those who were...1972, Rolf Soellner, Shakespeare's Patterns of Self-Knowledge, Chapter 3: Microcosm and Macrocosm: Framing The Picture of Man, page 43
2. (obsolete) The human body; a person.
   • If you see this in the Map of my Microcosme, followes it that I am knowne well enough too?c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
3. A smaller system which is seen as representative of a larger one.
   • Near-synonyms: epitome, paradigm, model

   Synonyms:

   worldkin, epitome, paradigm, model

4. A small natural ecosystem; an artificial ecosystem set up as an experimental model.
   • The method is relatively labour intensive (24-30 microcosms are run) and more difficult to interpret when compared with other microcosm methods (Shannon et al. 1986; Cairns & Cherry 1993).2009, Jerry C. Smrchek, Maurice G. Zeeman, Chapter 3: Assessing Risks to Ecological Systems from Chemicals, Peter P. Calow (editor), Handbook of Environmental Risk Assessment and Management, page 53