Animism

For other uses, seeAnimism (disambiguation).

Animism(fromLatin:animameaning 'breath,spirit,life')is thebeliefthat objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinctspiritualessence.Animism perceives all things—animals,plants,rocks,rivers,weather systems,human handiwork, and in some caseswords—as being animated, having agency and free will.Animism is used inanthropology of religionas a term for thebelief systemof manyIndigenous peoplesin contrast to the relatively more recent development oforganized religions.Animism is ametaphysical beliefwhich focuses on thesupernatural universe:specifically, on the concept of the immaterialsoul.

Although each culture has its own mythologies and rituals, animism is said to describe the most common, foundational thread of indigenous peoples' "spiritual" or "supernatural" perspectives. The animistic perspective is so widely held and inherent to most indigenous peoples that they often do not even have a word in their languages that corresponds to "animism" (or even "religion" ).The term "animism" is ananthropological construct.

Largely due to suchethnolinguisticandculturaldiscrepancies, opinions differ on whether animism refers to an ancestral mode of experience common to indigenous peoples around the world or to a full-fledged religion in its own right. The currently accepted definition of animism was only developed in the late 19th century (1871) byEdward Tylor.It is "one ofanthropology's earliest concepts, if not the first. "

Animism encompasses beliefs that all material phenomena have agency, that there exists no categorical distinction between thespiritualand physical world, and thatsoul,spirit, orsentienceexists not only in humans but also in other animals, plants, rocks, geographic features (such as mountains and rivers), and other entities of the natural environment. Examples includewater sprites,vegetation deities,andtree spirits,among others. Animism may further attribute a life force to abstract concepts such as words,true names,or metaphors inmythology.Some members of the non-tribal world also consider themselves animists, such as authorDaniel Quinn,sculptorLawson Oyekan,and manycontemporary Pagans.

Etymology

English anthropologist SirEdward Tylorinitially wanted to describe the phenomenon as spiritualism, but he realized that it would cause confusion with the modern religion ofspiritualism,which was then prevalent across Western nations.He adopted the term animism from the writings of German scientistGeorg Ernst Stahl,who had developed the termanimismusin 1708 as abiologicaltheory that souls formed thevital principle,and that the normal phenomena of life and the abnormal phenomena of disease could be traced to spiritual causes.

The origin of the word comes from the Latin wordanima,which meanslifeorsoul.

The first known usage in English appeared in 1819.

"Old animism" definitions

Earlieranthropological perspectives,which have since been termed the old animism, were concerned with knowledge on what is alive and what factors make something alive.The old animism assumed that animists were individuals who were unable to understand the difference betweenpersonsandthings.Critics of the old animism have accused it of preserving "colonialist and dualistic worldviews and rhetoric."

Edward Tylor's definition

Edward Tylordeveloped animism as an anthropological theory.

The idea of animism was developed byanthropologistSirEdward Tylorthrough his 1871 bookPrimitive Culture,in which he defined it as "the general doctrine of souls and other spiritual beings in general." According to Tylor, animism often includes "an idea of pervading life and will in nature;"a belief that natural objects other than humans have souls. This formulation was little different from that proposed byAuguste Comteas "fetishism",but the terms now have distinct meanings.

For Tylor, animism represented the earliest form of religion, being situated within an evolutionary framework of religion that has developed in stages and which will ultimately lead to humanity rejecting religion altogether in favor of scientific rationality.Thus, for Tylor, animism was fundamentally seen as a mistake, a basic error from which all religions grew.He did not believe that animism was inherently illogical, but he suggested that it arose from early humans' dreams and visions and thus was a rational system. However, it was based on erroneous, unscientific observations about the nature of reality.Stringer notes that his reading ofPrimitive Cultureled him to believe that Tylor was far more sympathetic in regard to "primitive" populations than many of his contemporaries and that Tylor expressed no belief that there was any difference between the intellectual capabilities of "savage" people and Westerners.

The idea that there had once been "one universal form of primitive religion" (whether labelledanimism,totemism,orshamanism) has been dismissed as "unsophisticated" and "erroneous" by archaeologistTimothy Insoll,who stated that "it removes complexity, a precondition of religion now, inallits variants. "

Social evolutionist conceptions

Tylor's definition of animism was part of a growing international debate on the nature of "primitive society"by lawyers, theologians, and philologists. The debate defined the field of research of a new science:anthropology.By the end of the 19th century, an orthodoxy on "primitive society" had emerged, but few anthropologists still would accept that definition. The "19th-century armchair anthropologists" argued that "primitive society" (an evolutionary category) was ordered by kinship and divided into exogamousdescent groupsrelated by a series of marriage exchanges. Their religion was animism, the belief that natural species and objects had souls.

With the development of private property, the descent groups were displaced by the emergence of the territorial state. These rituals and beliefs eventually evolved over time into the vast array of "developed" religions. According to Tylor, as society became more scientifically advanced, fewer members of that society would believe in animism. However, any remnant ideologies of souls or spirits, to Tylor, represented "survivals" of the original animism of early humanity.

The term [ "animism" ] clearly began as an expression of a nest of insulting approaches to indigenous peoples and the earliest putatively religious humans. It was and sometimes remains, a colonialist slur.

—Graham Harvey,2005.

Confounding animism with totemism

In 1869 (three years after Tylor proposed his definition of animism), Edinburgh lawyerJohn Ferguson McLennan,argued that the animistic thinking evident infetishismgave rise to a religion he namedtotemism.Primitive people believed, he argued, that they were descended from the same species as their totemic animal.Subsequent debate by the "armchair anthropologists" (includingJ. J. Bachofen,Émile Durkheim,andSigmund Freud) remained focused ontotemismrather than animism, with few directly challenging Tylor's definition. Anthropologists "have commonly avoided the issue of animism and even the term itself, rather than revisit this prevalent notion in light of their new and richethnographies."

According to anthropologistTim Ingold,animism shares similarities with totemism but differs in its focus on individual spirit beings which help to perpetuate life, whereas totemism more typically holds that there is a primary source, such as the land itself or the ancestors, who provide the basis to life. Certain indigenous religious groups such as theAustralian Aboriginalsare more typically totemic in their worldview, whereas others like theInuitare more typically animistic.

From his studies into child development,Jean Piagetsuggested that children were born with an innate animist worldview in which theyanthropomorphizedinanimate objects and that it was only later that they grew out of this belief.Conversely, from her ethnographic research,Margaret Meadargued the opposite, believing that children were not born with an animist worldview but that they became acculturated to such beliefs as they were educated by their society.

Stewart Guthrie saw animism—or "attribution" as he preferred it—as an evolutionary strategy to aid survival. He argued that both humans and other animal species view inanimate objects as potentially alive as a means of being constantly on guard against potential threats.His suggested explanation, however, did not deal with the question of why such a belief became central to the religion.In 2000, Guthrie suggested that the "most widespread" concept of animism was that it was the "attribution of spirits to natural phenomena such as stones and trees."

"New animism" non-archaic definitions

Many anthropologists ceased using the termanimism,deeming it to be too close to early anthropological theory and religiouspolemic.However, the term had also been claimed by religious groups—namely, Indigenous communities andnature worshippers—who felt that it aptly described their own beliefs, and who in some cases actively identified as "animists."It was thus readopted by various scholars, who began using the term in a different way,placing the focus on knowing how to behave toward other beings, some of whom are not human.As religious studies scholar Graham Harvey stated, while the "old animist" definition had been problematic, the termanimismwas nevertheless "of considerable value as a critical, academic term for a style of religious and cultural relating to the world."

Hallowell and the Ojibwe

FiveOjibwechiefs in the 19th century. It was anthropological studies of Ojibwe religion that resulted in the development of the "new animism".

Thenew animismemerged largely from the publications of anthropologistIrving Hallowell,produced on the basis of his ethnographic research among theOjibwecommunities ofCanadain the mid-20th century.For the Ojibwe encountered by Hallowell,personhooddid not require human-likeness, but rather humans were perceived as being like other persons, who for instance included rock persons and bear persons.For the Ojibwe, these persons were each willful beings, who gained meaning and power through their interactions with others; through respectfully interacting with other persons, they themselves learned to "act as a person".

Hallowell's approach to the understanding of Ojibwe personhood differed strongly from prior anthropological concepts of animism.He emphasized the need to challenge the modernist, Western perspectives of what a person is, by entering into a dialogue with different worldwide views.Hallowell's approach influenced the work of anthropologistNurit Bird-David,who produced ascholarly articlereassessing the idea of animism in 1999.Seven comments from other academics were provided in the journal, debating Bird-David's ideas.

Postmodern anthropology

More recently, postmodern anthropologists are increasingly engaging with the concept of animism.Modernismis characterized by aCartesiansubject-object dualismthat divides the subjective from the objective, and culture from nature. In the modernist view, animism is the inverse ofscientism,and hence, is deemed inherently invalid by some anthropologists. Drawing on the work ofBruno Latour,some anthropologists question modernist assumptions and theorize that all societies continue to "animate" the world around them. In contrast to Tylor's reasoning, however, this "animism" is considered to be more than just a remnant of primitive thought. More specifically, the "animism" of modernity is characterized by humanity's "professional subcultures", as in the ability to treat the world as a detached entity within a delimited sphere of activity.

Human beings continue to create personal relationships with elements of the aforementioned objective world, such as pets, cars, or teddy bears, which are recognized as subjects. As such, these entities are "approached as communicative subjects rather than the inert objects perceived by modernists."These approaches aim to avoid the modernist assumption that the environment consists of a physical world distinct from the world of humans, as well as the modernist conception of the person being composed dualistically of a body and a soul.

Nurit Bird-Davidargues that:

Positivistic ideas about the meaning of 'nature', 'life', and 'personhood' misdirected these previous attempts to understand the local concepts. Classical theoreticians (it is argued) attributed their own modernist ideas of self to 'primitive peoples' while asserting that the 'primitive peoples' read their idea of self into others!

She explains that animism is a "relationalepistemology"rather than a failure of primitive reasoning. That is, self-identity among animists is based on their relationships with others, rather than any distinctive features of the" self ". Instead of focusing on the essentialized, modernist self (the" individual "), persons are viewed as bundles of social relationships (" dividuals "), some of which include" superpersons "(i.e. non-humans).

Animist altar,Bozovillage,Mopti,Bandiagara,Mali, in 1972

Stewart Guthrie expressed criticism of Bird-David's attitude towards animism, believing that it promulgated the view that "the world is in large measure whatever our local imagination makes it." This, he felt, would result in anthropology abandoning "the scientific project."

Like Bird-David,Tim Ingoldargues that animists do not see themselves as separate from their environment:

Hunter-gatherers do not, as a rule, approach their environment as an external world of nature that has to be 'grasped' intellectually... indeed the separation of mind and nature has no place in their thought and practice.

Rane Willerslevextends the argument by noting that animists reject this Cartesian dualism and that the animist self identifies with the world, "feeling at oncewithinandapartfrom it so that the two glide ceaselessly in and out of each other in a sealed circuit ".The animist hunter is thus aware of himself as a human hunter, but, through mimicry, is able to assume the viewpoint, senses, and sensibilities of his prey, to be one with it.Shamanism,in this view, is an everyday attempt to influence spirits of ancestors and animals, by mirroring their behaviors, as the hunter does its prey.

Ethical and ecological understanding

Cultural ecologist and philosopherDavid Abramproposed an ethical and ecological understanding of animism, grounded in thephenomenologyof sensory experience. In his booksThe Spell of the SensuousandBecoming Animal,Abram suggests that material things are never entirely passive in our direct perceptual experience, holding rather that perceived things actively "solicit our attention" or "call our focus", coa xing the perceiving body into an ongoing participation with those things.

In the absence of intervening technologies, he suggests thatsensory experienceis inherently animistic in that it discloses a material field that is animate and self-organizing from the beginning.David Abramused contemporarycognitiveandnatural science,as well as the perspectival worldviews of diverse indigenous oral cultures, to propose a richlypluralistand story-based cosmology in which matter is alive. He suggested that such a relationalontologyis in close accord with humanity's spontaneous perceptual experience by drawing attention to the senses, and to the primacy of sensuous terrain, enjoining a more respectful and ethical relation to the more-than-human community of animals, plants, soils, mountains, waters, and weather-patterns that materially sustains humanity.

In contrast to a long-standing tendency in the Western social sciences, which commonly provide rational explanations of animistic experience, Abram develops an animistic account of reason itself. He holds that civilised reason is sustained only by intensely animistic participation between human beings and their own written signs. For instance, as soon as someone reads letters on a page or screen, they can "see what it says" —the letters speak as much as nature spoke to pre-literate peoples. Reading can usefully be understood as an intensely concentrated form of animism, one that effectively eclipses all of the other, older, more spontaneous forms of animistic participation in which humans were once engaged.

To tell the story in this manner—to provide an animistic account of reason, rather than the other way around—is to imply that animism is the wider and more inclusive term and that oral, mimetic modes of experience still underlie, and support, all our literate and technological modes of reflection. When reflection's rootedness in such bodily, participatory modes of experience is entirely unacknowledged or unconscious, reflective reason becomes dysfunctional, unintentionally destroying the corporeal, sensuous world that sustains it.

Relation to the concept of 'I-thou'

Religious studies scholarGraham Harveydefinedanimismas the belief "that the world is full of persons, only some of whom are human, and that life is always lived in relationship with others."He added that it is therefore "concerned with learning how to be a good person in respectful relationships with other persons."

In hisHandbook of Contemporary Animism(2013), Harvey identifies the animist perspective in line withMartin Buber's "I-thou"as opposed to" I-it ". In such, Harvey says, the animist takes an I-thou approach to relating to the world, whereby objects and animals are treated as a" thou ", rather than as an" it ".

Religion

A tableau presenting figures of various cultures filling in mediator-like roles, often being termed as "shaman"in the literature

There is ongoing disagreement (and no general consensus) as to whether animism is merely a singular, broadly encompassing religious beliefor a worldview in and of itself, comprising many diverse mythologies found worldwide in many diverse cultures.This also raises a controversy regarding the ethical claims animism may or may not make: whether animism ignores questions ofethicsaltogether;or, by endowing various non-human elements of nature with spirituality or personhood,it in fact promotes a complexecological ethics.

Concepts

Distinction from pantheism

Animism is not the same aspantheism,although the two are sometimes confused. Moreover, some religions are both pantheistic and animistic. One of the main differences is that while animists believe everything to be spiritual in nature, they do not necessarily see the spiritual nature of everything in existence as being united (monism) the way pantheists do. As a result, animism puts more emphasis on the uniqueness of each individual soul. In pantheism, everything shares the same spiritual essence, rather than having distinct spirits or souls.For example,Giordano Brunoequated the world soul with God and espoused a pantheistic animism.

Fetishism / totemism

Main articles:FetishismandTotemism

In many animistic world views, the human being is often regarded as on a roughly equal footing with other animals, plants, and natural forces.

African indigenous religions

Traditional African religions:most religious traditions ofSub-Saharan Africaare basically a complex form of animism with polytheistic and shamanistic elements andancestor worship.

In East Africa theKerma culturedisplay Animistic elements similar to otherTraditional African religions.In contrast, the laterpolytheisticNapatan and Meroitic periods, with displays of animals in Amulets and the esteemed antiques of Lions, appear to be an Animistic culture rather than a polytheistic culture. The Kermans likely treatedJebel Barkalas a special sacred site, and passed it on to the Kushites and Egyptians who venerated themesa.

InNorth Africa,thetraditional Berber religionincludes the traditional polytheistic, animist, and in some rare cases, shamanistic, religions of the Berber people.

Asian origin religions

Ingrown sculpture of human head in a tree trunk in Laos

Indian-origin religions

In theIndian-origin religions,namelyHinduism,Buddhism,Jainism,andSikhism,the animistic aspects of nature worship and ecological conservation are part of the core belief system.

Matsya Purana,aHindu text,has aSanskritlanguageshloka(hymn), which explains the importance of reverence of ecology. It states: "A pond equals tenwells,a reservoir equals ten ponds, while a son equals ten reservoirs, and a tree equals ten sons. "Indian religionsworship treessuch as theBodhi Treeand numeroussuperlative banyan trees,conserve thesacred groves of India,revere therivers as sacred,andworship the mountains and their ecology.

Panchavatiare thesacred treesin Indic religions, which are sacred groves containing five type of trees, usually chosen from among the Vata (Ficus benghalensis,Banyan), Ashvattha (Ficus religiosa,Peepal), Bilva (Aegle marmelos,Bengal Quince), Amalaki (Phyllanthus emblica,Indian Gooseberry, Amla), Ashoka (Saraca asoca,Ashok), Udumbara (Ficus racemosa,Cluster Fig, Gular), Nimba (Azadirachta indica,Neem) and Shami (Prosopis spicigera,Indian Mesquite).

Thimmamma Marrimanu– the Great Banyan tree revered by the people ofIndian-origin religionssuch asHinduism(includingVedic,Shaivism,Dravidian Hinduism),Buddhism,Jainism,andSikhism

DuringVat Purnimafestival, married women tie threads around a banyan tree in India.

Thebanyanis considered holy in several religious traditions of India. TheFicus benghalensisis thenational treeof India.Vat Purnimais aHindu festivalrelated to the banyan tree, and is observed by married women inNorth Indiaand in the Western Indian states ofMaharashtra,Goa,Gujarat.For three days of the month ofJyeshthain theHindu calendar(which falls in May–June in theGregorian calendar) married women observe a fast, tie threads around a banyan tree, and pray for the well-being of their husbands.Thimmamma Marrimanu,sacred to Indian religions, has branches spread over five acres and was listed as the world's largest banyan tree in the Guinness World Records in 1989.

In Hinduism, the leaf of the banyan tree is said to be the resting place for the godKrishna.In theBhagavat Gita,Krishna said, "There is a banyan tree which has its roots upward and its branches down, and the Vedic hymns are its leaves. One who knows this tree is the knower of the Vedas." (Bg 15.1)

In Buddhism'sPali canon,the banyan (Pali:nigrodha)is referenced numerous times.Typical metaphors allude to the banyan'sepiphyticnature, likening the banyan's supplanting of a host tree as comparable to the way sensual desire (kāma) overcomes humans.

Mun(also known as Munism or Bongthingism) is the traditionalpolytheistic,animist,shamanistic,andsyncreticreligion of theLepcha people.

Sanamahismis anethnic religionof theMeitei peopleofKangleipak(Meiteifor 'Manipur') inNortheast India.It is a polytheistic and animist religion and is named afterLainingthou Sanamahi,one of the most important deities of the Meitei faith.

Chinese religions

Shendao(Chinese:Thần đạo;pinyin:shéndào;lit.'the Way of the Gods') is a term originated by Chinese folk religions influenced by,Mohist,ConfucianandTaoistphilosophy, referring to the divine order of nature or theWu xing.

TheShang dynasty's state religionwas practiced from 1600 BCE to 1046 BCE, and was built on the idea of spiritualizing natural phenomena.

Japan and Shinto

Shintois the traditional Japanese folk religion and has many animist aspects. Thekami(Thần),a class ofsupernatural beings,are central to Shinto. All things, including natural forces and well-known geographical locations, are thought to be home to the kami. The kami are worshipped at kamidana household shrines, family shrines, and jinja public shrines.

TheRyukyuan religionof theRyukyu islandsis distinct from Shinto, but shares similar characteristics.

Kalash people

Kalash peopleof Northern Pakistan follow an ancient animistic religion identified with an ancient form of Hinduism.

TheKalash(Kalasha:کالؕاشؕا,romanised:Kaḷaṣa,Devanagari:कळष), or Kalasha, are anIndo-Aryanindigenous peopleresiding in theChitral Districtof theKhyber-Pakhtunkhwaprovince ofPakistan.

They are considered unique among the people of Pakistan.They are also considered to be Pakistan's smallestethnoreligious group,and traditionally practice what authors characterise as a form of animism.During the mid-20th century an attempt was made to force a few Kalasha villages in Pakistan to convert to Islam, but the people fought the conversion and, once official pressure was removed, the vast majority resumed the practice of their own religion.Nevertheless, some Kalasha have since converted to Islam, despite being shunned afterward by their community for having done so.

The term is used to refer to many distinct people including the Väi, the Čima-nišei, the Vântä, plus theAshkun- andTregami-speakers.The Kalash are considered to be an indigenous people of Asia, with their ancestors migrating toChitral Valleyfrom another location possibly further south,which the Kalash call "Tsiyam" in their folk songs and epics.

They claim to descend from the armies ofAlexanderwho were left behind from his armed campaign, though no evidence exists for him to have passed the area.

The neighbouringNuristani peopleof the adjacentNuristan(historically known asKafiristan) province ofAfghanistanonce had the same culture and practised a faith very similar to that of the Kalash, differing in a few minor particulars.

The first historically recorded Islamic invasions of their lands were by theGhaznavidsin the 11th centurywhile they themselves are first attested in 1339 duringTimur's invasions.Nuristan had been forcibly converted to Islam in 1895–96, although some evidence has shown the people continued to practice their customs.The Kalash of Chitral have maintained their own separate cultural traditions.

Korea

Muism,the native Korean belief, has many animist aspects.The various deities, calledkwisin,are capable of interacting with humans and causing problems if they are not honoured appropriately.

A 1922 photograph of anItnegpriestessin thePhilippinesmaking an offering to anapdel,a guardiananitospirit of her village that reside in the water-worn stones known aspinaing

Philippines indigenous religions

In theindigenous Philippine folk religions,pre-colonial religions of PhilippinesandPhilippine mythology,animism is part of their core beliefs as demonstrated by the belief inAnitoandBathalaas well as their conservation and veneration ofsacred Indigenous Philippine shrines, forests, mountains and sacred grounds.

Anito (lit.'[ancestor] spirit') refers to the various indigenous shamanisticfolk religionsof thePhilippines,led by female or feminized male shamans known asbabaylan.It includes belief in a spirit world existing alongside and interacting with the material world, as well as the belief that everything has a spirit, from rocks and trees to animals and humans to natural phenomena.

In indigenous Filipino belief, the Bathala is the omnipotent deity which was derived fromSanskritword for the Hindu supreme deitybhattara,as one of the tenavatarsof the Hindu godVishnu.The omnipotent Bathala also presides over the spirits of ancestors called Anito.Anitos serve as intermediaries between mortals and the divine, such asAgni(Hindu) who holds the access to divine realms; for this reason they are invoked first and are the first to receive offerings, regardless of the deity the worshipper wants to pray to.

Abrahamic religions

Animism also has influences inAbrahamic religions.

TheOld Testamentand theWisdom literaturepreach theomnipresenceof God (Jeremiah 23:24; Proverbs 15:3; 1 Kings 8:27), and God is bodily present in theincarnationof his Son,JesusChrist.(Gospel of John 1:14, Colossians 2:9).Animism is not peripheral to Christian identity but is its nurturing home ground, its axis mundi. In addition to the conceptual work the termanimismperforms, it provides insight into the relational character and common personhood of material existence.

The Christianspiritual mappingmovement is based upon a similar worldview to that of animism. It involves researching and mapping the spiritual and social history of an area in order to determine the demon (territorial spirit) controlling an area and preventingevangelism,so that the demon can be defeated throughspiritual warfareprayer and rituals. Both posit that an invisible spirit world is active and that it can be interacted with or controlled, with the Christian belief that such power to control the spirit world comes from God rather than being inherent to objects or places. "The animist believes that rituals and objectscontainspiritual power, whereas a Christian believes that rituals and objects mayconveypower. Animists seek tomanipulatepower, whereas Christians seek tosubmitto God and to learn to work with his power. "

With rising awareness of ecological preservation, recently theologians likeMark I. Wallaceargue for animistic Christianity with abiocentricapproach that understands God being present in all earthly objects, such as animals, trees, and rocks.

Pre-Islamic Arab religion

Pre-Islamic Arab religioncan refer to the traditional polytheistic, animist, and in some rare cases, shamanistic, religions of the peoples of the Arabian Peninsula. The belief injinn,invisible entities akin to spirits in the Western sense dominant in the Arab religious systems, hardly fit the description of Animism in a strict sense. The jinn are considered to be analogous to the human soul by living lives like that of humans, but they are not exactly like human souls neither are they spirits of the dead.It is unclear if belief in jinn derived from nomadic or sedentary populations.

New religious movements

Somemodern pagangroups, including Eco-pagans, describe themselves as animists, meaning that they respect the diverse community of living beings and spirits with whom humans share the world and cosmos.

TheNew Agemovement commonly demonstrates animistic traits in asserting the existence of nature spirits.

Shamanism

Main article:Shamanism

A shaman is a person regarded as having access to, and influence in, the world ofbenevolent and malevolent spirits,who typically enters into atrancestate during aritual,and practicesdivinationandhealing.

According toMircea Eliade,shamanism encompasses the premise that shamans are intermediaries or messengers between the human world and the spirit worlds. Shamans are said to treat ailments and illnesses by mending the soul. Alleviating traumas affecting the soul or spirit restores the physical body of the individual to balance and wholeness. The shaman also enterssupernatural realmsordimensionsto obtain solutions to problems afflicting the community. Shamans may visit other worlds or dimensions to bring guidance to misguided souls and to ameliorate illnesses of the human soul caused by foreign elements. The shaman operates primarily within the spiritual world, which in turn affects the human world. The restoration of balance results in the elimination of the ailment.

Abram, however, articulates a less supernatural and much more ecological understanding of the shaman's role than that propounded by Eliade. Drawing upon his own field research in Indonesia, Nepal, and the Americas, Abram suggests that in animistic cultures, the shaman functions primarily as an intermediary between the human community and the more-than-human community of active agencies—the local animals, plants, and landforms (mountains, rivers, forests, winds, and weather patterns, all of which are felt to have their own specificsentience). Hence, the shaman's ability to heal individual instances of disease (or imbalance) within the human community is a byproduct of their more continual practice of balancing the reciprocity between the human community and the wider collective of animate beings in which that community is embedded.

Animist life

Non-human animals

Animism entails the belief that all living things have a soul, and thus, a central concern of animist thought surrounds how animals can be eaten, or otherwise used for humans' subsistence needs.The actions of non-human animals are viewed as "intentional, planned and purposive",and they are understood to be persons, as they are both alive, and communicate with others.

In animist worldviews, non-human animals are understood to participate inkinshipsystems and ceremonies with humans, as well as having their own kinship systems and ceremonies.Graham Harveycited an example of an animist understanding of animal behavior that occurred at apowwowheld by theConne RiverMi'kmaqin 1996; an eagle flew over the proceedings, circling over the central drum group. The assembled participants called outkitpu('eagle'), conveying welcome to the bird and expressing pleasure at its beauty, and they later articulated the view that the eagle's actions reflected its approval of the event, and the Mi'kmaq's return to traditional spiritual practices.

In animism, rituals are performed to maintain relationships between humans and spirits. Indigenous peoples often perform these rituals to appease the spirits and request their assistance during activities such as hunting and healing. In theArcticregion, certain rituals are common before the hunt as a means to show respect for the spirits of animals.

Flora

Some animists also view plant and fungi life as persons and interact with them accordingly.The most common encounter between humans and these plant and fungi persons is with the former's collection of the latter for food, and for animists, this interaction typically has to be carried out respectfully.Harvey cited the example of Māori communities in New Zealand, who often offerkarakiainvocations tosweet potatoesas they dig up the latter. While doing so, there is an awareness of a kinship relationship between the Māori and the sweet potatoes, with both understood as having arrived inAotearoatogether in the same canoes.

In other instances, animists believe that interaction with plant and fungi persons can result in the communication of things unknown or even otherwise unknowable.Among some modern Pagans, for instance, relationships are cultivated with specific trees, who are understood to bestow knowledge or physical gifts, such as flowers, sap, or wood that can be used as firewood or to fashion into awand;in return, these Pagans give offerings to the tree itself, which can come in the form oflibationsof mead or ale, a drop of blood from a finger, or a strand of wool.

The elements

Various animistic cultures also comprehend stones as persons.Discussing ethnographic work conducted among the Ojibwe, Harvey noted that their society generally conceived of stones as being inanimate, but with two notable exceptions: the stones of theBell Rocksand those stones which are situated beneath trees struck by lightning, which were understood to have become Thunderers themselves.The Ojibwe conceived of weather as being capable of having personhood, with storms being conceived of as persons known as 'Thunderers' whose sounds conveyed communications and who engaged in seasonal conflict over the lakes and forests, throwing lightning at lake monsters.Wind, similarly, can be conceived as a person in animistic thought.

The importance of place is also a recurring element of animism, with some places being understood to be persons in their own right.

Spirits

Animism can also entail relationships being established with non-corporeal spirit entities.

Other usage

Science

In the early 20th century,William McDougalldefended a form of animism in his bookBody and Mind: A History and Defence of Animism(1911).

PhysicistNick Herberthas argued for "quantum animism" in which the mind permeates the world at every level:

The quantum consciousness assumption, which amounts to a kind of "quantum animism" likewise asserts that consciousness is an integral part of the physical world, not an emergent property of special biological or computational systems. Since everything in the world is on some level a quantum system, this assumption requires that everything be conscious on that level. If the world is truly quantum animated, then there is an immense amount of invisible inner experience going on all around us that is presently inaccessible to humans, because our own inner lives are imprisoned inside a small quantum system, isolated deep in the meat of an animal brain.

Werner Krieglstein wrote regarding hisquantum Animism:

Herbert's quantum Animism differs from traditional Animism in that it avoids assuming a dualistic model of mind and matter. Traditional dualism assumes that some kind of spirit inhabits a body and makes it move, a ghost in the machine. Herbert's quantum Animism presents the idea that every natural system has an inner life, a conscious center, from which it directs and observes its action.

InError and Loss: A Licence to Enchantment,Ashley Curtis (2018) has argued that the Cartesian idea of an experiencing subject facing off with an inert physical world is incoherent at its very foundation and that this incoherence is consistent with rather than belied byDarwinism.Human reason (and its rigorous extension in the natural sciences) fits an evolutionary niche just asecholocationdoes for bats andinfrared visiondoes for pit vipers, and is epistemologically on a par with, rather than superior to, such capabilities. The meaning or aliveness of the "objects" we encounter, rocks, trees, rivers, and other animals, thus depends for its validity not on a detached cognitive judgment, but purely on the quality of our experience. The animist experience, or the wolf's or raven's experience, thus become licensed as equally valid worldviews to the modern western scientific one; they are indeed more valid, since they are not plagued with the incoherence that inevitably arises when "objective existence" is separated from "subjective experience."

Socio-political impact

Harvey opined that animism's views on personhood represented a radical challenge to the dominant perspectives ofmodernity,because it accords "intelligence, rationality, consciousness, volition, agency, intentionality, language, and desire" to non-humans.Similarly, it challenges the view of human uniqueness that is prevalent in bothAbrahamic religionsand Westernrationalism.

Art and literature

Animist beliefs can also be expressed through artwork.For instance, among theMāoricommunities of New Zealand, there is an acknowledgement that creating art through carving wood or stone entails violence against the wood or stone person and that the persons who are damaged therefore have to be placated and respected during the process; any excess or waste from the creation of the artwork is returned to the land, while the artwork itself is treated with particular respect.Harvey, therefore, argued that the creation of art among the Māori was not about creating an inanimate object for display, but rather a transformation of different persons within a relationship.

Harvey expressed the view that animist worldviews were present in various works of literature, citing such examples as the writings ofAlan Garner,Leslie Silko,Barbara Kingsolver,Alice Walker,Daniel Quinn,Linda Hogan,David Abram,Patricia Grace,Chinua Achebe,Ursula Le Guin,Louise Erdrich,andMarge Piercy.

Animist worldviews have also been identified in the animated films ofHayao Miyazaki.

See also

• Anecdotal cognitivism
• Animatism
• Anima mundi
• Dayawism
• Ecotheology
• Hylozoism
• Mana
• Mauri (life force)
• Kaitiaki
• Panpsychism
• Religion and environmentalism
• Sacred trees
• Shamanism
• Wildlife totemization

References

Sources

• Abram, David(1996).The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-than-Human World.New York:Pantheon Books.ISBN978-0-679-43819-9.
• Abram, David (2010).Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology.New York: Pantheon Books.ISBN978-0-375-42171-6.
• Bird-David, Nurit (1999).""Animism" Revisited: Personhood, Environment, and Relational Epistemology ".Current Anthropology.41(S1): 67–91.doi:10.1086/200061.
• Curtis, Ashley (2018).Error and Loss: A Licence to Enchantment.Zürich: Kommode Verlag.
• Fernandez-Armesto, Felipe (2003).Ideas that Changed the World.Dorling Kindersley.
• Guthrie, Stewart (2000). "On Animism".Current Anthropology.41(1): 106–107.doi:10.1086/300107.JSTOR10.1086/300107.PMID10593728.S2CID224796411.
• Harvey, Graham(2005).Animism: Respecting the Living World.London: Hurst & Co.ISBN978-0-231-13701-0.
• Insoll, Timothy (2004).Archaeology, Ritual, Religion.London:Routledge.ISBN978-0-415-25312-3.
• Lonie, Alexander Charles Oughter (1878)."Animism".In Baynes, T. S. (ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 2 (9th ed.). New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. pp. 55–57.
• Segal, Robert (2004).Myth: A Very Short Introduction.Oxford University Press.
• Willerslev, Rane (2007).Soul Hunters: Hunting, animism, and personhood among the Siberian Yukaghirs.Berkeley:University of California Press.ISBN9780520252172.

Further reading

• Adler, Margot(2006) [1979].Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers and Other Pagans in America(Revised ed.). London:Penguin Books.ISBN978-0-14-303819-1.
• Armstrong, Karen (1994).A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.Ballantine Books.
• Dean, Bartholomew (2009).Urarina Society, Cosmology, and History in Peruvian Amazonia.Gainesville:University Press of Florida.ISBN978-0-8130-3378-5.
• Forbes, Andrew; Henley, David (2012). "Lamphun's Little-Known Animal Shrines (Animist traditions in Thailand)".Ancient Chiang Mai.Vol. 1. Chiang Mai: Cognoscenti Books.
• Hallowell, Alfred Irving.1960. "Ojibwa ontology, behavior, and world view." InCulture in History,edited byS. Diamond.(New York: Columbia University Press).
  • Reprint:2002. Pp. 17–49 inReadings in Indigenous Religions,edited by G. Harvey. London: Continuum.
• Ingold, Tim.2006. "Rethinking the animate, re-animating thought."Ethnos71(1):9–20.
• Käser, Lothar. 2004.Animismus. Eine Einführung in die begrifflichen Grundlagen des Welt- und Menschenbildes traditionaler (ethnischer) Gesellschaften für Entwicklungshelfer und kirchliche Mitarbeiter in Übersee.Bad Liebenzell: Liebenzeller Mission.ISBN3-921113-61-X.
  • mit dem verkürzten UntertitelEinführung in seine begrifflichen Grundlagenauch bei: Erlanger Verlag für Mission und Okumene, Neuendettelsau 2004,ISBN3-87214-609-2
• Quinn, Daniel.[1996] 1997.The Story of B: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit.New York:Bantam Books,and the essay "Our Religions: Are They the Religions of Humanity Itself?", usually available at Ishmael.org
• Wundt, Wilhelm.1906.Mythus und Religion,Teil II. Leipzig 1906 (VölkerpsychologieII)

External links

• The dictionary definition ofanimismat Wiktionary
• Media related toAnimismat Wikimedia Commons