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What is Animism?What is Animism?
A definition of Animism: Animism is the belief that natural phenomena such as rivers and mountains, have souls. In anthropology, animism is often considered to be the original human religion, being defined as belief in the existence of spiritual beings. This belief dates back to the earliest days of humans and it still exists in today's world. It can be practiced by anyone who believes in spirituality but does not necessarily have any association with so-called 'organised' religion. The basis for animism is acknowledgment that there is a spiritual realm which humans share the universe with - in other words, this wonderful world of ours in inhabited not only by us human beings, but also by 'spiritual beings'. The concept that humans possess souls and that souls have life apart from human bodies both before and after death are central to animism, along with the ideas that animals, plants, and celestial bodies have a spiritual aspect to them, ie. 'a spirit'. What is Animism? Although specific beliefs of animism vary widely, similarities between the characteristics of Gods and Goddesses and rituals practiced by animistic societies exist. It is quite similar to Shamanism in that there are holy men and women who experience visions, trance, dance, have sacred items, sacred spaces for worship, and a connection felt to the spirits of ancestors. These qualities of animism are also very apparent in shaman culture.
In accordance with the beliefs of biologists and psychologists, animism refers to the view that the human mind is a non-material entity that nevertheless interacts with the body via the brain and nervous system. As a philosophical theory, animism, more often called panpsychism, is the belief that all objects in the world have an inner being. The British anthropologist Sir Edward Burnett Tylor described the origin of religion and primitive beliefs in terms of animism. What is Animism? In Primitive Culture (1871) Tylor defined animism as 'the general belief in spiritual beings' and considered it “a minimum definition of religion.” He believed that all religions, from the simplest to the most complex, involved some form of animism. According to Tylor, primitive peoples, defined as those without written traditions, believe that spirits or souls are the cause of life in human beings; they picture souls as phantoms, resembling shadows, which can transmigrate from person to person, from the dead to the living, and from and into plants, animals, and lifeless objects. In developing this theory, Tylor assumed that an animistic philosophy developed in an attempt to explain the causes of sleep, dreams, trances, and death - the difference between a living body and a dead one; and the nature of the images that one sees in dreams and trances. Related to animism are ancestor worship and some forms of nature worship.
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