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ANIMISM
In anthropology, animism is considered as the most ancient human belief system on earth
since it dates back to the origins of the human kind. Although it is characteristic of
aboriginal and native cultures, animism can be practiced by anyone believing in
spirituality.
In the view 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 is the belief that all objects
in the world have an inner being. The concept of animism was first coined by the British
anthropologist Sir Edward Burnett Tylor who described the origin of religion and
primitive beliefs in terms of 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 kinds of religions involved some form of animism. He said that “primitive” peoples
believed that souls and spirits promoted life in human beings. Without them, human
beings would not exist or would simply be inanimate bodies. Basically, they saw souls as
a kind of shadow or phantom going from person to person, from dead objects to living
ones, from lifeless objects into plants, animals, or any other objects. By arguing this
theory, Tylor was able to explain the existence of sleep, dreams, trances and death.
Another philosophy has been introduced by Tylor’s successor at Oxford. Instead
of giving credit to animism only, Robert Ranulph Marett (1866-1943) added to it and
introduced the belief of an animated spirit that gives force in nature and culture. This
belief is known as animatism. The best example given for this doctrine is the example of
a tree growing from a seed: what makes it grow if not an animated spirit? On the other
hand, loss of such force results in death.
Animism is quite similar to the doctrine of shamanism as they both share the
beliefs of the existence of holy men and women who experience visions, trances, dances
(see video at http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=HQGW5a0q51w&feature=related), sacred
items, and sacred spaces for worship, and the connection felt to the spirits of ancestors. In
these two doctrines, holy men are known as shamans who play a priest-like role in the
society and who can communicate with the spiritual world. On the other hand, holy
women are called potters and influence the shaman’s conceptual system through symbol
revelation. In other words, when the shaman sees or hears a spirit coming to him, the
potter is able to clarify his vision and to give a name to the actual spirit.
The transmigration of souls from body to body is essential to the belief in
animism. Any animist community makes sure that when a member of the community is
dying, the soul goes out of his or her body to transmigrate to another one, so that it can
still live. To ensure the transmigration process, Native Americans follow the Roman
custom of receiving the breath of a dying man. Other rituals may be described as offering
food, lighting fires at the grave or shedding blood as sacrifice.
Because animism is not a religion, but a religious belief, many religions in the
world are animist. For instance, the African traditional religion, the Shinto and the Hindu
religions based their beliefs in animism.
Still today, animism is considered as the oldest form of religious belief on Earth.
Work cited:
Carroll, Robert Todd. The Skeptics’s Dictionary.
<http://skepdic.com/animism.html>
Wenner, Sara. (2001) Animism.
<http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/cultural/religion/animism/beliefs.html>
Holistic-life-living. What Is Animism? < http://www.holistic-lifeliving.com/What-is-Animism.html>
Science Encyclopedia. Animism Concepts
<http://science.jrank.org/pages/8283/Animism-Concepts.html>
Global Oneness. Amimism – Origins
<http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/Animism_-_Origins/id/609400>