Relevance: Sociology: Paper I: Thinkers: Religion and society
Animism refers to the belief/FAITH that not ONLY HUMANS, BUT non-human entities are spiritual beings, or at least embody some kind of life-principle. Animism encompasses the beliefs that there is no separation between the spiritual and physical (or material) worlds, and souls or spirits exist, not only in humans, but also in all other animals, plants, rocks, natural phenomena such as thunder, geographic features such as mountains or rivers, or other entities of the natural environment.
- Animism is particularly widely found in the religions of indigenous peoples, perhaps most interestingly in Shinto and Sererism, and some forms of Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Pantheism, Christianity.
- Throughout European history, many philosophers such as Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas, among others, contemplated the possibility that souls exist in animals, plants, and people. However, the currently accepted definition of animism was only developed in the 19th century by Sir Edward B. Tylor, who created ANIMISM as “one of social anthropology’s earliest concepts”.
- According to Sir Edward B. Tylor, Animism means the belief in spirits. E.B. Taylor in his famous book “Primitive Culture” developed “the thesis of animism” and subsequently he developed the distinction between “magic, religion and science”. In his thesis of animism he advocated that ‘anima’ means ‘spirit’. “Animism” refers to “a given form of religion in which man finds the presence of spirit in every object that surrounds him”.
- According to him, Man’s ideas of spirits primarily originated from his dreams. In his dreams man, for the first time, encountered with his double. He realized that his double or duplicate is more dynamic and elastic than his own self. He further considered that his double, though resembled his body, it is far more superior in terms of quality from his body. He generalized further that the presence of soul in human body is responsible for the elasticity of images in dreams.
- Taking this fact into consideration ‘primitive miND’ considered that when man sleeps the ‘ANIMA OR soul’ moves out of the body of man ‘temporarily’ and when he is dead it leaves out the body ‘permanently’.
Thereafter man generalized that “every embodiment, which is subjected to birth, growth and decay, is obviously associated with ANIMA OR spirit”. Hence, trees, rivers, mountains, which are greatly subjected to decay and expansion, were considered as the embodiments in which soul is present. Realizing this, “man started worshipping ALL these embodiments and that is how animism as a specific form of religions came into being”. According to Taylor, the most ancient form of animistic practice is manifested in terms of ancestor worship.
- Man realized that his ancestors after their death convert into spirits or souls who may be “benevolent” or “malevolent”. Realizing this, in order to convert these ‘spirits or souls’ as ‘protecting spirits’, man made them ‘periodic offerings’. In primitive communities this is known as Ancestor cult and Ghost Worship.
- According to Taylor, the primitive man was not in a condition to distinguish between animate and inanimate objects. Therefore, he conceived that like ‘life and soul’ associated with human body, they should be associated with every object both animate and inanimate.
Realizing this he started worshipping rocks, trees, streams, everything surrounding him extending the notion of soul and spirit to all of them. Taylor argues that religion in the form of animism originated to satisfy man’s intellectual nature to meet his need to make sense of death, dreams and vision.
- In many animistic world views, the human being is often regarded as on a roughly equal footing with other animals, plants, and natural forces. Therefore, it is morally imperative to treat these agents with respect. In this world view, humans are considered a part of nature, rather than superior to, or separate from it.
In such societies, ritual is considered essential for survival, as it wins the favor of the spirits of one’s source of food, shelter, and fertility and wards off malevolent spirits. In more elaborate animistic religions, such as Shinto, there is a greater sense of a special character to humans that sets them apart from the general form of animals and objects, while retaining the necessity of ritual to ensure good luck, favorable harvests, and so on.
- Most animistic belief systems hold that the spirit survives physical death. In some systems, the “ANIMA OR spirit” is believed to pass to an easier world of abundant land or ever-ripe crops, while in other systems, the spirit remains on earth as a ghost, often malignant.
Still other systems combine these two beliefs, holding that the soul must journey to the world without becoming lost and thus wandering as a ghost. Funeral, mourning rituals, and ancestor worship performed by those surviving the deceased are often considered necessary for the successful completion of this journey.
- From the belief in the survival of the dead arose the practice of offering food, lighting fires, etc., at the grave, at first, maybe, as an act of friendship or filial piety, later as an act of ancestor worship. The simple offering of food or shedding of blood at the grave develops into an elaborate system of sacrifice. Even where ancestor worship is not found, the desire to provide the dead with comforts in the future life may lead to the sacrifice of wives, slaves, animals, and so on, to the breaking or burning of objects at the grave or to the provision of the ferryman’s toll: a coin put in the mouth of the corpse to pay the traveling expenses of the soul.
- But all is not finished with the passage of the soul to the land of the dead. The soul may return to avenge its death by helping to discover the murderer, or to wreak vengeance for itself. There is a widespread belief that those who die a violent death become malignant spirits and endanger the lives of those who come near the haunted spot. In Malay folklore, the woman who dies in childbirth becomes a Pontianak, a vampire-like spirit who threatens the life of human beings. People resort to magical or religious means of repelling spiritual dangers from such malignant spirits. It is not surprising to find that many peoples respect and even worship animals, often regarding them as relatives. It is clear that widespread respect was paid to animals as the abode of dead ancestors, and much of the cults to dangerous animals is traceable to this principle; though there is no need to attribute an animistic origin to it.
Contemporary animist traditions
- African traditional religions, a group of beliefs in various spirits of nature, In the Canary Islands (Spain), aboriginal Guanches professed an animistic religion.
- Shinto, the traditional religion of Japan, is highly animistic. In Shinto, spirits of nature, or kami, are believed to exist everywhere, from the major (such as the goddess of the sun), which can be considered polytheistic, to the minor, which are more likely to be seen as a form of animism.
- There are some Hindu groups which may be considered animist. The coastal Karnataka has a tradition of praying to spirits.
- The New Age movement commonly purports animism in the form of the existence of nature spirits and fairies. .