In religion, the term "Animism" is used in a number of ways. Animism (from animus, or anima, mind or soul), originally means the doctrine of spiritual beings. It is often extended to include the belief that personalized, supernatural beings (or souls) endowed with reason, intelligence and volition inhabit ordinary objects as well as animate beings, and govern their existence (pantheism or animatism). More simply, the belief is that "everything is alive", "everything is conscious" or "everything has ...

Including:

• Animism - Overview
• Animism - Origins
• Animism - Plant souls
• Animism - Object souls
• Animism - Animism and death
• Animism - Evil spirits
• Animism - Differences between animism and religion
• Animism - Animism and the origin of religion
• Animism - Animism and mythology
• Animism - Animism in philosophy
• Animism - Tylor
• Animism - List of phenomena believed to lead to animism
• Animism - The new animism

Read more here: » Animism: Encyclopedia - Animism

Side by side with the doctrine of separable souls with which we have so far been concerned, exists the belief in a great host of unattached spirits. These are not immanent souls that have become detached from their abodes, but have instead every appearance of independent spirits. These spirits are at first mainly malevolent. Side by side with them we find the spirits of the dead as hostile beings. At a higher stage the spirits of dead kinsmen are no longer unfriendly, nor yet all non-human spirits. As fetishes, naguals (see totem), fa ...

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Animism, Animism - Overview, Animism - Origins, Animism - Plant souls, Animism - Object souls, Animism - Animism and death, Animism - Evil spirits, Animism - Differences between animism and religion, Animism - Animism and the origin of religion, Animism - Animism and mythology, Animism - Animism in philosophy, Animism - Tylor, Animism - List of phenomena believed to lead to animism, Animism - The new animism

Read more here: » Animism: Encyclopedia II - Animism - Evil spirits

Early ideas on the subject of the soul, and at the same time the origin of them, can be illustrated by analysis of the terms applied to them. Readers of Dante know the idea that the dead have no shadows. This was no invention of the poet's but a piece of traditional lore. Among the Basutus it is held that a man walking by the brink of a river may lose his life if his shadow falls on the water, for a croc ...

See also:

Animism, Animism - Overview, Animism - Origins, Animism - Plant souls, Animism - Object souls, Animism - Animism and death, Animism - Evil spirits, Animism - Differences between animism and religion, Animism - Animism and the origin of religion, Animism - Animism and mythology, Animism - Animism in philosophy, Animism - Tylor, Animism - List of phenomena believed to lead to animism, Animism - The new animism

Read more here: » Animism: Encyclopedia II - Animism - Origins

Two animistic theories of the origin of religion have been put forward. The one, often termed the "ghost theory," mainly associated with the name of Herbert Spencer, but also maintained by Grant Allen, refers the beginning of religion to the cult of dead human beings. The other, put forward by Dr. E. B. Tylor, makes the foundation of all religion animistic, but recognizes the non-human character of polytheistic gods. Although ancestor-worship, or, more broadly, the cult of the dead, has in many cases overshadowed other cults or even e ...

See also:

Animism, Animism - Overview, Animism - Origins, Animism - Plant souls, Animism - Object souls, Animism - Animism and death, Animism - Evil spirits, Animism - Differences between animism and religion, Animism - Animism and the origin of religion, Animism - Animism and mythology, Animism - Animism in philosophy, Animism - Tylor, Animism - List of phenomena believed to lead to animism, Animism - The new animism

Read more here: » Animism: Encyclopedia II - Animism - Animism and the origin of religion

Animism is commonly described as the most primitive form of religion, but properly speaking it is not a religion at all. Animism is in the first instance an explanation of phenomena rather than an attitude of mind toward the cause of them, a philosophy rather than a religion. The term may, however, be conveniently used to describe the early stage of religion in which people endeavour to set up relations between themselves and the unseen powers, conceived as spirits, but differing in many particulars from the gods of polytheism. As an example ...

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Animism, Animism - Overview, Animism - Origins, Animism - Plant souls, Animism - Object souls, Animism - Animism and death, Animism - Evil spirits, Animism - Differences between animism and religion, Animism - Animism and the origin of religion, Animism - Animism and mythology, Animism - Animism in philosophy, Animism - Tylor, Animism - List of phenomena believed to lead to animism, Animism - The new animism

Read more here: » Animism: Encyclopedia II - Animism - Differences between animism and religion

Some cultures do not make a distinction between animate and inanimate objects. Natural phenomenon, geographic features, everyday objects, and manufactured articles may also be attributed with souls. In the north of Europe, in ancient Greece, in China, the water or river spirit is horse or bull-shaped. The water monster in serpent shape is even more widely found, but it is less strictly the spirit of the water. The spirit of syncretism manifests itself in this department of animism too, turning the immanent spirit into the pres ...

See also:

Animism, Animism - Overview, Animism - Origins, Animism - Plant souls, Animism - Object souls, Animism - Animism and death, Animism - Evil spirits, Animism - Differences between animism and religion, Animism - Animism and the origin of religion, Animism - Animism and mythology, Animism - Animism in philosophy, Animism - Tylor, Animism - List of phenomena believed to lead to animism, Animism - The new animism

Read more here: » Animism: Encyclopedia II - Animism - Object souls

In some animistic worldviews found in hunter-gatherer cultures, the human being is often regarded as on a roughly equal footing with animals, plants, and natural forces. Therefore, it is morally imperative to treat these agents with respect. In this worldview, humans are considered a denizen, or 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 ...

See also:

Animism, Animism - Overview, Animism - Origins, Animism - Plant souls, Animism - Object souls, Animism - Animism and death, Animism - Evil spirits, Animism - Differences between animism and religion, Animism - Animism and the origin of religion, Animism - Animism and mythology, Animism - Animism in philosophy, Animism - Tylor, Animism - List of phenomena believed to lead to animism, Animism - The new animism

Read more here: » Animism: Encyclopedia II - Animism - Overview

Just as human souls are assigned to animals, so too are trees and plants often credited with souls, both human and animal in form. All over the world agricultural peoples practise elaborate ceremonies explicable, as Wilhelm Mannhardt has shown, on animistic principles. In Europe the corn spirit sometimes immanent in the crop, sometimes a presiding deity whose life does not depend on that of the growing corn, is conceived in some districts in the form of an ox, hare or cock, in others as an old man or woman. In the East Indies and Amer ...

See also:

Animism, Animism - Overview, Animism - Origins, Animism - Plant souls, Animism - Object souls, Animism - Animism and death, Animism - Evil spirits, Animism - Differences between animism and religion, Animism - Animism and the origin of religion, Animism - Animism and mythology, Animism - Animism in philosophy, Animism - Tylor, Animism - List of phenomena believed to lead to animism, Animism - The new animism

Read more here: » Animism: Encyclopedia II - Animism - Plant souls

In many parts of the world it is held that the human body is the seat of more than one soul. On the island of Nias four are distinguished: the shadow and the intelligence, which die with the body, a tutelary spirit, termed begoe, and a second spirit, which is carried on the head. Similar ideas are found among the Euahlayi of southeast Australia, the Dakotas and many other tribes. Just as in Europe the ghost of a dead person is held to haunt the churchyard or the place of death, so do other cultures assign different abodes to the multi ...

See also:

Animism, Animism - Overview, Animism - Origins, Animism - Plant souls, Animism - Object souls, Animism - Animism and death, Animism - Evil spirits, Animism - Differences between animism and religion, Animism - Animism and the origin of religion, Animism - Animism and mythology, Animism - Animism in philosophy, Animism - Tylor, Animism - List of phenomena believed to lead to animism, Animism - The new animism

Read more here: » Animism: Encyclopedia II - Animism - Animism and death