Animism

Animism has been used in a number of ways since Edward Tylor used it (in 1871) as a label to define the essence of religion as the 'belief in spirits' (i.e. metaphyisical, non-empirical or imagined entities). The majority of this entry discusses the original term, and the changes in its definition over time. The more recent use of the term derives from a more respectful engagement with people who treat the world as a community of living persons, only some of whom are human. This animism labels particular cultural attempts to relate respectfully with the persons (human, rock, plant, animal, bird, ancestral, etc.) who are also members of the wider community of life. This 'new animism' is discussed in more detail towards the end of the entry. The adjectives 'old' and 'new' relate to the theorising / writing about whatever it is that is labelled 'animism'. The data or practices or cultures or whatever may be contemporary or ancient.

Animism and death

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 multiple souls with which they credit man. Of the four souls of a Dakota, one is held to stay with the corpse, another in the village, a third goes into the air, while the fourth goes to the land of souls, where its lot may depend on its rank in this life, its sex, mode of death or sepulture, on the due observance of funeral ritual, or many other points.

Related Topics:
Nias - Tutelary - Euahlayi - Dakota - Ghost - Sex - Funeral

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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. The woman who dies in childbirth becomes a pontianak, and threatens the life of human beings. People resort to magical or religious means of repelling their spiritual dangers.

Related Topics:
Ancestor worship - Sacrifice - Ferryman - Pontianak

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