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.

References

• Bird-David, Nurit. 1991. "Animism Revisited: Personhood, environment, and relational epistemology", Current Anthropology 40, pp. 67-91. Reprinted in Graham Harvey (ed.) 2002. Readings in Indigenous Religions (London and New York: Continuum) pp.72-105.
• Hallowell, A. Irving. "Ojibwa ontology, behavior, and world view" in Stanley Diamond (ed.) 1960. Culture in History (New York: Columbia University Press). Reprinted in Graham Harvey (ed.) 2002. Readings in Indigenous Religions (London and New York: Continuum) pp.17-49.
• Harvey, Graham. 2005. Animism: Respecting the Living World (London: Hurst and co.; New York: Columbia University Press; Adelaide: Wakefield Press).
• Thomas, Northcote Whitbridge. Animism. 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica