Definition
A term d'anthropology used to describe worlds where humans, animals, plants, places or phenomena can be recognized as persons or partners of relationships.
The word may be useful as a comparison, but no community should be summarized by it. The conceptions of a territory, an animal or an ancestor differ profoundly.
To be retained
- Name specific peoples and traditions
- Avoiding the vocabulary of "primitive"
- Distinguish spiritual relationship and scientific ecology
- Respecting sovereignty and territory
Origin of the term and context
Edward Tylor popularized "animism" in the 19th century for a theory of belief in minds. Contemporary anthropology criticizes this evolutionary scale and is more interested in the relations and ontologies of peoples.
Why does it matter?
Anthropology studies these relationship systems without confirming the existence of minds. Scientific ecology can join some findings of interdependence, but it is not a validation of animism.
- Name specific peoples and traditions
- Avoiding the vocabulary of "primitive"
- Distinguish spiritual relationship and scientific ecology
- Respecting sovereignty and territory
How can it be explored or practised?
- Read an author from the community concerned
- Learn the status of the territory visited
- Do not collect sacred objects
- Supporting indigenous rights and languages
Misconceptions and points of caution
- Animism is not a unified world religion.
- Not all Aboriginal cultures are interchangeable.
- Declaring themselves "shan" does not give access to their rites.
Perspectives from different traditions
- Classic anthropology: Theory today strongly discussed.
- New animism: relationships between human and other than human beings.
- Shinto: kami and shrines, without complete equivalence with indigenous cosmologies.
To go further
- Animism: Respecting the Living World — Graham Harvey
- Beyond Nature and Culture — Philippe Descola