Animism

The word "animism" was coined by the English anthropologist Sir Edward Tylor, generally acknowledged as the "father of anthropology". Tylor gave this name to what was perceived as the earliest phase of magical and religious thinking, deriving it from the Greek "anima" meaning "soul". According to Tylor, prehistoric humans believed that every person, creature, and object - everything-had a soul, was animated, and hence the name animism. That Sir Tylor did not identify or particularly empathize with the human subjects of his research is apparent by the words he chose to describe them: "savages" and "rude races". 

Animism was perceived as a backward, primitive, uncivilized, unenlightened belief: the lowest rung on the ladder to civilization. That said, if one can cut through the thickest of value judgments, Tylor came very close to defining what might be understood as magical perception: the vision of the world that makes shamanism, witchcraft, and magical practices possible and desirable. 

In this vision, everything is alive, continually interacts and can potentially communicate, if it so chooses, if it can be so compelled and, most crucially, if you can understand. There is no such things as an inanimate object. Because you cannot hear or understand them doesn't mean that rocks, wind, trees, and objects are not communication or cannot communicate. The shaman can hear, the shaman can understand, and maybe most importantly, the shaman can hold up her end in a dialogue. 

The shaman, sorcerer or witch is the person who desires this knowledge and/or shows personal aptitude for this type of communication. This aptitude is invaluable and may have been crucial to the survival, success, and proliferation of the human species. Creation stories tend to end with that magical act of creation. 

Science posits a lengthy trial and error period. Conventional shamanic wisdom suggests that those animated plants, animals, and substances identified themselves and explained their gifts and dangers in a manner comprehensible to the shaman, who served as their medium to the greater human community. Animals, humans' elder siblings, taught us healing, hunting, and basic living skills. This type of shamanism still exists, although it is as endangered as the rain-forests in which it is now largely centered. 










*Credit to Judika Illes