Spirited Away: Animism & Religion

Figure 1: Early Ancient Egyptian beliefs were animistic, although the notions continued into later religious beliefs

The anthropological study of religion is one of the more popular areas of study and has been for decades.  Through these studies anthropologists have gained a greater understanding of the diverse belief systems that exist in cultures around the globe, as well as expanded the knowledge base on what religion is actually about.  Today’s blog post will provide a cursory review of the anthropological understanding of religion and one particular type of religion: animism.

Anthropologically religion is defined as the as belief and ritual concerned with supernatural beings, powers, and forces.  Religion is accepted on faith and cannot be scientifically tested or proven as existing.  Individuals of any one faith can believe in one or multiple gods, spirits, ghosts, souls, or any other type of supernatural entities, which people can either control or be controlled by.  While there is a great deal of diversity in the types of belief systems that exist religion in general remains a cultural universal, meaning some sort of ideological belief system exists in every cultural group globally.

Anthropologist Sir Edward Bennet Tylor was one of the first to study religion anthropologically, and through his study he developed a taxonomy of religions.  According to his taxonomy the most basic religion, which is also believed to be the earliest, is animism or animistic religions.  Animistic religions promote the idea that spirits exist in every living thing, as well as some nonliving things.  Individuals could access this spirit realm, which exists parallel to the human world, through entering into trans-like or dream-like states.  There are no central deity or deities.  In some animistic faiths there exists a religious practitioner whose sole responsibility is to access the spirit realm, while other faiths believe that anyone can do so.  Ultimately, everyone can be affected by the spirit realm even without intentionally accessing it.  Believers typically pay homage to the spirits through various rituals or customs, such as blessings and celebrations.  While animism is considered the earliest religion it still exists in practice today.  Examples of animistic religions include the early ancient Egyptian belief system (Figure 1), the traditional religious beliefs of the Hmong, as well as several Native American faiths.  Additionally, animism forms the foundations of several modern religions that borrow from the beliefs and incorporate some of the ideas (e.g. spirits, souls, etc.).  The major religions of today can trace their roots back to early animistic faiths based on the inclusion of some of these key characteristics.

References

Gezon, L., & Kottak, C. (2014).  Cultural Anthropology McGraw-Hill