Animism: Another discovery

Animism, along with animatism, is the term used by anthropologists (particularly 19th and early 20th century Victorian or evolutionary social anthropologists) to denote the most primitive/earliest form of religion. Animists, from this speculative perspective, are the one's who conceived of the soul in humans and spirits in inanimate forms of nature. From this "
evolutionary stage" developed forms of ancestor worship, polytheism and eventually monotheism, considered by victorian evolutionists to be a correlate of the highest stage of "civilization." The earlier forms mentioned correlated with the lower stages of "savagery" and "barbarism." These are outdated notions, of course.

Thanks, JL. Piaget saw it as a developmental stage in the thinking of children, at which point inanimate objects took on gender. I am continually amazed at how may faces there are to ideas and religions. I did remember something about animism being a type of spirituality connected with nature. "...bound each to each by natural piety.." Wordsworth.

Always appreciate your expertise.

To appreciate 'animism' one would need to view it from the point of a believer in any form of supernatural, and the phenomenon of 'soul'.
This i am unable to do, so render animism to the anals of primitive worship, which in my opinion, is best erased from a society that is on the verge of reinventing itself.

Having said that, there is a vestige of this concept contained in a healthy respect for the synergy of all matter on this planet - in this universe - living, or inanimate, as without an understanding of where we came from, there is little chance of maximizing 'where we will go'!

Well, thank you, Bo, for such an astute response. (I think it was astute).

Since foxfyre isn't here to provide us with a definition, I suppose I shall:


1. belief that nature has a soul: the belief that things in nature, for example, trees, mountains, and the sky, have souls or consciousness


2. belief in organizing force in universe: the belief that a supernatural force animates and organizes the universe


3. belief in existence of separate spirit: the belief that people have spirits that do or can exist separately from their bodies


[Mid-19th century. Formed from Latin anima "soul."

Ain't nature grand?

and yet another interpretation:

PRACTICAL ANIMISM
Practical animism has existed in every part of the globe that has been inhabited by human beings. It has been a feature of human behavior since time immemorial. Because it is largely a function of the relationship between people and the land they occupy, its practice reaches a certain maturity among those people who live in close association with a particular place or range of places over relatively long periods of time. Even nomadic people can have a well developed system of practical animism; they simply become familiar with a greater range of places than more localized people.

Invaders and other usurpers of land, however, are almost never wholly successful in bringing their animist systems along with them to their new homes or ranges. Animism is inextricably linked to the place or places where it is practiced. The new inhabitants of the land must eventually deal with the local animist beings; only certain highly skilled practitioners could move such beings from place to place. Yet the fact remains that animist societies can sometimes leave their rich heritage behind for others when faced with doom

My take on animism (from the kiddie party I just catered):

Our friend is walking around dressed as cookie monster. A little girl goes up to him with a cookie monster doll and says "This is your baby, and it needs to be warm. Take him."

Another young tot brings us a mess of cookies and says, "can you give these to cookie monster? He loves cookies."

We said "why of course he does, but he also likes imaginary cookies, so why don't we just put those ones back where they came from."

Any elucidation beyond that, Bo has already covered. I should add, the imagination of children is a wonderful thing to witness, but for adults to adopt animism as a lifestyle/religion just seems ridiculous to me.

Ah, Cav. Bet that was the blackisted client party. Everyone adopts something, you know. The mind of a child is what Piaget was exploring with his theory. He used his own children as a sampling. Of course, no good philosophy thread would be complete without a poetry sampling:



The land was ours before we were the land's.
She was our land more than a hundred years
Before we were her people. She was ours
In Massachusetts, in Virginia.
But we were England's, still colonials,
Possessing what we still were unpossessed by,
Possessed by what we now no more possessed.
Something we were withholding made us weak.
Until we found out that it was ourselves
We were withholding from our land of living,
And forthwith found salvation in surrender.
Such as we were we gave ourselves outright
(The deed of gift was many deeds of war)
To the land vaguely realizing westward,
But still unstoried, artless, unenhanced,
Such as she was, such as she would become.

~ Robert Frost ; 1874

the nice thing about children is that they learn and grow out of infanitle ideas; which is what we must do as a species!

I'm with you on that Bo. The worst crime we can commit as adults is to suppress the natural urge in children to evolve by forcing silly primitive idealogies down their throats until they forget their evolutionary purpose.

Good grief, guys. Piaget had more than one stage of development. I just titled this thread animism because it reminded me of one of his definitions. Hey, I received positive feedback from my prof at UVA for answering that question.

. Piaget identified four stages in cognitive development:

Sensorimotor stage (Infancy). In this period (which has 6 stages), intelligence is demonstrated through motor activity without the use of symbols. Knowledge of the world is limited (but developing) because its based on physical interactions / experiences. Children acquire object permanence at about 7 months of age (memory). Physical development (mobility) allows the child to begin developing new intellectual abilities. Some symbollic (language) abilities are developed at the end of this stage.
Pre-operational stage (Toddler and Early Childhood). In this period (which has two substages), intelligence is demonstrated through the use of symbols, language use matures, and memory and imagination are developed, but thinking is done in a nonlogical, nonreversable manner. Egocentric thinking predominates
Concrete operational stage (Elementary and early adolescence). In this stage (characterized by 7 types of conservation: number, length, liquid, mass, weight, area, volume), intelligence is demonstarted through logical and systematic manipulation of symbols related to concrete objects. Operational thinking develops (mental actions that are reversible). Egocentric thought diminishes.
Formal operational stage (Adolescence and adulthood). In this stage, intelligence is demonstrated through the logical use of symbols related to abstract concepts. Early in the period there is a return to egocentric thought. Only 35% of high school graduates in industrialized countries obtain formal operations; many people do not think formally during adulthood.
Many pre-school and primary programs are modeled on Piaget's theory, which, as stated previously, provides part of the foundation for constructivist learning. Discovery learning and supporting the developing interests of the child are two primary instructional techniques. It is recommended that parents and teachers challenge the child's abilities, but NOT present material or information that is too far beyond the child's level. It is also recommended that teachers use a wide variety of concrete experiences to help the child learn (e.g., use of manipulatives, working in groups to get experience seeing from another's perspective, field trips, etc).