What does Animism mean?
Animism means choosing to see the personhood and kinship in all things.
I use the word Animism a lot, so it makes sense to clarify the meaning it carries for me. Though originally coined by Christian anthropologists to describe the ‘nature worshipping’ behavior of indigenous peoples (with the further common clueless addition ‘they believe everything - animals, rocks, sky - has a ’soul”), a community of thinkers, authors, activists, scientists, artists and philosophers (including myself) have embraced it and invested it with deeper meaning.
Animism, essentially, means acknowledging the personhood and kinship of all Life, human, non-human, animate and ‘inanimate’. In the words of the Lakota, Mitakuye Oyasin, “We Are All Related”.
Personhood, therefore, means person-ing, the behavior, feelings, and values of a person. All people value the sanctity of their borders. All people want appreciation and respect.
Kinship indicates the inescapable interrelatedness of all things. Where does breath end, and the body begin? Where does stone end, and my body begin? Does the fire in all the cells of my body, differ from the sun that put that fire here to burn? An interdependence of Personhood means nothing else but Family. This means breath, stone, fire, all people and my kin.
Animism essentially means animating, a way of relating to the world that fully experiences and acknowledges the personhood and kinship of all things. This has nothing to do with belief; this has to do with attitude. I don’t have to ‘believe’ something ‘is’ [sic] a person, I only need treat that other as I would treat a person, and then I watch what happens. You animate by making a choice; the term animist simply indicates a person who often makes this choice.
We became beautiful, successful, grieving and praising human beings, by seeing the world this way. We didn’t get confused for a couple million years, only now to figure out that in fact the world ‘was’ [sic] dead after all. The community of life selected us to survive, helped us, cooperated with us, over and over, because of how we saw the world. Because of how we treated the world.
Now we have a choice. The community of life has received great injury from how the culture of modern civilization has seen it. Even now this living community makes natural selections that determine our fate. Perhaps, from a perspective of enlightened self-interest, we can choose to appreciate and respect the personhood and kinship in all things once more?
It saddens me that modern humans would need a metaphorical gun pointed at their head, in order to offer the basic courtesy of a relationship founded on acknowledging the other’s personhood. I actually hope that if you do choose Animism, if you do choose to treat the living world in a beautiful, grieving, and praising way, you do it not from fear, but from a love of Beauty.
It only takes a choice.
February 28th, 2009 at 8:42 pm
Thanks for pointing out this very important distinction:
“…This has nothing to do with belief; this has to do with attitude…”
Another great post!
-Misko
February 28th, 2009 at 8:57 pm
Thanks Misko - that has always felt like a meaningful thing to note, as contrasted with modern religions. ‘Belief’ versus going with what works to make a good life.
March 18th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
Are you working from Graham Harvey’s Animism: Respecting the Living World (Columbia Univ Press, 2005)? This is the definition he uses and explores, and the definition that academics like me are now teaching.
March 18th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
Priscilla:
I think I don’t understand your question. Tell me if the following helps:
I have read Graham Harvey’s book. I enjoyed it quite a bit, and do think he and other folks who self-identify as animists would experience strong accord with what I’ve written above.
I first heard the word Animism used in connection with the type of relationship that I had begun to experience with the community of life, in Daniel Quinn’s book “the Story of B”, in the late nineties. Ever since then I’ve participated in a very loose community of writers, thinkers, and lovers of the world in choosing to use the word and attempting to articulate what Animism really means as best as possible. On seeing Graham Harvey’s book I recognized him as a member of this philosophical and experiential community.
I can’t say I’d describe myself as ‘working from’ his book (though partially because I simply don’t know what you mean by that). How I articulate the relationship I (and others, including Graham Harvey) call ‘Animism’ continues to develop.