animism
pronunciation
How to pronounce animism in British English:
UK [ˈænɪmɪzəm]
How to pronounce animism in American English:
US [ˈænəˌmɪzəm]
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- Noun:
- the doctrine that all natural objects and the universe itself have souls
Word Origin
- animism (n.)
- 1866, reintroduced by English anthropologist Sir Edward Burnett Taylor (1832-1917), who defined it (1871) as the "theory of the universal animation of nature," from Latin anima "life, breath, soul" (see animus) + -ism. Earlier sense was of "doctrine that animal life is produced by an immaterial soul" (1832), from German Animismus, coined c. 1720 by physicist/chemist Georg Ernst Stahl (1660-1734) based on the concept of the anima mundi. Animist is attested from 1819, in Stahl's sense; animisic is first recorded 1871.
Example
- 1. He believes that the shift from animism to centralized religion , and from an egalitarian to a hierarchical society , was the cause and not the effect of economic change .
- 2. They believe the statue , which was found in flores in 1510 , isthe basis of a new religion that has replaced animism on the island .
- 3. From animism to naturalistic pantheism , there are various belief systems that deify the natural world .
- 4. Traditional bajau cosmology is a combination of animism and islam that reveals a complex relationship with the ocean