ANIMISM
From Philosopedia
ANIMISM
Religion is said to be based in the main on animism, the ancient view that within all objects dwells an individual spirit, a force which governs those objects. Early humankind did not distinguish between the animate and the inanimate or between the physical and the mental. Each item had its own individuality, whether it was a stone, a woman, a dog, a tree. So did emotions, such as love, hate, ideas, dreams. Among the Melanesians of the South Seas is the idea of mana, a spirit pervading everything, a spirit responsible for the universe’s good as well as the universe’s evil. Some inanimate objects, called fetishes, were thought to possess magical power and included physical pieces: feathers, animal claws, shells, wood carvings, for example.
A truly powerful fetish, one which if possessed could ward off evil, was a taboo (a Polynesian word which originally applied to the sacred or to the dangerous, unclean, and forbidden). Taboos could be placed on any object, person, place, or word believed to have extraordinary powers. A taboo was often placed on a totem, or ancestral guardian. If a taboo were broken, the offender would need to arrange some kind of ceremonial purification, lest he or she suffer punishment, even death, through fear of its powers. A taboo could include destroying objects which had been in contact with a corpse, in which case it was taboo to touch such items unless a purification ceremony was performed. Strangers were taboo until made safe by some kind of ritual. Blood of menstruation or childhood was dangerous, demanding rites of purification. Early taboos were common-sense steps or caution signs taken by a group to guard against things or actions which inherently are dangerous. It made sense not to eat putrefying food, for example, so that was taboo. Later, however, religious ceremonies were devised and these provided appropriate ceremonies over which shamans or priests presided.
Psychiatrists hold that fetish objects often have phallic qualities, pointing to the deformed feet of Chinese upper-class women from the Sung dynasty until the present century. Animistic idols, treated as though alive, might be fed, bathed, clothed, even provided with a sexual partner.
Some individuals without a religious orientation are looking at animism in a new, environmental way. A letter writer to The New York Times stated:
- The earliest indigenous peoples of the world treated the earth as a living, breathing organism that created and sustained life. They did not ‘rape’ the earth as modern civilizations do, but gave back in equal measure to their taking and were true ‘shepherds’ of the earth. This is because most if not all early peoples practiced animism—the belief that everything has a soul: people, animals, plants, rocks, trees, water, etc. Inherent in this "premodern" belief is love and respect for the earth and all of its life and beauty.
