Internet Resources
- AnimismAnimism is a particular sensibility and way of relating to various beings in the world. It involves attributing sentience to other beings that may include persons, animals, plants, spirits, the environment, or even items of technology, such as cars, robots, or computers.
- Animism: BritannicaAnimism, belief in innumerable spiritual beings concerned with human affairs and capable of helping or harming human interests.
- What Is Animism?Animism is the idea that all things—animate and inanimate—possess a spirit or an essence. First coined in 1871, animism is a key feature in many ancient religions, especially of indigenous tribal cultures. Animism is a foundational element in the development of ancient human spirituality, and it can be identified in different forms throughout major modern world religions.
Research & Reference
- Animism: ScienceDirectA ScienceDirect landing page covering the topic of animism.
- Animism: Credo ReferenceA Credo Reference landing page on animism. This page includes links to reference works, journal articles, and a mind map.
Streaming Media
- Animism: People Who Love ObjectsAnimism is the belief that inanimate objects are sentient beings and that we can communicate with them. This documentary follows people who are finding true, emotional and sexual love with objects. This emerging sexual orientation, Objectum-Sexuality (OS), is explored through five characters who openly declare their love for objects, from carnival rides to cars and trains, not as fetishes, but as loving life partners. Candid and courageous narratives reveal people who prefer intimate and loving relationships with objects rather than people. For them it’s quite normal and real—all they want is tolerance as they attempt to ‘live and love out loud’ like the rest of us. Above all, the film challenges our definitions of love.
Perspectives
Mi'kmaq Landscapes: From Animism to Sacred Ecology
This book seeks to explore historical changes in the lifeworld of the Mi'kmaq Indians of Eastern Canada. The Mi'kmaq culture hero Kluskap serves as a key persona in discussing issues such as traditions, changing conceptions of land, and human-environmental relations. In order not to depict Mi'kmaq culture as timeless, two important periods in its history are examined. Within the first period, between 1850 and 1930, Hornborg explores historical evidence of the ontology, epistemology, and ethics - jointly labelled animism - that stem from a premodern Mi'kmaq hunting subsistence. New ways of discussing animism and shamanism are here richly exemplified. The second study situates the culture hero in the modern world of the 1990s, when allusions to Mi'kmaq tradition and to Kluskap played an important role in the struggle against a planned superquarry on Cape Breton. This study discusses the eco-cosmology that has been formulated by modern reserve inhabitants which could be labelled a 'sacred ecology'. Focusing on how the Mi'kmaq are rebuilding their traditions and environmental relations in interaction with modern society, Hornborg illustrates how environmental groups, pan-Indianism, and education play an important role, but so does reserve life. By anchoring their engagement in reserve life the Mi'kmaq traditionalists have, to a large extent, been able to confront both external and internal doubts about their authenticity.
Islam and the Cross
Roger S. Greenway has compiled and edited ten of Zwemer's best chapters, all taken from books long out of print, and has added an introduction providing an overview of Zwemer's life and work.Because his insights are not dated, writes Greenway, Zwemer needs to be heard again. Islam and the Cross makes available some of Zwemer's insights regarding Islam, the basic differences between Islam and Christianity, and a sense of love for Muslim people and a passion for their salvation.