Lexic.us

Definition of Animism

1. Noun. The doctrine that all natural objects and the universe itself have souls. "Animism is common among primitive peoples"

Definition of Animism

1. n. The doctrine, taught by Stahl, that the soul is the proper principle of life and development in the body.

Definition of Animism

1. Noun. A belief that spirits inhabit some or all classes of natural objects or phenomena. ¹

2. Noun. A belief that an immaterial force animates the universe. ¹

3. Noun. (dated) A doctrine that animal life is produced by an immaterial spirit. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Animism

1. the belief that souls may exist apart from bodies [n -S]

Medical Definition of Animism

1. The view that all things in nature, both animate and inanimate, contain a spirit or soul; held by primitive peoples and young children. See: animatism. Origin: L. Anima, soul (05 Mar 2000)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Animism

Literary usage of Animism

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. The American Journal of Psychology by Edward Bradford ( Titchener, Granville Stanley Hall (1918)
"The discussion in regard to this question has shown in what a loose, even confusing way, this term animism has been used. The specific formulation of ..."

2. Primitive Culture: Researches Into the Development of Mythology, Philosophy by Sir Edward Burnett Tylor (1891)
"... CHAPTER XL animism. Religious ideas generally appear among low races of Mankind—Negative statements on this subject frequently misleading and mistaken ..."

3. The Encyclopaedia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and General by Thomas Spencer Baynes (1888)
"Among all civilised races, however, animism has long ceased to be known as the universal ... Thus animism survives in the imperfect theories of childhood; ..."

4. Far Away and Long Ago: A History of My Early Life by William Henry Hudson (1918)
"And by animism I do not mean the theory of a soul in nature, but the tendency or impulse or instinct, in which all myth originates, to animate all things; ..."

5. Contributions to the Science of Mythology by Friedrich Max Müller (1897)
"animism or Beseelung or even Personification are all very good names for the various ... If animism means the ascribing of a soul to soulless objects, ..."

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