Wordy roots

The English language is limiting, as perhaps all written languages are. So many words tell us more about the cultural context of the time they were created, with their assumptions and prejudices, than something tangible today.

The word animism is a classic example, couched in colonial power and patriarchy. While it has become a modern buzzword, describing someone who lives in harmony and respect with the natural world, understanding its roots gives us the power to rebirth and reclaim the word from its dark past.

The word animism comes from the Latin word anima meaning spirit/ breath/ life or, the belief that everything has a spirit and life, including water spirits, mountain spirits, tree spirits and so on.

It was created in the late 19th century by the anthropologist Edward Tylor, to describe a widespread practice within groups of indigenous people that he, and his colleagues, were observing at that time.

Dark history

As a study of people, initially the focus of anthropology was on observing and seeking to understand people that had only recently been “discovered” by colonists, often those living in small-scale societies, and in ways which seemed alien to the anthropologists themselves.

Anthropologists, and the wider colonial society from which they came from, considered these people to be “other” and, importantly, they placed a value upon them which was considered to be less than themselves.

This was a time when indigenous people were put on display in museums – living people for white settlers to view. Studied and classified by anthropologists. The reports that anthropologists produced from their fieldwork read like a zoological study of animals.

Unfortunately, these reports were often used to justify the subsequent acts of violence and displacement of people under colonialism. Behind the overt racism were theories around nature and culture which continue to dominate our modern world.

Nature/ Culture

The theories and cultural understanding that framed the discipline of anthropology at the time that the word animism was created is important to understand.

Anthropology is not a science and a person’s cultural background will influence how they perceive another to be, particularly someone who lives in a profoundly different way.

In the late 19th century, the cultural background of Tylor and other Victorian anthropologists was grounded in prejudicial theories regarding race, theories which conveniently justified the onslaught of colonial violence occurring at that time.

This was a time when nature was considered to be less than culture, that being the desired and optimum state of being, of a certain type of human.

Indeed, it was generally thought that the most optimum evolutionary development for humans was for us to grow increasingly further away from a natural state. Beings regarded as nature were thought not to have feelings or even consciousness.

What was perceived as nature included not only the world of trees, plants, animals, fish and so on but also women, those people with disabilities and all people of colour.

In practice these theories, which became normalised within Western culture at that time, enabled the justification of violence against all those considered to be nature.

The nature- culture dualism is bound up in colonialism, in the oppression of all people considered “other”, in racism, misogynism, prejudice and patriarchy.

Animism as insult

The people that anthropologists studied and documented in the late 19th century were undeniably different to them. They looked different and wore different clothes (if at all) and prioritised a very different way of being.

Living at a time when the slavery of African people had only just been abolished and racism was the cultural norm, the anthropologists considered the people they encountered to be unequal to themselves.

Crucially, they witnessed and documented these people as having formed kinship relationships with beings who they considered to be part of the natural world, such as animals, trees and rivers. These relationships were based on respect and reciprocity with no value judgement or hierarchy.

Which further entrenched the anthropologist’s view of these people being related to animals, with all the prejudice that entailed.

Everywhere the anthropologists went, they discovered people who lived in the same way and this became a useful classification term in understanding a people, those who could be ignored, dismissed and packaged as animal. Justifying colonial land grabbing and violence.

This is what animism means. It was a derogatory term used to take power away from people who lived differently to white people, those who lived on land that white settlers wanted for their own.

Words have Power

Throughout history there have been countless examples of a word used here and there, in specific ways, often falsely, to destroy a person and take their power away from them. The word witch is a good example.

Words have power and when choosing our words, especially words which come to describe who we are or who we want to be, it’s good to be mindful of the energy that lies behind them. Often this relates to their original meaning and how they have been used before.

The word animism has a dark history and does, even today, continue to be used by some as an insult – a dangerous one. It’s a colonial term, one which was used to justify horrific violence, genocide and the displacement of entire collectives of people.

The word is also wrapped up in our dominant culture’s continued perception of nature as being other or less than ourselves. Indeed, our whole economy is based upon the enslavement of the more-than-human beings of our planet.

Nature/ Economy

The view that nature’s only worth is its financial gain is leading to the destruction of our planet. We are reducing the natural world to embers. And us along with it.

Our leaders seem incapable of understanding that this way, this economic path, leads to our destruction. Behind every political strategy to achieve economic growth are assumptions around ecological use and abuse.

The stock market is based on buying and selling natural resources, mining every last element of the Earth and repackaging it to sell in our relentless lust for consumer goods.

When will it stop? We are now living in an age of the political justification of war for the control of natural resources. As war increases and genocide ignored, where will we all end up?

If we understood that all beings have feelings, have consciousness and spirit, that we are all inter-connected and hurting one being hurts ourselves, if we were to understand this as a species, really, deeply understand this, would things change?

The nature - culture dualism is a false divide which is killing us. If we were to widely understand that it’s a cultural creation, that the natural way of being human is to form relationships with our more-than-human kin, born of respect and reciprocity, it would be hard to blindly walk into our collective destruction as we are currently doing.

The path forward is animism. It’s the only way and, crucially, it’s always been there.

Reclaiming Animism

Animism has become a buzzword, with many people claiming, “I’m an animist”. Many indigenous people have also reclaimed the word.

Whilst the word itself essentially others a way of being which we all inherently have within our grasp, our society has become so entrenched in the nature – culture divide that reclaiming the word animism has become necessary, even essential.

Whilst we are simply nature, we are animal and there is no separation, for centuries this hasn’t been widely understood.

Our human story is about disconnection from who we are, as animal. This is creating many problems in our world – from stress, depression, anxiety and loneliness.

We are beginning to understand that if we don’t challenge, change and heal our separation from nature, we will lose everything. Climate change, species extinction, deforestation and the vast plastic pollution in our seas, all derive from this separation.

Re-learning the ancient practice of animism is about learning to live with our more-than-human kin from a place of deep connection. It’s about connecting with ourselves as both animal and spirit and about forming relationships with other beings as both physical and spirit. 

We are meant to live in community, close to the woods and the sea, creating our lives from working wood and stone, tending the plants and the animals. The more we step away from our instincts, the more we separate ourselves from our other-than-human kin, the more alienated we feel from ourselves.

This is where we belong, where we feel most safe and connected, where we can root down and find peace.

Research is clearly showing the benefits of spending time in nature; walking, sitting, watching. Yet increasingly it’s becoming clear we need more than that, we need to live within nature; immersed in doing, in being useful and productive, having a beneficial place, a role in working with nature in practical, simple, ways.

We are a keystone species, one which has evolved to have an impact on other creatures and beings around us. It is a great responsibility and one which we have largely forgotten or dismissed. We have lost so much, both in terms of species and biodiversity loss and our own disconnection from what is ultimately part of our soul.

We are not separate from nature - we are nature.

The practice of becoming animists once again could be the most powerful catalyst for positive change on our planet.

Samara Lewis