Animists

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Believers in or practitioners of a religious philosophy that attributes spiritual essence to animals, plants, and inanimate objects
2. Individuals who hold the view that all entities possess a soul or spirit, often leading to respect for nature
3. Followers of a worldview that sees the material world as infused with life and spiritual significance, interacting with both human and non-human elements

Etymology: Edward Burnett Tylor, the English anthropologist, gave the word its modern sense in his 1871 book "Primitive Culture." He used "animism" for the belief that spirits and souls inhabit people, animals, plants and objects, and he built a theory of religion around it, treating it as humanity's earliest form of belief. The word itself is a modern coinage, formed in the 18th century from Latin "anima," meaning breath, life or soul, with the "-ism" suffix that marks a doctrine or system. The plural "animists" names the people who hold this view, or the scholars and observers who describe it. The term has since become contested. Many people who hold these beliefs today, across Indigenous communities worldwide, reject the label as an outsider's category that lumps together many distinct traditions. Anthropologists now tend to use it more cautiously.

Synonyms: spiritualists, shamans, totemists, nature worshippers, believers