Quotes About Animism

it's the work of animism to read the Law of Life that is written in the community of life.

English is so hierarchical. In Cree, we don't have animate-inanimate comparisons between things. Animals have souls that are equal to ours. Rocks have souls, trees have souls. Trees are 'who,' not 'what.

Ultimately, in animism we end up with the idea that it's not so much that everything has a spirit, but that everything is a spirit, and some spirits have physical forms while others don't.

The victory of Christianity over paganism was the greatest psychic revolution in the history of our culture. By destroying pagan animism, Christianity made it possible to exploit nature in a mood of indifference to the feelings of natural objects.

Puesto que la mayoría de la gente no tiene que enfrentarse a tales decisiones para ganarse el sustento, las visiones animistas del mundo siguen siendo más atrayentes que las nociones contrarias a ella, incluso en civilizaciones urbanas altamente tecnificadas.

Cannibalism is a predicament of the animistic hunter or gardener, who must live by consuming animals or plants which are essentially persons themselves" (Graeber & Sahlins, On Kings p16)