Animism facts for kids

Holy place in a Santhal village in the Dinajpur district, Bangladesh.

Animism is a belief common in many different religions and philosophies. It is the belief that there are spiritual beings in animals and plants. Many animistic religions also believe that acts of nature, for example - the wind and rain, and geographic features, for example - mountains and rivers, have spirits in them.

Images for kids

Edward Tylor developed animism as an anthropological theory.
Five Ojibwe chiefs in the 19th century; it was anthropological studies of Ojibwe religion that resulted in the development of the "new animism".
Animist altar, Bozo village, Mopti, Bandiagara, Mali, in 1972
A tableau presenting figures of various cultures filling in mediator-like roles, often being termed as "shaman" in the literature.
Sculpture of the Buddha meditating under the Maha Bodhi Tree of Bodh Gaya in India.
During Vat Purnima festival married women tying threads around a banyan tree in India.
Thimmamma Marrimanu - the Great Banyan tree revered by the people of Indian-origin religions such as Hinduism (including Vedic, Shaivism, Dravidian Hinduism), Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism.
A 1922 photograph of an Itneg priestess in the Philippines making an offering to an apdel, a guardian anito spirit of her village that reside in the water-worn stones known as pinaing.