animistic

[ an-uh-mis-tik ]

adjective

1. relating to or based on animism, the belief that natural objects, natural phenomena, and the universe itself have souls:

   Most of these groups, in a form of animistic shamanism, paid reverence to the primal spirits of the elements and the wilderness.

2. relating to the belief that natural objects have souls that can exist apart from their material bodies:

   The members of this animistic tribe hold that a flame has life and spirit, and fear the ghost of a flame that has suddenly been quenched.

3. relating to or based on a belief in spiritual beings or agencies:

   Although Myanmar is a profoundly Buddhist society, many people still have strong animistic beliefs, with an elaborate system of 37 spirit gods.

4. relating to the doctrine that the soul is the principle of life and health:

   In a version of Taoism based on early animistic beliefs, health was thought to depend on the free flow of the Qi, or vital force, through the channels of the body.

Word History and Origins

Origin of animistic¹

First recorded in 1850–60; anim(ism) + -istic ( def )

Example Sentences

What Si-Qin proposes is a sort of cyber-age animism that rejects traditional Western divisions between human and nature, mind and body, and life and death.

From Washington Post

Those attached to a deity as "attendants" appear to represent the original animistic group from which he evolved.

From Project Gutenberg

The East Indies, where the population is native, are Animistic.

From Project Gutenberg

In other words, will the animistic hypothesis suffice to solve the problem and to do away with the Spiritualistic hypothesis?

From Project Gutenberg

Where the animistic habit is present in the naive form, its scope and range of application are not defined or limited.

From Project Gutenberg

This animistic explanation of phenomena is a form of the fallacy which the logicians knew by the name of ignava ratio.

From Project Gutenberg