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

Theyyam’s animistic roots shine through in its reverence for nature and its creatures.

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Smudgy cartoonlike pastels coexisted with raw plaster works and jewel boxes bedecked elaborately with wool, glass, straight pins, knives and sometimes taxidermized birds — animistic objects that resembled little else being made in the 1960s.

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Many Nigerians believe in the supernatural, and this often stems from the animistic ontology that undergirds self and being in many Nigerian communities.

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The Sungai Utik’s sense of connection to the land is expressed in one simple, animistic tenet: “The forest is our father, the land is our mother, the water is our blood.”

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I could not live with the ancient Greeks, so I retrained as an anthropologist and searched the literature for surviving animistic cultures.

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