Blackwell Reference Online

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Already used by Stahl in 1707 in his work Theoria medica vera ( True Medical Theory ) to denote, in the medical field, the theory that identifies the soul with the life principle, in anthropology animism refers to Tylor's concept of religion, which he expounded in Primitive Culture (1871). In anthropology the term animism has also been used not to indicate a theory of religion but, more usually, the beliefs concerning the existence of many spiritual beings. Finally, in psychology, animism is conceived by Piaget as a typical concept of the world corresponding to a precise step in children's cognitive development. To remain in the anthropological realm, Tylor's opinion was that the idea of soul would have been the starting point for more complex religious beliefs. Animism would have arisen from reflection upon universal experiences such as dreams and death. In particular, the fact that people remain motionless while dreams provide the sensation of acting, moving, and interacting with others, including the dead, would have suggested to primitive people the existence of something surviving death, a kind of “double” able to abandon the human body. This is exactly what happens when people sleep. There is a feeling of temporarily leaving the body, only to return to it later. This element is precisely the soul or vital force, which in time came to be regarded as belonging not only to ... log in or subscribe to read full text