1. All Right
reserved..

2. ANIMISM…
• Animism (from Latin anima, “breath” or “soul”), belief in
spiritual beings. Among biologists and psychologists, animism
refers to the view that the human mind is a nonmaterial entity
that nevertheless interacts with the body via the brain and
nervous system. As a philosophical theory, animism, usually
called Panpsychism, is the doctrine that all objects in the
world have an inner or psychological being. The 18th-century
German physician and chemist Georg Ernst Stahl coined the
word animism to describe his theory that the soul is the vital
principle responsible for organic development. Since the late
19th century.
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3. ANIMISM IN NATURE..
•
Virtually all animate creatures were thought of as human, with some, as it
happened, taking the form of people. Thus, native peoples undertook every action
with respect for the spirit of the land, the forest, the animals taken for game, the
plants harvested for food, and so forth. Peoples of the Great Plains, for example,
felt it was a privilege to live in dwellings covered with the skin of the buffalo and
thus to partake of the spirit of the animal that provided nearly all their food.
Before peoples of the Pacific Northwest built a house, they asked permission of
the earth to disturb the ground, so they could make the house. They would offer
prayers to the red cedar if they needed a log for the house. To take animals or
trees without making these supplications, or to take more than was needed, was
to act irreverently. Such action put the relationship between human beings and the
rest of nature in a state of imbalance that could lead only to problems. European
American settlers found this all-pervasive animism and deep spiritual
interconnectedness with the world nearly impossible to understand.

4. GOD: POLYTHEISM & ANIMISM
•
In polytheism, there are many holy beings, each manifesting some particular divine
attribute or caring for some particular aspect of nature or of human affairs.
Polytheism was the most common form of religion in the ancient world and was
well developed in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, and elsewhere. It tends,
however, to develop into a form of religion that has a unitary conception of the
divine, either through philosophical criticism or through one of the deities in the
polytheistic pantheon (assemblage of gods) acquiring an overwhelming superiority
over the others (see Mythology). The gods of a pantheon were usually conceived
in some family relationship, which ensured from the beginning a sense of their
unity. Polytheism probably developed out of a more primitive form of religion (still
practiced in many parts of the world) called animism, the belief in a multitude of
spiritual forces, localized and limited in their powers, some friendly and some
hostile. In animism the sense of Holy Being is diffused throughout the
environment.

6. • A procession in Elmina, Ghana, carries an
Ashanti chief’s stools to him as part of a
traditional ceremony. The Ashanti people
are known for their carved wooden stools,
which customarily served domestic and
sacred roles. According to legend, Osei
Tutu, the founder of the Ashanti Kingdom,
was designated his people’s leader when a
golden stool floated down from the
heavens and landed in his

7. Religious Traditions in Zambia
Young Zambians paint their faces green, the color of plants, as part of
Mpika , the traditional feast of farming. Although many Zambians practice
Christianity, some of them combine it with traditional belief systems such
as animism. Animistic groups believe that all things in nature have souls,
and that spirits are linked with areas of land, forces of nature, and objects
such as trees or rocks. Worshipers believe that through ritualistic dancing
and drumming, they can contact the spirits of dead ancestors or natural
entities such as the wind, the sun, and the star..

8. DEMONS OR EVIL SPIRITS
• The belief in evil spirits and their ability to influence the lives
of people dates from prehistoric times. Many early people
believed that spirits occupied all elements of nature. Evil
spirits or demons were the spirits of ancestors who brought
harm to living people. Societies that practiced ancestor worship
sought to influence the actions of both good and bad spirits
(see Religion: Primitive Religions). Some ancient societies,
including those in Egypt and Babylonia (now Iraq), believed
that such spirits were responsible for the functions of the
body and that demons caused specific

9. ANIMISM ..