Animism

['ænɪmɪz(ə)m] or ['ænɪmɪzəm]

Definition

(noun.) the doctrine that all natural objects and the universe itself have souls; 'animism is common among primitive peoples'.

Typed by Enid--From WordNet

Definition

(n.) The doctrine, taught by Stahl, that the soul is the proper principle of life and development in the body.

(n.) The belief that inanimate objects and the phenomena of nature are endowed with personal life or a living soul; also, in an extended sense, the belief in the existence of soul or spirit apart from matter.

Edited by Juanita

Definition

n. a theory which regards the belief in separate spiritual existences as the germ of religious ideas. It is adopted by E. B. Tylor in his Primitive Culture as the minimum definition of religion being considered to have arisen simply from the evidence of the senses interpreted by the crude and child-like science of the savage: the theory of Stahl which regarded the vital principle and the soul as identical.—n. An′imist.—adj. An′imistic.

Editor: Omar