Is There Such a Thing as Animism?
This article considers the recent reemergence of the category of animism in the anthropological study of religion, a concept that has once again become fashionable after a long period of scholarly disuse. This “new animism,” as it is called by many of its proponents, seeks to move away from the orig...
| Published in: | Journal of the American Academy of Religion |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Oxford University Press
[2017]
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| In: |
Journal of the American Academy of Religion
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| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Religious ethnology
/ Animism
/ Religious philosophy
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| RelBib Classification: | AA Study of religion AB Philosophy of religion; criticism of religion; atheism AG Religious life; material religion |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | This article considers the recent reemergence of the category of animism in the anthropological study of religion, a concept that has once again become fashionable after a long period of scholarly disuse. This “new animism,” as it is called by many of its proponents, seeks to move away from the original animism that was the basis for much Victorian thought on indigenous religions and which rested upon now largely discredited social evolutionist paradigms. I discuss this renewed interest in indigenous animism in terms of its place within recent intellectual history, especially the growing engagement with the global environmental crisis among scholars in the humanities. I argue that the new animism is only selectively “indigenous” in its promotion of non-Western ontologies, and suggest that it is ultimately best understood as a kind of analytical metaphor rather than an objective category of religious practice that exists out there in the world. |
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| ISSN: | 1477-4585 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: American Academy of Religion, Journal of the American Academy of Religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/jaarel/lfw064 |