Home›Polytheistic (Animist)›All Polytheistic (Animist)Browse ByAll Polytheistic (Animist)Traditions that honour many deities and also hold that spirit is distributed through the world itself (in rivers, mountains, animals, ancestors and made objects), so that the sacred is met in the landscape rather than only in temples. The largest group of religions in the Atlas, and the one most often practised without scripture, creed or centralised authority.FactsLearn MoreAll Polytheistic (Animist)SourcesComments (0)Reader Challenges (0)FactsOverviewWhat Defines This GroupingWell-attestedTraditions that honour many deities and hold that spirit is distributed through the world itself - in rivers, mountains, animals, ancestors and made objects - so that the sacred is met in the landscape and not only in temples. 2Peoples and Traditions CoveredWell-attestedUnrelated traditions grouped by resemblance, not by descent: Akan, Dogon, Yoruba and Zulu in Africa; Inuit and Sami in the Arctic; Lakota, Dine and other Native American nations; Aboriginal Australian and Polynesian traditions; Shinto, Korean Muism, Bon, Tengrism and Siberian traditions in Asia. Each names its own world in its own terms. 2StatusStatus TodayWell-attestedLiving: the traditions grouped here are practised today, several of them after long periods of suppression, and are described in the present tense. 2Standing as a Comparative CategoryWell-attestedContested: the evolutionary scheme the word was coined to serve has been abandoned. It survives in current work as a description of relational ways of being in the world, not as a class of religions. 2DirectoryCategoryWell-attestedReligions 1OriginsWhose Classification This IsWell-attestedAnimism as a comparative category is E. B. Tylor's, set out in Primitive Culture in 1871 as the earliest stage of religion in an evolutionary scheme. It is an analytic coinage: no tradition grouped here calls itself animist. 3Learn MorePolytheistic and Animist Religions This group holds religions of a polytheistic-animist character, traditions that recognise many deities and also a world densely inhabited by spirits present in nature, place, ancestor and object. This is the largest classification among the religions covered here and spans many cultures. The browser will find indigenous and traditional religions from across the world grouped by this shared outlook. The entries describe each in its own terms; the atlas presents these as living or historically living traditions, not as a single system.All Polytheistic (Animist)Filter Results66 entriesPlace of OriginAllCentral Asia (1)China (1)Japan (1)North America (2)Siberia (1)Tibet (1)United States (4)West Africa (1)West Africa and the Caribbean (1)Yorubaland (1)DenominationsAllFolk Shinto (1)Sect Shinto (1)Shrine Shinto (1)ScripturesAllKogo Shui (1)Kojiki (1)Kumulipo (2)Nihon Shoki (1)The Ifa Literary Corpus (1)Where PractisedAllCentral Asian Steppe (1)Congo (1)East Asia (1)Himalayas (1)Japan (1)Oceania and Australia (2)Polynesia (1)Siberia (1)Southern Africa (2)Tibet (1)Origin EraAll-50000 (1)-1000 (2)-300 (1)700 (1)1400 (1)1799 (1)1880 (1)Decline EraAll1670 (1)Revival EraAll1990 (2)Conception of the DivineAllAncestor-centred (21)Animist: persons and powers in land, water and living things (31)Duotheistic: a divine pair (1)Henotheistic: a supreme being above served lesser divinities (14)Monotheistic: one God (1)Polytheistic: many gods (11)Status TodayAllHistorical; not practised continuously (1)Living tradition, practised today (59)Revived or reconstructed in the modern era (2)Suppressed, then revived (2)Establishment StatusAllDisestablished (1)Closed Practice StatusAllClosed ceremonial knowledge, described but not reproduced (6)Entered only through an initiated priesthood (1)Held within an initiatory society (1)Living, and practised in varied local forms (2)Partly restricted: some elements are closed to outsiders (6)Giving Obligation EnforceabilityAllCustomary Norm (1)Kind of TraditionAllPolytheistic (Animist) (2)Syncretic (Indigenous-Christian) (1)Show ResultsBrowseCompareSelect all 66Ainu ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)Akan ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)Amazonian VegetalismoPolytheistic (Animist)Anishinaabe ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)Arrernte ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)Australian Aboriginal ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)Bagisu Traditional ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)Bemba Traditional ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)BonPolytheistic (Animist)Bugis Traditional ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)Cherokee Religious TraditionPolytheistic (Animist)Chewa Traditional ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)Cheyenne Religious TraditionPolytheistic (Animist)Diné (Navajo) ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)Dogon ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)Ewe ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)Haudenosaunee Longhouse ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)Herero and Himba Traditional ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)Hmong ShamanismPolytheistic (Animist)Hopi ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)Huichol (Wixarika) Religious TraditionPolytheistic (Animist)Ijaw Traditional ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)Inuit ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)Kalash ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)Kirat MundhumPolytheistic (Animist)Kongo ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)Korean MuismPolytheistic (Animist)Krobo Traditional ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)Lakota ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)Luba ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)Malagasy Traditional ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)Mande Traditional ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)Maori ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)Mende Traditional ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)Mijikenda ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)Muscogee (Creek) Religious TraditionPolytheistic (Animist)Native American ChurchPolytheistic (Animist)Native American ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)Native Hawaiian ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)Naxi Dongba ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)OdinaniPolytheistic (Animist)Philippine Indigenous Religion (Anitism)Polytheistic (Animist)Pohnpeian ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)Polynesian ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)Sámi ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)San ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)Santal ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)Satsana Phi (Lao Spirit Belief)Polytheistic (Animist)Senufo Traditional ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)Shamanism (Tradition)Polytheistic (Animist)ShintoPolytheistic (Animist)Shipibo-Conibo Religious TraditionPolytheistic (Animist)Shona Traditional ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)Siberian ShamanismPolytheistic (Animist)Swazi Traditional ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)Taos Pueblo ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)TengrismPolytheistic (Animist)Tlingit and Haida ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)Trobriand ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)Vodun (West African)Polytheistic (Animist)Warlpiri ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)Western Apache ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)Xhosa Traditional ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)Yorùbá Religion (Ifá)Polytheistic (Animist)Zulu Traditional ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)Zuni ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)Sources1. Divinity Atlas Directory Taxonomy, First Edition Category Treetier 12. Encyclopedia of Religiontier 1Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Macmillan Reference, 2005s.v. AnimismView the Source3. Primitive Culture: Researches into the Development of Mythology, Philosophy, Religion, Art, and Customtier 1Edward Burnett Tylor, Murray, 1871vol. 1, ch. 11View the SourceDivinity Atlas Directory Prose, First Edition Category Descriptionstier 1Comments (0)No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.Sign in to join the discussion.Reader Challenges (0)No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.