Home›Polytheistic (Animist)›Conception of the Divine›Animist: persons and powers in land, water and living thingsBrowse ByAnimist: persons and powers in land, water and living thingsThis page groups religions by how they conceive of the divine, since traditions disagree sharply about whether there is one god, many, or none in the usual sense. Wikipedia notes that Hinduism's many deities, "Deva (masculine) and Devi (feminine)," are often understood as aspects of "the same Ultimate Reality called Brahman," a very different picture from the strict monotheism of the Abrahamic faiths. Browsing by conception of the divine lets a visitor compare how differently two religions answer the same basic question.FactsLearn MoreAnimist: persons and powers in land, water and living thingsSourcesComments (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.Animist: persons and powers in land, water and living thingsFilter Results31 entriesPlace of OriginAllCentral Asia (1)China (1)Japan (1)North America (1)Siberia (1)Tibet (1)United States (1)DenominationsAllFolk Shinto (1)Sect Shinto (1)Shrine Shinto (1)ScripturesAllKogo Shui (1)Kojiki (1)Nihon Shoki (1)Where PractisedAllCentral Asian Steppe (1)East Asia (1)Himalayas (1)Japan (1)Siberia (1)Southern Africa (1)Tibet (1)Origin EraAll-300 (1)700 (1)1000 (1)Decline EraAll1670 (1)Revival EraAll1990 (2)Status TodayAllHistorical; not practised continuously (1)Living tradition, practised today (29)Revived or reconstructed in the modern era (2)Suppressed, then revived (1)Establishment StatusAllDisestablished (1)Closed Practice StatusAllHeld within an initiatory society (1)Living, and practised in varied local forms (1)Partly restricted: some elements are closed to outsiders (4)Giving Obligation EnforceabilityAllCustomary Norm (1)Kind of TraditionAllPolytheistic (Animist) (2)Show ResultsBrowseCompareSelect all 31Ainu ReligionAnimist: persons and powers in land, water and living thingsAmazonian VegetalismoAnimist: persons and powers in land, water and living thingsAnishinaabe ReligionAnimist: persons and powers in land, water and living thingsBagisu Traditional ReligionAnimist: persons and powers in land, water and living thingsBemba Traditional ReligionAnimist: persons and powers in land, water and living thingsBonAnimist: persons and powers in land, water and living thingsCherokee Religious TraditionAnimist: persons and powers in land, water and living thingsChewa Traditional ReligionAnimist: persons and powers in land, water and living thingsHmong ShamanismAnimist: persons and powers in land, water and living thingsHuichol (Wixarika) Religious TraditionAnimist: persons and powers in land, water and living thingsInuit ReligionAnimist: persons and powers in land, water and living thingsKorean MuismAnimist: persons and powers in land, water and living thingsKrobo Traditional ReligionAnimist: persons and powers in land, water and living thingsLakota ReligionAnimist: persons and powers in land, water and living thingsMalagasy Traditional ReligionAnimist: persons and powers in land, water and living thingsMende Traditional ReligionAnimist: persons and powers in land, water and living thingsNaxi Dongba ReligionAnimist: persons and powers in land, water and living thingsPhilippine Indigenous Religion (Anitism)Animist: persons and powers in land, water and living thingsPohnpeian ReligionAnimist: persons and powers in land, water and living thingsSámi ReligionAnimist: persons and powers in land, water and living thingsSan ReligionAnimist: persons and powers in land, water and living thingsSantal ReligionAnimist: persons and powers in land, water and living thingsSatsana Phi (Lao Spirit Belief)Animist: persons and powers in land, water and living thingsShintoAnimist: persons and powers in land, water and living thingsShipibo-Conibo Religious TraditionAnimist: persons and powers in land, water and living thingsShona Traditional ReligionAnimist: persons and powers in land, water and living thingsSiberian ShamanismAnimist: persons and powers in land, water and living thingsTengrismAnimist: persons and powers in land, water and living thingsTlingit and Haida ReligionAnimist: persons and powers in land, water and living thingsTrobriand ReligionAnimist: persons and powers in land, water and living thingsZuni ReligionAnimist: persons and powers in land, water and living thingsSources1. 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.