Home›Polytheistic (Animist)›Conception of the Divine›Polytheistic: many godsBrowse ByPolytheistic: many godsThis 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 MorePolytheistic: many godsSourcesComments (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.Polytheistic: many godsFilter Results11 entriesPlace of OriginAllTibet (1)West Africa and the Caribbean (1)DenominationsAllFolk Shinto (1)Sect Shinto (1)Shrine Shinto (1)ScripturesAllKogo Shui (1)Kojiki (1)Kumulipo (2)Nihon Shoki (1)Where PractisedAllEast Asia (1)Himalayas (1)Japan (1)Oceania and Australia (1)Polynesia (1)Tibet (1)Origin EraAll-1000 (2)-300 (1)Decline EraAll1670 (1)Status TodayAllHistorical; not practised continuously (1)Living tradition, practised today (8)Suppressed, then revived (1)Establishment StatusAllDisestablished (1)Closed Practice StatusAllEntered only through an initiated priesthood (1)Partly restricted: some elements are closed to outsiders (2)Giving Obligation EnforceabilityAllCustomary Norm (1)Kind of TraditionAllPolytheistic (Animist) (1)Show ResultsBrowseCompareSelect all 11BonPolytheistic: many godsDiné (Navajo) ReligionPolytheistic: many godsEwe ReligionPolytheistic: many godsInuit ReligionPolytheistic: many godsKalash ReligionPolytheistic: many godsKorean MuismPolytheistic: many godsNative Hawaiian ReligionPolytheistic: many godsPolynesian ReligionPolytheistic: many godsSámi ReligionPolytheistic: many godsShintoPolytheistic: many godsVodun (West African)Polytheistic: many godsSources1. 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.