Home›Subcategories›Polytheistic (Animist)SubcategoriesPolytheistic (Animist)63 of 186 entries in Religions. Click any to see everything it connects to.Citation FormatsGeneral ReferenceGeneral Reference Citation TextDivinity Atlas. "Polytheistic (Animist)." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://www.divinityatlas.com/subcategories/religion/polytheistic-animist.Copy General ReferenceAPA StyleAPA Style Citation TextDivinity Atlas. (n.d.). Polytheistic (Animist). Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://www.divinityatlas.com/subcategories/religion/polytheistic-animistCopy APA StyleBibTeXBibTeX Citation Text@misc{divinityatlas-polytheistic-animist, author = {Divinity Atlas}, title = {Polytheistic (Animist)}, year = {2026}, url = {https://www.divinityatlas.com/subcategories/religion/polytheistic-animist}, note = {Accessed August 30, 2026} }Copy BibTeXTraditions 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 MoreSourcesComments (0)Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)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. 3BrowseCompareSelect all 63Ainu ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)11 linksAkan ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)23 linksAmazonian VegetalismoPolytheistic (Animist)6 linksAnishinaabe ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)11 linksArrernte ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)1 linkAustralian Aboriginal ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)33 linksBagisu Traditional ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)4 linksBemba Traditional ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)3 linksBonPolytheistic (Animist)18 linksCherokee Religious TraditionPolytheistic (Animist)1 linkChewa Traditional ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)2 linksCheyenne Religious TraditionPolytheistic (Animist)2 linksDiné (Navajo) ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)21 linksDogon ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)11 linksHaudenosaunee Longhouse ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)15 linksHerero and Himba Traditional ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)3 linksHmong ShamanismPolytheistic (Animist)2 linksHopi ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)5 linksHuichol (Wixarika) Religious TraditionPolytheistic (Animist)1 linkInuit ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)11 linksKalash ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)2 linksKirat MundhumPolytheistic (Animist)1 linkKongo ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)19 linksKorean MuismPolytheistic (Animist)24 linksKrobo Traditional ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)2 linksLakota ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)27 linksMalagasy Traditional ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)5 linksMende Traditional ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)6 linksMijikenda ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)2 linksMuscogee (Creek) Religious TraditionPolytheistic (Animist)1 linkNative American ChurchPolytheistic (Animist)9 linksNative American ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)53 linksNative Hawaiian ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)17 linksNaxi Dongba ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)1 linkOdinaniPolytheistic (Animist)14 linksPhilippine Indigenous Religion (Anitism)Polytheistic (Animist)6 linksPohnpeian ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)3 linksPolynesian ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)67 linksSámi ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)9 linksSan ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)9 linksSantal ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)1 linkSenufo Traditional ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)2 linksShintoPolytheistic (Animist)239 linksShipibo-Conibo Religious TraditionPolytheistic (Animist)1 linkShona Traditional ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)14 linksSiberian ShamanismPolytheistic (Animist)29 linksTaos Pueblo ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)4 linksTengrismPolytheistic (Animist)30 linksTrobriand ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)2 linksVodun (West African)Polytheistic (Animist)37 linksWarlpiri ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)1 linkWestern Apache ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)3 linksYorùbá Religion (Ifá)Polytheistic (Animist)101 linksZulu Traditional ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)21 linksBugis Traditional ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)2 linksEwe ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)2 linksIjaw Traditional ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)2 linksLuba ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)2 linksMande Traditional ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)2 linksSwazi Traditional ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)2 linksTlingit and Haida ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)2 linksXhosa Traditional ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)2 linksZuni ReligionPolytheistic (Animist)1 linkLearn 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.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 open reader challenges)No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? 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