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https://theconversation.com/animism-recognizes-how-animals-places-and-plants-have-power-over-humans-and-its-finding-renewed-interest-around-the-world-181389>
"A movement known as “new animism,” which seeks to secure personhood rights for
nonhuman beings through legal means, is gaining a following around the globe.
New animist environmental activists are not the only ones using the term.
Animism itself has become fashionable. Some spirituality bloggers talk about
animism as a way to deepen one’s spiritual relationship to nature. Scholars –
from anthropologists to philosophers – have taken a renewed interest in the
concept.
Most of these people are using animism in a very general, and inaccurate, way,
to mean the belief that everything in nature has a soul. The renewed interest
in animism stems from the hope that people will behave in more ecologically
sustainable ways if they believe that the natural world around them is alive.
However, as an anthropologist of religion who works with people whose religious
practices were traditionally described as animist, I believe the reality is
both more interesting and more complicated. Animism is not a religion or even a
set of beliefs about nature having a soul. It’s a term used by scholars to
classify religious practices through which human beings cultivate relationships
with more powerful beings that reside in the world around us."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
