animistic


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an·i·mism

 (ăn′ə-mĭz′əm)
n.
1. The belief in the existence of individual spirits that inhabit natural objects and phenomena.
2. The belief in the existence of spiritual beings that are separable or separate from bodies.
3. The hypothesis holding that an immaterial force animates the universe.

[From Latin anima, soul; see anə- in Indo-European roots.]

an′i·mist n.
an′i·mis′tic adj.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Adj.1.animistic - of or pertaining to the doctrine of animism
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References in periodicals archive ?
The National Registration Department (NRD) will assist animistic Orang Asli to register their customary marriage.
The region has been examined by scholars for evidence of the earliest Sanskrit-speaking communities which coexisted with several ancient animistic, shamanistic and image-worshipping cults.
Anthropologist Alicia Magos once wrote that the babaylans were punished in an attempt to stop the animistic practices of the natives.
It suggests a certain Western shortsightedness to be immediately dismissive and fail to recognize the animistic roots of such practices, as well as the belief, shared among a number of Eastern philosophies, that even inanimate things have spirits.
Dismissed by critics, even by members of the clergy, as fanaticism, idolatry, animistic, misplaced, bordering on occult, devotees and the less critical among us accept the fervor as a tremendous outpouring of faith.
It's a form wonderfully suited to the animistic methods of Marie Kondo, the Japanese tidying guru who taught the world to kiss its socks goodbye with a novel organising principle: If your belongings don't spark joy, thank them for their service and show them the door.
Using mainly mustard and indigo wools, Achaintre reimagined the gate as an animistic curtain.
Guido Sprenger traces the implications for ecological understanding of ongoing transitions from swidden agriculture to coffee cultivation and from animistic practice to Buddhism in upland southern Laos.
Amerindian reincarnation beliefs do not stand alone in the world but are related to an animistic system of global currency, as Sir Edward Burnett Tylor recognized as early as the 1870s (Tylor, 1877, vol.
The Kalash depend for their survival on the area's natural resources, as they have done for several millennia; their animistic beliefs go hand in hand with a respect for nature.
The process of story boarding is followed by 'Animistic'.
Religious experience is in some sense genuine; some scientists may still contend that ecstatic states, visitation by angels, or animistic communications with rocks and trees may be symptomatic of a neuropathology.