Animism (from Latin : anima meaning ' breath , spirit , life ') is the belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence. Animism perceives all things— animals , plants , rocks , rivers , weather systems , human handiwork, and in some cases words —as being animated, having agency and free will. Animism is used in anthropology of religion as a term for the belief system of many Indigenous peoples in contrast to the relatively more recent development of organized religions . Animism is a metaphysical belief which focuses on the supernatural universe : specifically, on the concept of the immaterial soul .
89-532: Mindanao ( / ˌ m ɪ n d ə ˈ n aʊ / MIN -də- NOW ) is the second-largest island in the Philippines , after Luzon , and seventh-most populous island in the world. Located in the southern region of the archipelago , the island is part of an island group of the same name that also includes its adjacent islands, notably the Sulu Archipelago . According to the 2020 census, Mindanao had
178-481: A Hindu text , has a Sanskrit language shloka (hymn), which explains the importance of reverence of ecology. It states: "A pond equals ten wells , a reservoir equals ten ponds, while a son equals ten reservoirs, and a tree equals ten sons." Indian religions worship trees such as the Bodhi Tree and numerous superlative banyan trees , conserve the sacred groves of India , revere the rivers as sacred , and worship
267-789: A battle that started at Malabang (a town close to Gandamatu Macadar, Lanao ) and ended close to the town of Ganassi, Lanao . Davao City was among the earliest to be occupied by the invading Japanese forces. They immediately fortified the city as a bastion of the Japanese defense system. Davao City was subjected by the returning forces of Gen. Douglas MacArthur to constant bombing before the American Liberation Forces landed in Leyte in October 1944. Filipino soldiers and local guerrilla fighters were actively fighting Japanese forces until liberation at
356-484: A belief that natural objects other than humans have souls. This formulation was little different from that proposed by Auguste Comte as " fetishism ", but the terms now have distinct meanings. For Tylor, animism represented the earliest form of religion, being situated within an evolutionary framework of religion that has developed in stages and which will ultimately lead to humanity rejecting religion altogether in favor of scientific rationality. Thus, for Tylor, animism
445-552: A combined area of around 321,000 square kilometers (124,000 sq mi) and a combined population of about 100.9 million (2015); thus they contain about 99% of the Philippines' total land area and total population (2015). Combined population of Luzon and Mindanao accounts for 80% of total population of the Philippines. Download coordinates as: Major islands of the Philippines ( clickable map ) Animist Although each culture has its own mythologies and rituals, animism
534-420: A controversy regarding the ethical claims animism may or may not make: whether animism ignores questions of ethics altogether; or, by endowing various non-human elements of nature with spirituality or personhood, it in fact promotes a complex ecological ethics . Animism is not the same as pantheism , although the two are sometimes confused. Moreover, some religions are both pantheistic and animistic. One of
623-647: A cycle of violence are still felt today due to the creation of the Ilaga. The Jabidah massacre in 1968 is commonly cited as the major flashpoint that ignited the Moro insurgency, and the ensuing ethnic tensions led to the formation of secessionist movements, such as the Muslim Independence Movement and the Bangsamoro Liberation Organization . These movements were largely political in nature, but
712-597: A growing call center sector in the region, mostly centered in Davao City . Some 2,130 government-led infrastructure projects worth P547.9 billion have also been lined up for Mindanao until 2022. NEDA official said that 68% of that budget will be allotted for the transportation sector, while 16% will go to water resources, and 6% to social infrastructure. Of this amount, 18 infrastructure projects have been identified as "flagship projects," five of them have already been approved by President Rodrigo Duterte. The projects include
801-501: A means of being constantly on guard against potential threats. His suggested explanation, however, did not deal with the question of why such a belief became central to the religion. In 2000, Guthrie suggested that the "most widespread" concept of animism was that it was the "attribution of spirits to natural phenomena such as stones and trees." Many anthropologists ceased using the term animism , deeming it to be too close to early anthropological theory and religious polemic . However,
890-423: A person". Hallowell's approach to the understanding of Ojibwe personhood differed strongly from prior anthropological concepts of animism. He emphasized the need to challenge the modernist, Western perspectives of what a person is, by entering into a dialogue with different worldwide views. Hallowell's approach influenced the work of anthropologist Nurit Bird-David , who produced a scholarly article reassessing
979-835: A population of 26,252,442, while the entire island group had an estimated population of 27,021,036. Mindanao is divided into six administrative regions: the Zamboanga Peninsula , Northern Mindanao , the Caraga region, the Davao region , Soccsksargen , and the autonomous region of Bangsamoro . According to the 2020 census, Davao City is the most populous city on the island, with 1,776,949 people, followed by Zamboanga City (pop. 977,234), Cagayan de Oro (pop. 728,402), General Santos (pop. 697,315), Butuan (pop. 372,910), Iligan (pop. 363,115) and Cotabato City (pop. 325,079). About 70% of residents identify as Christian and 24% as Muslim. Mindanao
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#17330858735281068-534: A precondition of religion now, in all its variants." Tylor's definition of animism was part of a growing international debate on the nature of " primitive society " by lawyers, theologians, and philologists. The debate defined the field of research of a new science: anthropology . By the end of the 19th century, an orthodoxy on "primitive society" had emerged, but few anthropologists still would accept that definition. The "19th-century armchair anthropologists" argued that "primitive society" (an evolutionary category)
1157-405: A religion he named totemism . Primitive people believed, he argued, that they were descended from the same species as their totemic animal. Subsequent debate by the "armchair anthropologists" (including J. J. Bachofen , Émile Durkheim , and Sigmund Freud ) remained focused on totemism rather than animism, with few directly challenging Tylor's definition. Anthropologists "have commonly avoided
1246-449: A rule, approach their environment as an external world of nature that has to be 'grasped' intellectually ... indeed the separation of mind and nature has no place in their thought and practice. Rane Willerslev extends the argument by noting that animists reject this Cartesian dualism and that the animist self identifies with the world, "feeling at once within and apart from it so that the two glide ceaselessly in and out of each other in
1335-476: A sealed circuit". The animist hunter is thus aware of himself as a human hunter, but, through mimicry, is able to assume the viewpoint, senses, and sensibilities of his prey, to be one with it. Shamanism , in this view, is an everyday attempt to influence spirits of ancestors and animals, by mirroring their behaviors, as the hunter does its prey. Cultural ecologist and philosopher David Abram proposed an ethical and ecological understanding of animism, grounded in
1424-621: A short period in 1662 when Spain sent soldiers from the city to Manila after a threat of invasion from the Chinese general Koxinga , was Zamboanga City which was settled by soldiers from Peru and Mexico. The sultanates resisted Spanish pressure and attempts to convert them to Christianity during this period. The Sultanate of Ternate of the Maluku Islands formed a close alliance with the sultanates of Mindanao, especially Maguindanao . Ternate regularly sent military reinforcements to Mindanao to assist
1513-708: A state of martial law following the Maguindanao massacre . On September 9, 2013, an MNLF faction attempted to raise the flag of a self-proclaimed Bangsamoro Republik at Zamboanga City Hall in an armed incursion into parts of the city. On January 25, 2015, a shootout took place during a police operation by the Special Action Force (SAF) of the Philippine National Police (PNP) in Tukanalipao, Mamasapano, Maguindanao. The operation, codenamed Oplan Exodus,
1602-607: Is considered holy in several religious traditions of India. The Ficus benghalensis is the national tree of India. Vat Purnima is a Hindu festival related to the banyan tree, and is observed by married women in North India and in the Western Indian states of Maharashtra , Goa , Gujarat . For three days of the month of Jyeshtha in the Hindu calendar (which falls in May–June in
1691-538: Is considered the major breadbasket of the Philippines. The name Mindanao is a Spanish variation of the name of the Maguindanao people , the dominant ruling ethnic group in the Sultanate of Maguindanao in southwestern Mindanao during the Spanish colonial period . The name itself means "people of the lake", although it is usually translated to "people of the flood plains " in modern sources. Archaeological findings on
1780-484: Is inherently animistic in that it discloses a material field that is animate and self-organizing from the beginning. David Abram used contemporary cognitive and natural science , as well as the perspectival worldviews of diverse indigenous oral cultures, to propose a richly pluralist and story-based cosmology in which matter is alive. He suggested that such a relational ontology is in close accord with humanity's spontaneous perceptual experience by drawing attention to
1869-580: Is not part of any region after the Supreme Court declared its inclusion in Bangsamoro unconsitutional as the majority of its residents voted against it during the 2019 plebiscite . The list of largest cities and municipalities in Mindanao in terms of population is shown in the table below. Mindanao is the second-largest island in the Philippines at 97,530 square kilometres (37,660 sq mi), and
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#17330858735281958-403: Is now developing into a center for agro-industrial business, trade and tourism. Its competitive advantage is in agri-industry as its products, papayas, mangoes, bananas, pineapples, fresh asparagus, flowers, and fish products are exported internationally. The region can be a vital link to markets in other parts of Mindanao, Brunei Darussalam and parts of Malaysia and Indonesia . There is also
2047-417: Is one defined growth corridor in the island, namely Metro Davao . Other growth centers are: Cagayan de Oro, General Santos, Zamboanga City, Cotabato City, and Pagadian City. Being the top-performing economy in Mindanao, Davao Region has the 5th-biggest economy in the country and the second-fastest-growing economy next to Cordillera Autonomous Region. While the region's economy is predominantly agri-based, it
2136-556: Is said to describe the most common, foundational thread of indigenous peoples' "spiritual" or "supernatural" perspectives. The animistic perspective is so widely held and inherent to most indigenous peoples that they often do not even have a word in their languages that corresponds to "animism" (or even "religion"). The term "animism" is an anthropological construct . Largely due to such ethnolinguistic and cultural discrepancies, opinions differ on whether animism refers to an ancestral mode of experience common to indigenous peoples around
2225-498: Is sustained only by intensely animistic participation between human beings and their own written signs. For instance, as soon as someone reads letters on a page or screen, they can "see what it says"—the letters speak as much as nature spoke to pre-literate peoples. Reading can usefully be understood as an intensely concentrated form of animism, one that effectively eclipses all of the other, older, more spontaneous forms of animistic participation in which humans were once engaged. To tell
2314-623: Is the seventh-most populous island in the world . The island is mountainous, and is home to Mount Apo , the highest mountain in the country. Mindanao is surrounded by four seas: the Sulu Sea to the west, the Philippine Sea to the east, the Celebes Sea to the south, and the Mindanao Sea to the north. The island itself is part of an island group of the same name, which consists of the mainland,
2403-407: Is the inverse of scientism , and hence, is deemed inherently invalid by some anthropologists. Drawing on the work of Bruno Latour , some anthropologists question modernist assumptions and theorize that all societies continue to "animate" the world around them. In contrast to Tylor's reasoning, however, this "animism" is considered to be more than just a remnant of primitive thought. More specifically,
2492-633: The Agusan River would pass through 16 kilometers (9.9 mi) of broad saddle across the mountains at a maximum elevation of less than 250 meters (820 ft); while the existing east–west road from Lianga , 48 km (30 mi) north of Bislig , reaches a maximum elevation of only 450 m (1,480 ft). The Diwata Mountains, north of these low points, are considerably higher and more rugged, reaching an elevation of 2,012 m (6,601 ft) in Mount Hilong-Hilong , 17 miles (27 km) along
2581-577: The Bhagavat Gita , Krishna said, "There is a banyan tree which has its roots upward and its branches down, and the Vedic hymns are its leaves. One who knows this tree is the knower of the Vedas." (Bg 15.1) In Buddhism's Pali canon , the banyan (Pali: nigrodha ) is referenced numerous times. Typical metaphors allude to the banyan's epiphytic nature, likening the banyan's supplanting of a host tree as comparable to
2670-532: The Gregorian calendar ) married women observe a fast, tie threads around a banyan tree, and pray for the well-being of their husbands. Thimmamma Marrimanu , sacred to Indian religions, has branches spread over five acres and was listed as the world's largest banyan tree in the Guinness World Records in 1989. In Hinduism, the leaf of the banyan tree is said to be the resting place for the god Krishna . In
2759-584: The Kerma culture display Animistic elements similar to other Traditional African religions . In contrast, the later polytheistic Napatan and Meroitic periods, with displays of animals in Amulets and the esteemed antiques of Lions, appear to be an Animistic culture rather than a polytheistic culture. The Kermans likely treated Jebel Barkal as a special sacred site, and passed it on to the Kushites and Egyptians who venerated
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2848-428: The Sulu Archipelago and the outlying islands of Camiguin , Dinagat , Siargao , and Samal . The mountains of Mindanao can be grouped into ten ranges, including both complex structural mountains and volcanoes. The structural mountains on the extreme eastern and western portions of the island show broad exposures of Mesozoic rock, and Ultrabasic rocks at the surface in many places along the east coast. Other parts of
2937-528: The Visayas , and Mindanao . Only about 2,000 islands are inhabited, and more than 5,000 are yet to be officially named. The following list breaks the islands down by region and smaller island group for easier reference. Below is a list of the largest Philippine islands. There are discrepancies in the area estimates across various sources, which would change the rankings of some smaller islands. The areas given may not be definitive. The 50 largest islands have
3026-508: The mesa . In North Africa , the traditional Berber religion includes the traditional polytheistic, animist, and in some rare cases, shamanistic, religions of the Berber people. In the Indian-origin religions , namely Hinduism , Buddhism , Jainism , and Sikhism , the animistic aspects of nature worship and ecological conservation are part of the core belief system. Matsya Purana ,
3115-510: The phenomenology of sensory experience. In his books The Spell of the Sensuous and Becoming Animal, Abram suggests that material things are never entirely passive in our direct perceptual experience, holding rather that perceived things actively "solicit our attention" or "call our focus", coaxing the perceiving body into an ongoing participation with those things. In the absence of intervening technologies, he suggests that sensory experience
3204-407: The sarong (known as malong or patadyong ), the pudong turban , silk , and batik and ikat weaving and dyeing methods were introduced. Artifacts found from this era include a golden kinnara , a golden image believed by some to be a Tara , and a Ganesha pendant. These cultural traits passed from Mindanao into the Visayas and Luzon , but were subsequently lost or heavily modified after
3293-631: The ₱ 35.26 billion Tagum-Davao-Digos Segment of the Mindanao Railway , the ₱40.57 billion Davao airport, the ₱14.62 billion Laguindingan airport, the ₱4.86 billion Panguil Bay Bridge Project, and the ₱5.44 billion Malitubog-Maridagao Irrigation Project, Phase II. Projects in the pipeline are the second and third phases of the Mindanao Railway; the Agus-Pulangi plant rehabilitation; the Davao expressway;
3382-440: The "animism" of modernity is characterized by humanity's "professional subcultures", as in the ability to treat the world as a detached entity within a delimited sphere of activity. Human beings continue to create personal relationships with elements of the aforementioned objective world, such as pets, cars, or teddy bears, which are recognized as subjects. As such, these entities are "approached as communicative subjects rather than
3471-469: The "old animist" definition had been problematic, the term animism was nevertheless "of considerable value as a critical, academic term for a style of religious and cultural relating to the world." The new animism emerged largely from the publications of anthropologist Irving Hallowell , produced on the basis of his ethnographic research among the Ojibwe communities of Canada in the mid-20th century. For
3560-634: The "self". Instead of focusing on the essentialized, modernist self (the "individual"), persons are viewed as bundles of social relationships ("dividuals"), some of which include "superpersons" (i.e. non-humans). Stewart Guthrie expressed criticism of Bird-David's attitude towards animism, believing that it promulgated the view that "the world is in large measure whatever our local imagination makes it." This, he felt, would result in anthropology abandoning "the scientific project." Like Bird-David, Tim Ingold argues that animists do not see themselves as separate from their environment: Hunter-gatherers do not, as
3649-550: The MILF after it committed a series of terrorist attacks on government buildings, civilians, and foreigners. A number of livelihood intervention projects, from organisations such as USAID and the Emergency Livelihood Assistance Program (ELAP), aided in the reconstruction of areas affected by constant battles on the island. In December 2009, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo officially placed Maguindanao under
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3738-701: The Marcos dictatorship led to the killings of many Mindanao journalists, with prominent examples being Alex Orcullo of Mindanao Currents and Mindaweek , and Jacobo Amatong of the Mindanao Observer . In 1989, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) was established, constituted by several provinces in Western Mindanao. In March 2000, President Joseph Estrada declared an "All Out War" against
3827-699: The Muslim polities in mainland Mindanao was the Sultanate of Maguindanao , which controlled the southern floodplains of the Rio Grande de Mindanao and most of the coastal area of Illana Bay , Moro Gulf , Sarangani Bay and Davao Gulf . The name Mindanao was derived from this sultanate. But most of Mindanao remained animist, especially the Lumad people in the interior. Most of the northern, eastern, and southern coastal regions inhabited by Visayans ( Surigaonon and Butuanon ) and other groups were later converted to Christianity by
3916-465: The Ojibwe encountered by Hallowell, personhood did not require human-likeness, but rather humans were perceived as being like other persons, who for instance included rock persons and bear persons. For the Ojibwe, these persons were each willful beings, who gained meaning and power through their interactions with others; through respectfully interacting with other persons, they themselves learned to "act as
4005-402: The Philippines, reviving the movement started by congressman Pantaleon Alvarez . Mindanao's economy accounts for 14% of the country's gross domestic product. The region grew 4.9% in 2016 against Luzon's 5.5% and Visayas' 9.1%. Agriculture, forestry and fishing make up more than 40% of Mindanao's market, being the country's largest supplier of major crops such as pineapples and bananas. There
4094-504: The Portuguese manuscript Summa Orientalis, noted that Mottama in Burma (Myanmar) had a large presence of merchants from Mindanao. In 1521 Antonio Pigafetta wrote an account of reaching 'Maingdano.' He was with Magellan on the first circumnavigation of the globe and sailing for the king of Spain. On February 2, 1543, Ruy López de Villalobos was the first Spaniard to reach Mindanao. He called
4183-529: The Spanish arrival in the 16th century. Hindu-Buddhist cultural influence took root in the coastal settlements, syncretizing with indigenous animist beliefs and customs among the tribes of the interior. The Butuan Rajahnate , a Hinduized kingdom mentioned in Chinese records as a tributary state in the 10th century, was concentrated along the northeastern coast of Butuan Bay . The Rajahnate of Sanmalan in Zamboanga,
4272-726: The Spanish. Mindanao was then embroiled between a conflict with the Boholano (Visayan) Dapitan Kingdom and the Moluccan Sultanate of Ternate . Dapitan which was originally at Bohol was destroyed by an expeditionary force from the Ternate Sultanate and Dapitenyos were forced to relocate to Northern Mindanao where they waged war against the Sultanate of Lanao and established a new Dapitan there. Mindanaoans then spread out of Mindanao across Southeast Asia, Historian William Henry Scott, quoting
4361-530: The United States for $ 20 million. The 1900 Treaty of Washington and the 1930 Convention Between the United States and Great Britain clarified the borders between Mindanao and Borneo. In early 1900s the Commonwealth government (led by Americans) encouraged citizens from Luzon and Visayas to migrate to Mindanao. Consisting mostly of Ilocanos, Cebuanos, and Ilonggos. Settlers streaming into Soccsksargen led to
4450-919: The Zamboanga Fish Port Complex rehabilitation; the Balo-i Plains Flood Control Project; Asbang Small Reservoir Irrigation Project; the Ambal Simuay Sub-Basin of the Mindanao River Basin Flood Control and River Protection Project; as well as the Road Network Development Project in Conflict-Affected Areas in Mindanao project. The island consists of six administrative regions , 23 provinces , and 30 cities (28 provinces and 33 cities if associated islands are included). Sulu
4539-577: The abnormal phenomena of disease could be traced to spiritual causes. The origin of the word comes from the Latin word anima , which means life or soul. The first known usage in English appeared in 1819. Earlier anthropological perspectives , which have since been termed the old animism, were concerned with knowledge on what is alive and what factors make something alive. The old animism assumed that animists were individuals who were unable to understand
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#17330858735284628-527: The ancestors, who provide the basis to life. Certain indigenous religious groups such as the Australian Aboriginals are more typically totemic in their worldview, whereas others like the Inuit are more typically animistic. From his studies into child development, Jean Piaget suggested that children were born with an innate animist worldview in which they anthropomorphized inanimate objects and that it
4717-569: The animist perspective in line with Martin Buber 's " I-thou " as opposed to "I-it". In such, Harvey says, the animist takes an I-thou approach to relating to the world, whereby objects and animals are treated as a "thou", rather than as an "it". There is ongoing disagreement (and no general consensus) as to whether animism is merely a singular, broadly encompassing religious belief or a worldview in and of itself, comprising many diverse mythologies found worldwide in many diverse cultures. This also raises
4806-534: The battle, although Marawi residents believe the number of civilians killed was far higher. The official death toll in the five-month conflict is 1,109, most of which were members of a militant alliance which drew fighters from radical factions of domestic Islamist groups. In 2019, the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao was established, replacing the former ARMM. In 2024, former President Rodrigo Duterte called for Mindanao to secede from
4895-592: The ceramic objects are from the Yuan and Ming periods. Evidently, there was a long history of trade between the Subanon and the Chinese. In the classic epoch of Philippine history (900 AD onwards), the people of Mindanao were heavily exposed to Hindu and Buddhist influence and beliefs from Indonesia and Malaysia. Indianized abugida scripts such as Kawi and baybayin were introduced from Java and an extinct intermediate from Sulawesi or Borneo respectively. Cultural icons of
4984-471: The conclusion of the Battle of Mindanao . Mindanao was peaceful and increasingly progressive in the postwar period, including the 1950s and the mid-1960s. Ethnic tensions were minimal, and there was essentially no presence of secessionists groups in Mindanao. Under Ferdinand Marcos 's administration, Christian groups began to settle in Mindanao, displacing many locals. The population boom resulted in conflicts as
5073-449: The corporeal, sensuous world that sustains it. Religious studies scholar Graham Harvey defined animism as the belief "that the world is full of persons, only some of whom are human, and that life is always lived in relationship with others." He added that it is therefore "concerned with learning how to be a good person in respectful relationships with other persons." In his Handbook of Contemporary Animism (2013), Harvey identifies
5162-549: The country, and violent crackdowns on protests led to the radicalization of many students, with some joining the New People's Army , bringing the New People's Army rebellion to Mindanao for the first time. Marcos' declaration led to the shuttering of press outlets – television stations, national newspapers, weekly magazines, community newspapers, and radio stations – throughout the country, including in Mindanao. The remaining years of
5251-467: The difference between persons and things . Critics of the old animism have accused it of preserving "colonialist and dualistic worldviews and rhetoric." The idea of animism was developed by anthropologist Sir Edward Tylor through his 1871 book Primitive Culture , in which he defined it as "the general doctrine of souls and other spiritual beings in general." According to Tylor, animism often includes "an idea of pervading life and will in nature;"
5340-532: The displacement of the Blaan and Tboli tribes. In April 1942 Mindanao, along with the rest of the Philippines, officially entered World War II after Japanese soldiers invaded key cities in the islands. Many towns and cities were burned to the ground in Mindanao, most notably Davao City, Zamboanga City, Lanao, Cagayan de Oro, Iligan City, and Butuan. In the months of April and May 1942, Japanese forces defeated US troops commanded by William F. Sharp and Guy Fort , in
5429-561: The east, and Davao in the island's gulf coast. Spain continued to engage in battles with Muslim sultanates until the end of the 19th century. At the same time as the Philippine revolution against Spain, the Republic of Zamboanga rose as a revolutionary state in Mindanao before it was absorbed by the oncoming Americans. In the Treaty of Paris in 1898 Spain sold the entire Philippine archipelago to
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#17330858735285518-489: The eastern portion of Cabadbaran . The southern portion of this range is broader and even more rugged than the northern section. In Davao Oriental , several peaks rise above 2,600 m (8,530 ft) and one mountain rises to 2,910 m (9,547 ft). List of islands of the Philippines As an archipelago , the Philippines comprises about 7,641 islands clustered into three major island groups : Luzon ,
5607-399: The idea of animism in 1999. Seven comments from other academics were provided in the journal, debating Bird-David's ideas. More recently, postmodern anthropologists are increasingly engaging with the concept of animism. Modernism is characterized by a Cartesian subject-object dualism that divides the subjective from the objective, and culture from nature. In the modernist view, animism
5696-448: The inert objects perceived by modernists." These approaches aim to avoid the modernist assumption that the environment consists of a physical world distinct from the world of humans, as well as the modernist conception of the person being composed dualistically of a body and a soul. Nurit Bird-David argues that: Positivistic ideas about the meaning of 'nature', 'life', and 'personhood' misdirected these previous attempts to understand
5785-474: The influence of Muslim merchants from the western Malay Archipelago . The first mosque in the Philippines was built in the mid-14th century in the town of Simunul , Tawi-Tawi . Around the 16th century, the Muslim sultanates of Sulu , Lanao and Maguindanao were established from formerly Hindu-Buddhist rajahnates. As Islam colonised Mindanao, the natives of the sultanates had to either convert to Islam or pay tribute to their new Muslim rulers. The largest of
5874-572: The island "Caesarea Caroli" after Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire (and I of Spain). Shortly after Spain's colonization of Cebu, it moved on to colonize the Caraga region in northeast Mindanao and discovered significant Muslim presence on the island. Over time a number of tribes in Mindanao converted to Catholicism and built settlements and forts throughout the coastal regions. These settlements endured despite attacks from neighboring Muslim sultanates. The most heavily fortified of them, apart from
5963-579: The island consist mainly of Cenozoic and Quaternary volcanic or sedimentary rocks. In the eastern portion of the island, from Bilas Point in Surigao del Norte to Cape San Agustin in Davao Oriental , is a range of complex mountains known in their northern portion as the Diwata Mountains . This range is low and rolling in its central portion. A proposed road connecting Bislig on the east coast with
6052-504: The island point to evidence of human activity dating back about ten thousand years. Around 1500 BC, Austronesian people spread throughout the Philippines. The Subanon are believed to have settled in the Zamboanga Peninsula during the Neolithic era c. 4500–2000 BC. Evidence of stone tools in Zamboanga del Norte may indicate a late Neolithic presence. Ceramic burial jars, both unglazed and glazed, Chinese celadons , gold ornaments, beads, and bracelets have been found in caves. Many of
6141-405: The issue of animism and even the term itself, rather than revisit this prevalent notion in light of their new and rich ethnographies ." According to anthropologist Tim Ingold , animism shares similarities with totemism but differs in its focus on individual spirit beings which help to perpetuate life, whereas totemism more typically holds that there is a primary source, such as the land itself or
6230-437: The local concepts. Classical theoreticians (it is argued) attributed their own modernist ideas of self to 'primitive peoples' while asserting that the 'primitive peoples' read their idea of self into others! She explains that animism is a "relational epistemology " rather than a failure of primitive reasoning. That is, self-identity among animists is based on their relationships with others, rather than any distinctive features of
6319-405: The local sultanates in their war against Spanish-controlled Manila. By the late 18th century Spain had geographic dominance over the island, having established settlements and forts in most of Mindanao, including Zamboanga City and Misamis Occidental to the northwest, Iligan City , Misamis Oriental , Bukidnon , and Camiguin Island to the north, Surigao and Agusan in the Caraga region to
6408-444: The main differences is that while animists believe everything to be spiritual in nature, they do not necessarily see the spiritual nature of everything in existence as being united ( monism ) the way pantheists do. As a result, animism puts more emphasis on the uniqueness of each individual soul. In pantheism, everything shares the same spiritual essence, rather than having distinct spirits or souls. For example, Giordano Bruno equated
6497-645: The mountains and their ecology. Panchavati are the sacred trees in Indic religions, which are sacred groves containing five type of trees, usually chosen from among the Vata ( Ficus benghalensis , Banyan), Ashvattha ( Ficus religiosa , Peepal), Bilva ( Aegle marmelos , Bengal Quince), Amalaki ( Phyllanthus emblica , Indian Gooseberry, Amla), Ashoka ( Saraca asoca , Ashok), Udumbara ( Ficus racemosa , Cluster Fig, Gular), Nimba ( Azadirachta indica , Neem) and Shami ( Prosopis spicigera , Indian Mesquite). The banyan
6586-471: The natural environment. Examples include water sprites , vegetation deities , and tree spirits , among others. Animism may further attribute a life force to abstract concepts such as words, true names , or metaphors in mythology . Some members of the non-tribal world also consider themselves animists, such as author Daniel Quinn , sculptor Lawson Oyekan , and many contemporary Pagans . English anthropologist Sir Edward Tylor initially wanted to describe
6675-432: The original animism of early humanity. The term ["animism"] clearly began as an expression of a nest of insulting approaches to indigenous peoples and the earliest putatively religious humans. It was and sometimes remains, a colonialist slur. In 1869 (three years after Tylor proposed his definition of animism), Edinburgh lawyer John Ferguson McLennan , argued that the animistic thinking evident in fetishism gave rise to
6764-557: The original owners sought their ancestral land domains. The Marcos administration encouraged new settlers who had emigrated to Mindanao to form a militia, which was eventually called the Ilaga . Anecdotal evidence states that the Ilaga often committed human rights abuses by targeting the Moro and Lumad people, as well as attempting to seize additional territory. It resulted in a lingering animosity between Moro and Christian communities. Mistrust and
6853-419: The phenomenon as spiritualism, but he realized that it would cause confusion with the modern religion of spiritualism , which was then prevalent across Western nations. He adopted the term animism from the writings of German scientist Georg Ernst Stahl , who had developed the term animismus in 1708 as a biological theory that souls formed the vital principle , and that the normal phenomena of life and
6942-712: The prohibition of political parties after Marcos' 1972 declaration of Martial Law led to the founding and dominance of armed groups such as the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Ethnic conflicts continued to escalate, leading to incidents like the 1971 Manili massacre , the Pata Island massacre , and the Palimbang massacre . Additionally, an economic crisis in late 1969 led to social unrest throughout
7031-516: The senses, and to the primacy of sensuous terrain, enjoining a more respectful and ethical relation to the more-than-human community of animals, plants, soils, mountains, waters, and weather-patterns that materially sustains humanity. In contrast to a long-standing tendency in the Western social sciences, which commonly provide rational explanations of animistic experience, Abram develops an animistic account of reason itself. He holds that civilised reason
7120-480: The story in this manner—to provide an animistic account of reason, rather than the other way around—is to imply that animism is the wider and more inclusive term and that oral, mimetic modes of experience still underlie, and support, all our literate and technological modes of reflection. When reflection's rootedness in such bodily, participatory modes of experience is entirely unacknowledged or unconscious, reflective reason becomes dysfunctional, unintentionally destroying
7209-455: The term had also been claimed by religious groups—namely, Indigenous communities and nature worshippers —who felt that it aptly described their own beliefs, and who in some cases actively identified as "animists." It was thus readopted by various scholars, who began using the term in a different way, placing the focus on knowing how to behave toward other beings, some of whom are not human. As religious studies scholar Graham Harvey stated, while
7298-584: The world or to a full-fledged religion in its own right. The currently accepted definition of animism was only developed in the late 19th century (1871) by Edward Tylor . It is "one of anthropology 's earliest concepts, if not the first." Animism encompasses beliefs that all material phenomena have agency, that there exists no categorical distinction between the spiritual and physical world, and that soul , spirit, or sentience exists not only in humans but also in other animals, plants, rocks, geographic features (such as mountains and rivers), and other entities of
7387-417: The world soul with God and espoused a pantheistic animism. In many animistic world views, the human being is often regarded as on a roughly equal footing with other animals, plants, and natural forces. Traditional African religions : most religious traditions of Sub-Saharan Africa are basically a complex form of animism with polytheistic and shamanistic elements and ancestor worship . In East Africa
7476-584: Was also in Mindanao. The Darangen epic of the Maranao people harkens back to this era as the most complete local version of the Ramayana . The Maguindanao at this time also had strong Hindu beliefs, evidenced by the Ladya Lawana (Rajah Ravana ) epic saga that survives to the present, albeit highly Islamized from the 17th century onward. The spread of Islam in the Philippines began in the 14th century, mostly through
7565-499: Was far more sympathetic in regard to "primitive" populations than many of his contemporaries and that Tylor expressed no belief that there was any difference between the intellectual capabilities of "savage" people and Westerners. The idea that there had once been "one universal form of primitive religion" (whether labelled animism , totemism , or shamanism ) has been dismissed as "unsophisticated" and "erroneous" by archaeologist Timothy Insoll , who stated that "it removes complexity,
7654-418: Was fundamentally seen as a mistake, a basic error from which all religions grew. He did not believe that animism was inherently illogical, but he suggested that it arose from early humans' dreams and visions and thus was a rational system. However, it was based on erroneous, unscientific observations about the nature of reality. Stringer notes that his reading of Primitive Culture led him to believe that Tylor
7743-665: Was intended to capture or kill wanted Malaysian terrorist and bomb-maker Zulkifli Abdhir and other Malaysian terrorists or high-ranking members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF). In May 2017, President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law on the entire island group of Mindanao following the Marawi siege by the Maute terrorist group. More than 180,000 people were forced to evacuate Marawi City . Around 165 security forces and 47 residents were confirmed killed in
7832-496: Was only later that they grew out of this belief. Conversely, from her ethnographic research, Margaret Mead argued the opposite, believing that children were not born with an animist worldview but that they became acculturated to such beliefs as they were educated by their society. Stewart Guthrie saw animism—or "attribution" as he preferred it—as an evolutionary strategy to aid survival. He argued that both humans and other animal species view inanimate objects as potentially alive as
7921-628: Was ordered by kinship and divided into exogamous descent groups related by a series of marriage exchanges. Their religion was animism, the belief that natural species and objects had souls. With the development of private property, the descent groups were displaced by the emergence of the territorial state. These rituals and beliefs eventually evolved over time into the vast array of "developed" religions. According to Tylor, as society became more scientifically advanced, fewer members of that society would believe in animism. However, any remnant ideologies of souls or spirits, to Tylor, represented "survivals" of
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