The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c13.s2.53

v1.c13.s2.53

In a wide sense the term animism, which here has been employed to cover only the beliefs which are founded on the regard had for the souls of the dead, is employed to cover all cases of belief in spirits: thus the anthropomorphic gods are styled a product of animism, and abstract deities are derived from the same conception. The question is in the main one of terminology: by Herbert Spencer the term animism covers cases which we have classed as animatism, where personality is assumed without any definite theory of spirit. But it is by no means certain that we are to consider animism as the normal procedure by which we pass from animatism to anthropomorphism, if we are to consider animism as essentially connected with the souls of the dead. We cannot say that belief in the existence and nature of the soul was produced by the observation of the phenomena of death only: the dream on which Tylor laid stress, or the trance, to which Lang ¹ attached importance in connexion with the power of foresight, are sources from which the view of the existence of the spirit could be derived, apart altogether from the phenomena of death, and Dr. Marett ² holds that in the conception of the souls of the dead an additional element of the supernatural was added by the feeling of horror and surprise felt by the savage in the presence of a dead body. It is, therefore, perfectly legitimate and natural to hold that the transition from animatism to anthropomorphism was due to the development of the conception of spirit as connected with the living and not as connected with the dead. Hence the use of the term animism in this connexion is scarcely desirable, though almost inevitable.³