[f. L. anima life, soul + -ISM.]
1. The doctrine of the anima mundi, upheld by Stahl 1720; the doctrine that the phenomena of animal life are produced by an immaterial anima, soul, or vital principle distinct from matter.
1832. Edinb. Rev., LV. 472. In discussing the Animism of Stahl, Dr Thomson takes a view of the various divisions of the soul and its faculties.
1864. Sat. Rev., 10 Dec., 726/1. All spiritual belief came to be laughed at…. There was no more account of Stahl and ‘animism.’ Nothing but sheer materialism remained.
2. The attribution of a living soul to inanimate objects and natural phenomena.
1866. Fortn. Rev., 15 Aug., 84. The theory which endows the phenomena of nature with personal life might be conveniently called Animism.
1871. Tylor, Prim. Cult., I. 45. The animism of the ruder tribes of India.
1877. Dawson, Orig. World, i. 15. Polytheism … takes very largely the form of animism.
3. Extended polemically to: The belief in the existence of spul or spirit apart from matter, and in a spiritual world generally; spiritualism as opposed to materialism.
1880. J. Rae, in Contemp. Rev., Oct., 615. The universality of what he [Mr. Tylor] calls animism—the belief in spiritual and unseen agencies—is acknowledged by Darwin, [etc.].
