Animist Methodology and Reasoning

2012-08-10

Animists have either spirits, spiritual forces, or dead ancestors they believe they need to appease. They often have shamans, which are religious practitioners that are mediators between the physical and the spiritual worlds. If a person experiences misfortune, they believe that there is some spirit out to get them. Shamans are the ones that can contact the spirits on behalf of the unfortunate to see what they did to anger the spirits, and what kind of sacrifice or ritual must take place to appease those spirits. If they get sick or their crops fail, they ask what they had done for this to happen, and who did it to them. Naturalistic explanations that we turn to, such as germs, are foreign concepts for an animist.

Whatever formula the animist must follow, the goal is not to seek the will of his gods and his spirits. The animist wants to be able to force the spirits to do his will. This is contrary to the Christian worldview (or at least it is supposed to be!). Animism is humankind-centered.