Animism: Respecting the Living World

Graham Harvey applies the new use of the term 'animism' to the religious worldviews of communities and cultures such as Ojibwe, Maori, Aboriginal Australian and eco-Pagan to introduce the diversity of ways of being animist. The book explores what role deities, creators, tricksters, shamans, cannibals totems and elders play in these religious traditions and relationships? The book also touches on the 'animist realism' of West African literatures, the 'perspectivism' of Amazonian shamans, and the relational ethics of South and Central Asian communities. The notions that 'animism' is about 'beliefs in spirits' are rejected in favour of a nuanced and positive evaluation of indigenous and environmentalist understandings that the world would be a better place if humans celebrated their relationships with the whole of life.