Animism is the term widely used to describe the earliest “religious” beliefs known to us in human history. Here’s an academic look at animists, who, it is postulated, also worked with their shamans to help them navigate life’s difficulties.

Animism is a way of viewing the world where all humans, animals, plants, natural phenomena and even natural objects have souls. Where the world is full of people “but only some are humans”, and where life should always be lived in relation to others.

And who were shamans? They were members of animist societies who sought altered states of consciousness in order to access the spirit world and help their people.

Hi guys, welcome back to my channel. I’m Aliyyah Eniath and today we’re going to take a look at prehistory, and animism, which is a term modern humans use to refer to the oldest so-called religion known to man. That is, a hypothetical original religion that preceded religion as we know it today. And this presentation would be a concise academic interpretation of animism and animists, who, it is postulated, also worked with their shamans, to help them navigate life’s difficulties.

But we before we go on to define animism properly, or this original religion, it would be useful to chart a broad time span in history, in which animism emerged. So consider this for some perspective. Human forms originated on planet earth about 3 million years ago. But there is no trace of religious thought so to speak until the Neanderthals who lived in Europe and the Middle Ages. And these Neanderthals were replaced by our own species Homo Sapiens about 35,000 years before present.

So what do we know about these humans and their religious practices? Firstly, religion was not a defined term for early humans, and so their spiritual practices were grounded in their regular social and cultural norms, and were not called religion per se. To examine this ur-religion, or religion before religion, we’d be looking at animism which according to anthropologist Tyler was the earliest and most basic trait of religion because it enabled humans to think in terms of supernatural beings or spirits.

But what exactly is animism? To answer this question we’d be drawing on the work of Graham Harvey. Animism, rooted in the Latin word anima, translates as soul or spirit. And animists according to Harvey are people who recognize that the world is full of people only some of whom are human. All right, so people who recognize that the world is full of people, only some of whom are human. And that life is always lived in relationship with others, okay. So animists see everything as being animated; they attribute souls or energy to people, animals, lands, natural phenomena, and even inanimate objects…all of which have awareness and feeling, and all creatures are on the same spiritual round table. So anthropologists such as Tyler have argued in the past, from what is considered a colonialist perspective, that animists were essentially backward people who could not differentiate between imagination and reality.

Also according to Tyler religion progressed from animism to polytheism to monotheism… and finally humanity got to a place of scientific rationalism. But importantly Tyler’s views have come into dispute and later and more recent scholars have rejected his ethnocentric views and the notion that religion has progressed in such a strictly linear manner.

So let’s delve a little more into the nature of animism or animistic beliefs. Noah Harari in his best-selling book Sapiens tells us animists believed that there’s no barrier between humans and other beings nor is there a strict hierarchy. So plants, humans, animals can communicate with each other directly. Thus animists may believe that they can communicate with a deer, or that a big rock on the hill has desires and needs, so the rock might be pleased with something or angry with someone and humans can also address the rock. There’s also a belief in immaterial beings such as angels and spirits.

Graham Harvey in his book Animism: Respecting The Living World points out that the animists’ relationship with animals provides a problem because if all creatures are on the same Spiritual round table and if animals are people too how does this reconcile with the fact that hunter gatherer animists may need to sometimes eat an animal? In these cases, the respect between humans and animals would still exist because the animist may ask the animal to sacrifice himself and express gratitude for such a sacrifice. So animists lived in a group where they needed to negotiate with animals for food as well as face various predators from among humans or other peoples or entities. Thus, as a solution to these problems, they employed their shamans.

And shamanism is not a separate religion but rather shamans lived and worked for animists. So what do we know about shamans and what role exactly did they perform in prehistoric societies?

Evidence for shamanistic practices date back to over 35,000 years before present. And through an examination of archaeological and other evidence David Lewis and Jean Clottes in the Penguin Handbook of Ancient Religions tell us that the quest for ur-religion is inevitably intertwined with the origins of art. So they recount the evidence of paintings deep in caves mainly in western Europe. These artworks, paintings, engravings were often hidden. Some were in vast chambers with art depicting animals discernible in cracks, fissures, crevices and recesses; but this was not art for art sake and the people would not have penetrated so deep underground simply to make objects of art. Many of the paintings reflected animals and such as large herbivores who were also hunted by people at the time; but it’s no longer accepted that this art was a way of exercising some sort of control over the animals that were haunted. So we learned that it’s a very difficult to explain cave art outside of the shamanistic perspective. Shamans in order to assist their communities would likely go into the passageways and would seek to enter an altered state of consciousness. Shamans were thought to have access to an altered reality where they can gain insight or meet with a spirit helper to help with the needs of the community including healing, protection and sustenance. Entry into altered states was believed to be facilitated by energy, a kind of supernatural power, in some ways likened to electricity. The caves darkness and silent passageways may have assisted the shaman in entering these altered states. Harvey tells us shamans are thought to travel to places above and below this route… so our planet being…or our world being middle earth with layers of worlds above and beneath us…so like a human can adjust their state of consciousness by ignoring some sensory data and focusing on others, so too shamans can make more dramatic and deliberate alterations to their state of consciousness, in order to be aware of that which most people are not. So they apply the techniques of ecstasy which sometimes included music, movement, sensory stimulants, or spirit helpers to find out for instance why someone is ill or how health can be returned to them. Modern discussion has looked at shamanism and the work of shamans as a set of psychological methods for altering consciousness. Eliade and his inheritors, for example, see shamanism as psychology or therapy, and its performance as its techniques for altering consciousness.

So to recap – were animists and their shamans practicing the first forms of religion so to speak known to man? As early as 40,000 years before present? Quite possibly, and such a preposition is useful and well documented. And what is animism? We’ll use Harvey’s definition… it is a world that is full of people but only some are human and where life should always be lived in relation with others. Animism is a way of viewing the world where all humans, animals, plants, natural phenomena have soul. And who were shamans? They were members of animist societies who sought altered states of consciousness in order to help their people.

So thank you for tuning in. Please share with me your thoughts and comments on shamanism and animism and the earliest humans, and let me know what data you’ve come up with. All right, so thank you, and see you next time. Peace. 🙂