Animalism

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Sobek, the god with the crocodile head, here in a relief from his temple in Kom Ombo , is a representative of the animalistic gods of ancient Egypt
Totem Pole of the Tlingit in Ketchican , Alaska

Animalism primarily describes the religious bond with animals that are seen as animated, human-like or as the seat of higher powers. Above all, it belongs in the animistic ideas of the hunter-gatherer . Specifically, it is about the worship of animal guardian spirits , alter ego outer souls , religious individual totemism or mythical ancestors from the animal world.

Animalistic ideas are expressed above all in hunting magic and the rites of reconciliation.

Hunting magic is the use of superhuman powers in very different cultic acts in order to bring about the success of a hunt.

Rites of reconciliation always aim to reconcile important or dangerous cosmic powers when a person is forced to violate religious regulations. In the animalistic context, the spirit beings are about the souls of slain wild animals or domestic animals, so that their relatives do not flee from humans in the future or killed predators do not take revenge. In very many hunter cultures, the so-called “master of the animals” is at the center of the rites : There are special regulations for the preparation, execution and termination of the hunt in order to obtain permission from this deity to kill the animals and their benevolence in the To preserve the hunt and to compensate her for the loss she suffered as a result of the hunt (for example by sacrificing certain parts such as bones, fur, etc.).

term

The term comes from older ethnology ( ethnology ) and religious history . In some evolutionist theories, animalism was seen as a forerunner of totemism and an expression of an ancient “hunter mentality” in humans. Such far-reaching conclusions are now considered obsolete. Because of its ambiguity, the very general term is rarely used and is instead replaced by the respective special terms for a phenomenon.

Animalism and hominism

In addition to the ethnological notion still exists two terms "animalism and Hominismus" the sociologist Werner Sombart . He referred to any form of worldview as animalism , which does not define humans as a separate way of being, but regards them as a type of animal and thus part of animal nature. The opposite of animalism - the notion of the cosmic special position of humans as the only being with a soul - he called hominism . Sombart published this definition in his 1938 work Vom Menschen. Attempt at a humanities anthropology. In this sense the term animalism no longer plays a role today.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c d e Walter Hirschberg (founder), Wolfgang Müller (editor): Dictionary of Ethnology. New edition, 2nd edition, Reimer, Berlin 2005. pp. 25 (animalism), 193 (hunting magic) and 396 (rites of reconciliation).
  2. ↑ Mircea Eliade : History of Religious Ideas . 4. Vol. Herder Verlag, Freiburg 1978, ISBN 3-451-05274-1 . Vol. 1, p. 19
  3. ↑ Klaus E. Müller: Shamanism. Healers, spirits, rituals. 4th edition, CH Beck, Munich 2010 (original edition 1997), ISBN 978-3-406-41872-3 . P. 116.
  4. ↑ Werner Sombart: From people. Reprint of the original from 1938 by Books on Demand, Historisches Wirtschaftsarchiv, Salzwasser-Verlag 2014, ISBN 978-3-86383-267-4 . P. 98.
  5. ↑ Keyword Animalism In: Historical Dictionary of Philosophy Volume 1: AC. Published by Joachim Ritter. Schwabe & Co, Basel 1971. p. 315.