INT-244 Animism and African Folk Religion

INT-244 | Topic 7
American, African Indigenous
Religions and N American Popular
Part 1

Review: Origins of Religion
1. Evolution of Religion

2. Primitive (Original) Monotheism

2. Primitive
Monotheism
Wilhelm Schmidt (1912)

Devolution of religion

Animism, belief in innumerable spiritual beings
concerned with human affairs and capable of
helping or harming human interests.
Park, G. Kerlin (2020, October 29). Animism. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/animism

Theory of Animism
Taylor studied ancient religions of
Mexico and published theories in
Researches into the Early History of
Mankind and Development of
Civilization (1865), and his book
Primitive Culture (1871)
Sir Edward Tylor (1832 - 1917)
McClenon, James. (1998). “Edward Tylor” in William Swatos Ed. Encyclopedia of religion and society. Sage Publication. Retrieved from http://hirr.hartsem.edu/ency/Tylor.htm

Animism 2 Parts:
1. Belief in the soul that survives death

2. Belief in other spirits and deities inhabiting
things and animals
Sir Edward Tylor (1832 - 1917)
McClenon, James. (1998). “Edward Tylor” in William Swatos Ed. Encyclopedia of religion and society. Sage Publication. Retrieved from http://hirr.hartsem.edu/ency/Tylor.htm

How did Animism Develop?
1. Human attempt to explain dreams, trances, apparitions, visions,
unconsciousness, and death

2. If humans have souls, then so do all other things

3. If humans have souls, then must be other spirits

4. If there are spirits, then there must be hierarchies

5. If there are hierarchies, the there must be deities who control things

How did Animism practices develop?
1. If souls live on as departed ancestors, and

2. If spirits and deities control our world

3. Then there should be rituals to communicate with ancestors

4. And rituals to communicate with these spirits

What are practices common in animism?
1. Funeral rites: to honor departed ancestors

2. Rituals to help lingering ancestors move on

3. Shamanistic rituals: To communicate with spirits

4. Fetishism: Veneration to articles representing spirit entities of
animals, trees, and objects in nature

5. Veneration of deities who control the world

Humans
Shamans
Priests
Healers
Witches
Gods Spirits
Ancestors Animal
Spirits
Physical
World
Spiritual World
Rituals
Rituals
Rituals
R
i
t
u
a
l
s
Spiritual World

Themes in Animism
• Dreams & Trances - people dream of dead relatives & believe they’re
still alive, and believe that the dream state is a spiritual realm & their
dead relatives are trying to communicate with them.
Swancutt, Katherine. (15 June 2019). Animism. Cambridge Encyclopedia of Anthropology. http://doi.org/10.29164/19anim

Example of Dreams & Trances
• Student in trance- is the student day dreaming, zoned out, or soul
traveling?

Themes in Animism
• Dreams & Trances
• Spiritual & Physical Worlds - A spiritual world intersects the physical
world in which spirits, ancestors, and gods live.

Example
• Spiritual World- did a home burn down because of short in the
electrical system, or is there a spiritual reason?

Themes in Animism
• Spiritual & Physical Worlds
• Animated things have souls - Things that move (rivers, animals, wind)
have souls and are imbued with humanlike qualities.

Themes in Animism
• Animate things possess souls
• Animal Spirits - Animal spirits display their personalities according to
how they act toward humans (ex. A deer gives itself up to be hunted).

Themes in Animism
• Animal Spirits
• Sacred Spaces - Places where the spiritual world intersects the physical
and special people can communicate or interact with it.

Examples
• Hunting - Native Americans ask animal spirit to guide their hunt, and
then thank the spirit before killing it.

• Sacred Trees - Many societies revere a sacred tree (mountain,
volcano, lake) and forbid touching them.

Disney Studios. (2015). “Lava”

Themes in Animism
• Animal Spirits
• Sacred Spaces
• Sacred People (Shamans) - Humans with the ability to interact with the
spiritual world and communicate with spirits.

Themes in Animism
• Animal Spirits
• Sacred Spaces
• Sacred People (Shamans)
• Ancestors - Departed family members still part of the community.

Folk Religions
What does it include?
• African tribal religions

• Native American religion

• Latin American tribal religions

• Neo-Paganism (ex. Wicca, New Age, Druid Religion)
Pew Research. (December 2012). The Global Religious Landscape. PewResearch Center. p. 34

Folk Religions (Animism)
Africa and North America
• Worldwide - 405,000,000 (6% of world)

• Sub-Saharan Africa - 26,860,000

• North America - 1,020,000

• Latin America - 10,040,000

Why do you think animism thrives in these regions?

https://phys.org/news/2011-11-genographic-humans-migrated-africa-arabia.html

Evolutionary Theory of Human Origins
Botswana

Traditional Theory of Human Origins

Bantu Migration (2,000 BC to 1000 AD)
Cartwright, M. (11 April 2019). Bantu Migration. World History Encyclopedia https://www.ancient.eu/Bantu_Migration/
Egypt
Cush
Bantu

Witch / Healer
May or may not be a Shaman.
Specialist who is able to heal and
control spiritual powers
Eliade, M. and Diószegi, . Vilmos (2020, May 12). Shamanism. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/shamanism

Shaman
Originally described the practice
of the Tungus in Siberia.
Specialists who communicate
with spirits and may be inhabited
by them.

Shaman
Spirit possession

Ecstatic dance

Mask represents the spirits

Often a supernatural practice
(example sitting in a
fi
re)

Fetish
A religious object such as an
animal or
fi
gurine believed
inhabited by a spirit and having
spiritual power
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fetish

Zouli de Man
fl
a in Cote d’Loire (Ivory Coast)

Common African Beliefs
• Creator God - One creator God, created the other gods, then moved away.
Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2018, February 23). African religions. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/African-religions

Common Beliefs
• Creator God -
• Creation Myth - story of how the
fi
rst man & woman were created, often out
of natural materials of the world.

Yoruba Tribe Creation Myth (2017)

Common Beliefs
• Creator God -
• Creation Myth -
• Fall Myth - Man or woman performed an act that alienated themselves from
the creator and introduced sin into the world. As the result of a human act, sin
and death entered the world and the world became faulty

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buZ7vrLZWwI

Common Beliefs
• Creator God -
• Creation Myth -
• Fall Myth -
• Absence of Monotheism or Henotheism - Though a creator god exists,
he is absent or became distant and people worship the secondary gods or
spirits

Common Beliefs
• Creator God -
• Creation Myth -
• Fall Myth -
• Absence of Monotheism or Henotheism -
• Proliferation of Polytheism -

Common Beliefs
• Creator God -
• Creation Myth -
• Fall Myth -
• Absence of Monotheism or Henotheism -
• Proliferation of Polytheism -
• Ancestor Worship - Belief that deceased relatives live on in the spirit world
and continue to relate to the family as guardians or antagonists.

Common Rituals
• Concerned with fertility and prosperity - Raising families, raising crops,
food, water, basic needs.

Common Rituals
• Concerned with fertility and prosperity
• Harmonious Relationship with Spirit World - The community prospers
when ancestors guard the community and spirits are blessing them.

Common Rituals
• Harmonious Relationship with Spirit World
• Harnessing Spiritual Powers - Witchcraft, controlling the spirits or their
powers.

Common Rituals
• Harnessing Spiritual Powers -
• Maintaining Community Structure - Integrated into the life of the
community requiring all the members to participate.

Common Rituals
• Maintaining Community Structure -
• Ancestors Act as Intermediators -

Common Rituals
• Sickness & Misfortune Have Spiritual Causes

Common Rituals
• Sickness & Misfortune Have Spiritual Causes -
• Spiritual Problems Require Restitution -

Ritual Practices
• Rites of Passage - circumcision and clitoridectomy, coming of age journeys such
as (1) separation from the community, (2) journey into the bush and communion with
spirits, and then (3) reuniting as an adult accompanied with an initiation ceremony.

Ritual Practices
• Rites of Passage -
• Sacri
fi
ces - killing an animal releases vital life force to satisfy a god or release
power.

Ritual Practices
• Rites of Passage -
• Sacri
fi
ces -
• Healing Rituals -

Dahomey Tribe
Benin
https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/vodun-voodoo-vaudun

Vodun
Benin, West Africa
• Dahomey Tribe in Benin Africa

• Vudu - Dahomean word for spirit

• Vodun - religion of the spirits

• Spread throughout West Africa, Caribbean, N America with Slaves

Vodun
Beliefs
• One God who is unapproachable

• Many spirits intermediaries between God and humans

• Spirits possess individuals to carry out God’s will

• Spirits possess individuals through rituals

• Ancestors become spirits

• Good and Bad spirits

• Honor spirits through food/drink during possession

• Honor spirits through sacri
fi
ces

Voudou - African Diaspora Religion

CNN Freedom Project (14 Feb 2011)

Voudou
History
• Slaves brought to N America, S America, Caribbean

• Protestant Colonies - Africans adopted Christianity

• Catholic Colonies - African religion mixed with Catholicism

• Vudon + Catholicism —> Voudou
Bellegarde-Smith and Claudine, Michel. Haitian Vodou: Spirit, Myth & Reality.Indiana University Press, 2006.

Voudou
History
• Haiti Slave Revolt (1791 - 1804)

• Dedicated Haiti to Bondye

• Established Voudou as national religion

• Voudou (Voodoo) came to Louisiana

• Modern Day - Pan Africanism revival of African religion

Voudou
Haitian African Religion
• Bondye - the Creator God

• Iwa - gods equated with Catholic saints

• Oungans - priests

• Manbos - priestesses

• Rituals- possession, sacri
fi
ces, drumming, dancing, spells

Voudou
Beliefs
• Bondye fashioned humans from the earth

• Humans have body and soul

• Soul has two parts: (a) Little good angel, (b) Big good angel

• Little good angel - human conscience

• Big good angel - human memory, source of knowledge
Desmangles, Leslie (1992). The Faces of the Gods: Vodou and Roman Catholicism in Haiti. University of North Carolina Press.

Voudou
Beliefs
• After death - judgement by Bondye (Catholic in
fl
uence)

• Ancestors - continue to be a part of the community

• Ancestors - require veneration and sacri
fi
ces

• Sacri
fi
ces - animals, food, drink, by pictures or graves

• Magic - trying to use spirits to control people & events
Desmangles, Leslie (1992). The Faces of the Gods: Vodou and Roman Catholicism in Haiti. University of North Carolina Press.

Spiritual Warefare
Ephesians 6
1. There is a real a devil, the author of evil

2. The devil commands real spirits (demons)

3. Demons have real supernatural powers

4. Supernatural powers create real acts

5. People are really under their power (spiritual, mental, emotional)

6. This real power is greater than our human power

For we do not wrestle against
fl
esh and blood, but
against the rulers, against the authorities, against the
cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the
s p i r i t u a l f o r c e s o f e v i l i n t h e h e a v e n l y
places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that
you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having
done all, to stand
fi
rm (Ephesians 6:12-13, ESV)

Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may
be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all,
to stand
fi
rm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the
belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of
righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put
on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all
circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you
can extinguish all the
fl
aming darts of the evil one; and
take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit,
which is the word of God, praying at all times in the
Spirit, with all prayer and supplication (Eph 6:13-18, ESV)

Spiritual Warefare
Christian Response
1. Recognize supernatural powers

2. Acknowledge its evil origins

3. Trust in power of God, not human power

Spiritual Warefare
Spiritual Armor
1. Belt of Truth -

2. Breastplate of Righteousness -

3. Shoes of the gospel -

4. Shield of faith -

5. Helmet of Salvation -

6. Sword (Word of God) -

7. Praying at all times -

Cook, Jane. (2018) CRU Ministry in Congo (0:47)

INT-244 Animism and African Folk Religion

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