The Handbook of Contemporary Animism

Acumen Handbooks

by Graham Harvey (Editor)

Animism is an important part of many religions - from Shinto, Hinduism and Buddhism to Paganism and a range of indigenous religions - which connects the spiritual and material and holds that humans might not be unique in possessing souls or in being intentional agents. Over recent decades, research into animism has broadened its scope to consider, at one end, the vibrant roles of objects in human lives and, at the other, the possible similarities between humans and other species. "The Handbook of Contemporary Animism" brings together an international team of scholars to examine the full range of animist worldviews and practices. The Handbook opens with an examination of recent approaches to animism. This is followed by evaluations of ethnographic, cognitive, literary, performative, and material culture approaches as well as advances in activist and indigenous thinking about animism. "The Handbook of Contemporary Animism" invites readers to think creatively and critically about the world around us and will be invaluable to students and scholars of Religion, Sociology and Anthropology.

Genres: Spirituality, Anthropology, Philosophy, Nonfiction, Religion, Paganism, Research

592 pages, Paperback

First published October 30, 2013

Reviews

[Lweis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not an academic and the book is a collection of chapters by academics that have a lot of jargon. I didn't find it easy to read. The chapters (of which there's a lot, more than 50) also vary wildly in the style and subject matter. Inevitably, I found some more amenable than others.

I knew nothing about animism when I started reading this book, and it shifted the way I see not only animism but the world in general. I think its content is very relevant to our experience of the modern scientific-rationalist world.

I would recommend this book to anybody with either some domain knowledge or a willingness to spend a fair bit of time looking up definitions!

[Charlie Anne Tovey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a good introduction to Animism book.
There were some chapters that I absolutely enjoyed and some that were well beyond me.
Some of the Chapters I enjoyed -
Chapter 1: 'We call it tradition'
Chapter 2: 'Animism conservation and immediacy'
Chapter 8: 'Metamorphosis and identity: Chewong animistic ontology'
Chapter 12: 'Hunting animism: human-animal transformations among the Siberian Yukaghirs'
found in the notes, that chapter 12 on another book this author has written 'Soul Hunters: Hunting Animism, and Personhood among the Siberian Yukaghirs' so I picked this book up to read in the future.
Chapter 14: 'Moral foundations of Tlingit cosmology'

There were a few other chapters that I also enjoyed, but these were the ones that stood out the most to me. But some of the chapters were just too technical for me, considering this was my introduction to Animism.

[Yanick Punter · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think there's something in it for everyone. It was really a great read.

[Doni · Rating 3 out of 5]

The majority of the essays in this book focused on consciousness or spirit in animals, which I didn't find terribly interesting or much of a stretch of the imagination. I really enjoyed Part V: Dwelling With(out) Things and especially Stephan Harding's "Towards an animistic science of Earth".

[Mills College Library]

202.1 H23634 2013