Examples of animist in the following topics:
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- Shinto, the traditional religion of Japan, is highly animistic.
- Unlike supernatural forces, animist spirits may be inherently good or evil.
- While animists believe everything to be spiritual in nature, they do not necessarily see the spiritual nature of everything in existence as being united (monism), the way pantheists do.
- Because humans are considered a part of nature, rather than superior to, or separate from it, animists see themselves on roughly equal footing with other animals, plants, and natural forces, and subsequently have a moral imperative to treat these agents with respect.
- In animist societies, ritual is considered essential to win the favor of the spirits that ward off other malevolent spirits and provide food, shelter, and fertility.
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- Most contemporary animist native tribal people do not have a word in their languages that corresponds to "animism," it is a purely anthropological term rather than one self-designated by tribespeople themselves.
- Animists hold that there is no separation between the spiritual and material world, and that souls or spirits exist—not only in humans, but also in all other animals, plants, rocks, geographic features such as mountains and rivers, or other entities of the natural environment.
- Examples of animist art are as varied and diverse as the multiple world religions that have produced them.
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- They are a very animistic society; they believe that the ancestor spirits are responsible for all events that occur, and if they are not appeased through proper ritual they may cause drought, infertility, and illness.
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- Animists believe that non-human entities (animals, plants, and inanimate objects or phenomena) possess a spiritual essence.
- For example, in addition to the animistic idols, the pre-Islamic Kaaba housed statues of Jesus and his holy mother, Mary.
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- Polytheism cannot be entirely delineated from the animist beliefs and art prevalent in most folk religions.
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- Some Buddhist art contains animist themes, meaning the depiction of natural elements (animals, nature, earth) as spiritual entities.
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- Over nearly two thousand years, Cambodians have developed a unique Khmer belief from the syncreticism of indigenous animistic beliefs and the Indian religions of Buddhism and Hinduism.
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- One is animists and polytheists of tribal societies of the Arabian Peninsula and the Fertile crescent; the other is the monotheistic populations of the Middle Eastern agrarian and urbanized societies.