Animism
E119287
Animism is a belief system that sees all elements of the natural world—such as animals, plants, places, and sometimes objects—as possessing a spiritual essence or consciousness.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Animism canonical | 3 |
| African traditional religion | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1018346 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Animism Context triple: [Dene, religion, Animism]
-
A.
Tengrism
Tengrism is an ancient Central Asian shamanistic and animistic belief system centered on the sky god Tengri, traditionally practiced by Turkic and Mongolic peoples including the Mongols.
-
B.
Polynesian indigenous religions
Polynesian indigenous religions are the traditional spiritual belief systems of Polynesian peoples, centered on ancestor veneration, nature deities, and complex mythologies that explain the origins and order of the world.
-
C.
Theosophy
Theosophy is a spiritual and philosophical movement that blends Eastern and Western esoteric traditions, emphasizing mystical insight, reincarnation, and the pursuit of universal spiritual truths.
-
D.
Shinto
Shinto is the indigenous religion of Japan centered on the worship of kami (spirits or deities) and the veneration of nature and ancestors.
-
E.
Vietnamese folk religion
Vietnamese folk religion is a syncretic system of indigenous spiritual beliefs and practices in Vietnam, blending ancestor worship, village deities, and elements of Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Animism Target entity description: Animism is a belief system that sees all elements of the natural world—such as animals, plants, places, and sometimes objects—as possessing a spiritual essence or consciousness.
-
A.
Tengrism
Tengrism is an ancient Central Asian shamanistic and animistic belief system centered on the sky god Tengri, traditionally practiced by Turkic and Mongolic peoples including the Mongols.
-
B.
Polynesian indigenous religions
Polynesian indigenous religions are the traditional spiritual belief systems of Polynesian peoples, centered on ancestor veneration, nature deities, and complex mythologies that explain the origins and order of the world.
-
C.
Theosophy
Theosophy is a spiritual and philosophical movement that blends Eastern and Western esoteric traditions, emphasizing mystical insight, reincarnation, and the pursuit of universal spiritual truths.
-
D.
Shinto
Shinto is the indigenous religion of Japan centered on the worship of kami (spirits or deities) and the veneration of nature and ancestors.
-
E.
Vietnamese folk religion
Vietnamese folk religion is a syncretic system of indigenous spiritual beliefs and practices in Vietnam, blending ancestor worship, village deities, and elements of Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (51)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
anthropological concept
ⓘ
philosophical concept ⓘ religious belief system ⓘ worldview ⓘ |
| associatedWith |
ancestor veneration
ⓘ
indigenous religions ⓘ nature worship ⓘ shamanism ⓘ totemism ⓘ |
| contrastsWith |
atheism
ⓘ
materialism ⓘ monotheism ⓘ secular naturalism ⓘ |
| dateOfMajorTheorization | 1871 ⓘ |
| definedBy | Edward Burnett Tylor as belief in spiritual beings ⓘ |
| emphasizes |
interconnectedness of humans and nature
ⓘ
moral relationships with non-human beings ⓘ reciprocity between humans and spirits ⓘ |
| firstMajorWorkOn | Primitive Culture ⓘ |
| hasCoreBelief |
all elements of the natural world possess a spiritual essence
ⓘ
animals have spirits ⓘ natural phenomena can be spiritually animated ⓘ objects can have spirits ⓘ places have spirits ⓘ plants have spirits ⓘ |
| hasVariant |
classical animism
ⓘ
new animism ⓘ |
| historicallyTheorizedBy | Edward Burnett Tylor ⓘ |
| influences |
environmental ethics
ⓘ
ritual practices toward animals ⓘ ritual practices toward landscapes ⓘ ritual practices toward plants ⓘ taboos regarding natural resources ⓘ |
| isTermUsedIn |
anthropology
ⓘ
comparative religion ⓘ environmental humanities ⓘ philosophy of religion ⓘ religious studies ⓘ |
| newAnimismCharacterizedBy |
critique of earlier evolutionary models of religion
ⓘ
focus on relational personhood ⓘ |
| oftenIncludes |
offerings to spirits
ⓘ
propitiation of local deities or spirits ⓘ ritual communication with spirits ⓘ |
| presentIn |
many Arctic and Siberian religions
ⓘ
many Indigenous Australian religions ⓘ many Native American religions ⓘ many traditional African religions ⓘ |
| recognizes |
agency in non-human beings
ⓘ
spiritual essence in non-human entities ⓘ |
| viewsNonHumansAs |
intentional agents
ⓘ
persons ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Animism Description of subject: Animism is a belief system that sees all elements of the natural world—such as animals, plants, places, and sometimes objects—as possessing a spiritual essence or consciousness.
Referenced by (4)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
African traditional religion