Example Of Animism

In life, many people would like to believe that their pets and other animals will be going to heaven with them, and that there is an afterlife for them as well as humans. This idea is often referred to animism. The definition for animism is that “every living being has a spirit and is alive”. Despite what many people may think, animism is not just practiced and believed by the aboriginal people. Many different religions and cultures believe in the same type of idea.

An aboriginal practice that can be connected to animism is reincarnation. Reincarnation is “the belief that the soul, upon death of the body, comes back to earth in another body or form.” This basically means that when something dies, it’s soul comes back in a different form. An example of this would be if a bear died, and it’s soul went up to heaven and came back in the body or a wolf or a squirrel. The Aboriginals believed this to be true when there was a death of an animal.

Another aboriginal practice that can be connected to animism is a totem pole. A totem poles is “a pole or post carved and painted with totemic figures”. These symbols are a way of telling stories and events. Each figure on the totem represents part of a story. Totem figures can also be spirit animals

This story is called “Turtle Island”. In this story about how North American was created, “there was a flood that covered the whole earth. Eventually, the animals began taking turns trying to reach the bottom of the water to grab some mud, perhaps the mud could build some land. In the end, a muskrat sacrificed its life and grabbed some mud. This mud was put on the back of a turtle, and then Sky Woman spread this soil until it was large enough to become North America”. This shows that animals have feelings and thoughts that they would need a soul to have because they wouldn't be able to work together and make scarifies without a