Examples Of Animism In Avatar

“If people are sitting on something you want, you call them the enemy.” Human’s material desire and Navis’ animism build up a contrast between materialist in reality and animist world in the film Avatar (2009) by James Cameron.

Materialism

In the modern societies, we developed a belief or operating system – “our life is completely relying on the material reality and only matter can improve our quality of life”. As we share the same operating system, we accumulate and compete for the wealth. We all indulge in material world and become too attach to matter as our mind keep telling us that matter give us a more enjoyable life. Therefore, we would try different approaches, either legal or illegal, good or bad, to get what we want and what we need. The operating system is also present in the film Avatar. The Hometree, Eywa, a giant

In an animistic culture of Pandora, all beings, even plants, are endowed with subjectivity. They all have consciousness, feelings, emotions and desires. Everything consider as human qualities of personhood. Therefore, “people” in Pandora and other beings need to respect each other. After an animal has been killed, Na’vi will comfort it. If Na’vi wants to drive a species called ikran, they need to connect their hair to that ikran. They can feel each other. All beings were treated with respect and gratitude. Compare with the human in the reality, we destroy animals, destroy plants, and destroy our living environment. We won’t communicate with nonhuman, at least plants. As we believe that they do not have consciousness, feelings, and they cannot express themselves. We are not connected to each other. We are separated. We are ourselves. Therefore, we do not care about their lives and we would not treasure their lives. If we see a plant is going to die, we would not cry and feel pain. Instead, we would throw them away and buy a new