Anthropology Archive

Animism Spirits as Self and Other

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At the basis of shamanism is animism: the spirit world. These systems of meaning have structures and functions that reflect human psychological, social, and biological needs for concepts of self and socially referenced others. Spirits reflect a personality model and a theory of the fundamental aspects of consciousness. Shamanism uses spirit constructs to represent personal, intrapsychic, and social dynamics. Spirit beliefs produce psychophys-iological manipulations through their meanings and attachments, including the management of emotions, construction of relations between self and others, and the use of these systems to alter emotions.

Animism, a universal aspect of human culture and religion, involves the attribution of humans' intentional abilities and other cognitive and self qualities to animals and non-physical entities. We have a tendency to personify the physical world with the attribution of human characteristics. Storms seem "angry," even through they do not have emotions. Anthropomorphism, attributing humanlike mind characteristics to gods, spirits, and nonhuman entities (particularly animals), exemplifies animism. We think our pet cats love us, although such elevated human sentiments are beyond their capabilities. This postulation of unseen humanlike beings—spirits and gods—that motivate the behaviors of the universe reflects the projection of self: qualities of humans and our mental and personal characteristics and desires. This universal cognitive strategy to conceive of the unknown as being like ourselves helps ensure that we respond to the most important contingencies affecting our survival: those with humanlike capabilities (Guthrie, 1993, 1997).

This projection of the self as a model of the unknown other is a basic manifestation of symbolic capabilities (Hunt, 1995) and a universal relational mode based on the grounding of perception of the world through relationships with the environment (Bird-David, 1999). Animistic agents manifested in guardian spirits and sacred others reflect a natural social and relational epistemology derived from social intelligence, the ability to infer the mental states of others. This social intelligence uses a "theory of mind," or mind-reading, an intuitive psychology based in the organism's use of its own mind and feelings to construct a model of others' likely thoughts and behaviors. The world is like us.

Animistic concepts provide a natural symbolic framework for representing the internal psychodynamics of self and other social beings (Winkelman, 2004a). Spirits represent aspects of the person conceptualized in psychology as features of personal and social identity, such as the self, id (unconscious emotional impulses), ego, and superego (moral standards); emotions and drives; social motivations; obsessions; and other psychody-namic processes and complexes. Psychological functions of spirit concepts are exemplified in the guardian spirit complex (Swanson, 1973). Spirits play a fundamental role in representing social relations and in formulating the self. Spirit concepts provide symbolic representations of social groups and their norms, attitudes, values, morals, purposes, motivations, goals, and relations.

Animistic principles are "superpersons" that provide models for identity. They are key to the formation of individual and communal identities in totemism. Totemism and animal spirit identities involve the metaphoric representation of the self and social others with the natural history module. Taxonomic classification schemas for the natural world provide a metaphoric system for the creation of meaning. Totemism involves a meta-phoric relationship between the natural history and social domains, where humans and their groups are attributed characteristics from the natural world (Levi-Strauss, 1962). Totemism represents human commonalities and differences through models provided by animal species, which provide characterizations of social and personal identities.

Guardian Spirit Quest The vision quest (or guardian spirit quest) involves seeking spirit relations; it was the most fundamental and widespread religious complex of Native American cultures (Swanson, 1973) and hunter-gatherer societies around the world (Winkelman, 1992a). This involves seeking a personal relationship with a spirit as a central aspect of developing adult skills and competencies. Training for the vision quest traditionally began as young as six or seven years old with instruction on behavior for attracting guardian spirits. Extreme pain—purgatives, prolonged fasting, psychoactive plants, temperature extremes, extensive physical exercise, whipping and scourging the body, and self-inflicted wounds—provoked visionary experiences of the spirit world. The spirits provided powers, often represented in objects symbolizing the power source (e.g., a feather from an eagle). Guardian spirits assist in personal and social choices for adult development and the formation of aspects of one's personal power and identity. For example, eagle power gives one keen eyesight and swiftness; with mouse power, one might be expected to develop the ability to hide inconspicuously and be unobtrusive.

Incorporating animal spirits as part of one's identity reflects a form of self-representation embodied in shamanistic thought, that of the sacred other (Pandian, 1997). This intersection of the spiritual and social worlds involves cultural processes for the production of the symbolic self through incorporation of others. Beliefs about spirit entities can provide projective systems that structure individual psychodynamics and behavior. If one acquires lion power, for instance, one knows what is expected to be personal development goals based on the characteristics of the lion: ferocious, violent, and brave. Spirit identities activate social and self modules, providing alternate forms of personal identity. These alternate identities provide a new point of reference for problem solving and psychosocial adaptation (Waller, 1996; Scheff, 1993). For instance, how might a lion (versus a mouse) solve this problem? Spirit concepts provide the self with different command-control agents that can mediate conflict within a hierarchy of social and personal goals. For instance, one might be inclined to act in one's best interest, but personal identification with membership in the bear clan reminds one to think about the well-being of all bear clan members. Shamanism provides the opportunity to construct and manipulate a variety of self-concepts to produce personal, psychological, and social integration.

Animism, totemism, and guardian spirits are natural symbolic systems derived from our innate capacities; through ritual, they become combined in new ways that allow for differentiation of the self and its development in relationship to others. Differentiation occurs when one encounters one's own special power, such as a lion as an animal ally, and can develop new self-characteristics. When initiated into the bear clan, one has a new identity linked to membership with other bear clan members.