Editing Animism (section)

=== Confounding animism with totemism ===
In 1869 (three years after Tylor proposed his definition of animism), Edinburgh lawyer [[John Ferguson McLennan]], argued that the animistic thinking evident in [[fetishism]] gave rise to a religion he named ''[[totemism]]''. Primitive people believed, he argued, that they were descended from the same species as their totemic animal.<ref name="Kuper 2005 85"/> Subsequent debate by the "armchair anthropologists" (including [[Johann Jakob Bachofen|J. J. Bachofen]], [[Émile Durkheim]], and [[Sigmund Freud]]) remained focused on [[totemism]] rather than animism, with few directly challenging Tylor's definition. Anthropologists "have commonly avoided the issue of animism and even the term itself, rather than revisit this prevalent notion in light of their new and rich [[ethnographies]]."<ref name="Bird-David 1999 S68">{{harvnb|Bird-David|1999|p=S68}}</ref>

According to anthropologist [[Tim Ingold]], animism shares similarities with totemism but differs in its focus on individual spirit beings which help to perpetuate life, whereas totemism more typically holds that there is a primary source, such as the land itself or the ancestors, who provide the basis to life. Certain indigenous religious groups such as the [[Australian Aboriginals]] are more typically totemic in their worldview, whereas others like the [[Inuit]] are more typically animistic.<ref>{{cite book|last=Ingold |first=Tim |author-link=Tim Ingold |date=2000 |chapter=Totemism, Animism, and the Depiction of Animals |title=The Perception of the Environment: Essays on Livelihood, Dwelling, and Skill |location=London |publisher=[[Routledge]] |pages=112–113}}</ref>

From his studies into child development, [[Jean Piaget]] suggested that children were born with an innate animist worldview in which they [[Anthropomorphism|anthropomorphized]] inanimate objects and that it was only later that they grew out of this belief.{{sfn|Harvey|2005|p=14}} Conversely, from her ethnographic research, [[Margaret Mead]] argued the opposite, believing that children were not born with an animist worldview but that they became acculturated to such beliefs as they were educated by their society.{{sfn|Harvey|2005|p=14}}

Stewart Guthrie saw animism—or "attribution" as he preferred it—as an evolutionary strategy to aid survival. He argued that both humans and other animal species view inanimate objects as potentially alive as a means of being constantly on guard against potential threats.{{sfn|Harvey|2005|p=15}} His suggested explanation, however, did not deal with the question of why such a belief became central to the religion.{{sfn|Harvey|2005|p=16}} In 2000, Guthrie suggested that the "most widespread" concept of animism was that it was the "attribution of spirits to natural phenomena such as stones and trees."{{sfn|Guthrie|2000|p=106}}