Animism

Animism, term first used by anthropologist E.B. Tylor in 1871 to designate a general belief in spiritual beings, which belief he held to be the origin of all religions. A common corruption of Tylor' s sense interprets animism as the belief that all natural objects possess spirits. The psychologist Jean Piaget proposed that a growing child passes through an animistic phase.

See also: Piaget, Jean; Tylor, Sir Edward Burnett.