We Have Always Been Animists
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- Опубліковано 19 жов 2024
- Graham Harvey, professor of religious studies at The Open University (UK), discusses animism and how our relations are damaged by ongoing efforts to separate (human) culture from ‘nature’ and humans from other species. Engaging with Indigenous knowledges, Harvey seeks to replace ‘nature’ with more respectful relationships with the world.
Graham Harvey is professor of religious studies at The Open University, UK. His research largely concerns “the new animism,” especially in the rituals and protocols through which Indigenous and other communities engage with the larger-than-human world. His publications include Food, Sex and Strangers: Understanding Religion as Everyday Life (2013), and Animism: Respecting the Living World (2nd edition 2017).
Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at hds.harvard.edu/.
There is a specific tree at a park by my house, I often see people sitting under it, doing yoga, meditating, reading. Walking past it, it's almost as if it's saying "hey old friend, come and rest with me for a while" and I have stopped there often to meditate, read and even take naps by this tree and it's of great comfort. When I get up to leave I'm obliged to thank the tree for it's time. I feel that my heart would be shattered into a million pieces should this tree fall.
Daniel Foor's book 'Ancestral Medicine' led me to Graham Harvey. The puzzle pieces are coming together and things are being reaffirmed on my journey. This is enlightening.
The paralyzed understanding "nature belongs to us" failed, It is like a conquerer intoxicated with victory and forget who he/she is.
14:30 the word that the one who make the subtitles did not understand is "Orishas": "The Yoruba diviner and the Orishas with whom he engages".
48:36 th inaudible word is "Descola", "from Descola and others".
Profound lecture and speaker. I'm a little shocked by the paucity of views and comments.
I showed up a little late. My illuminated moment, my "a-ha" was born in a literal dream. I woke up with a question: What is the religion of the Ainu? I dunno why the ainu (I'm not japanese, don't ive in japan and haven't even had sushi in months. But I googled the ainu and discovered they were/are animists. and its been a rocketship since!
Clever: Ask the audience to silence, or even better, turn-off their phones. Then pretend that your own phone hadn't yet been turned off and use deprecating humor to blunt your request.
"We're all animals."
-Roadhog, Overwatch.
I was not expecting to find someone else who's interested in Animism, Overwatch, and Bionicles in the comments for this video!
Intelligent animals, (Ahem! ) 😂🤣
This lecture reminds me of a similar video by Dr. Rasmussen on Nordic Animism, where he placed the Voluspa in a environmentally conscious perspective, which is a unique consideration. That Ragnarok, despite the multiplicity of meaning and usage, could be taken as an introspective guess on what the future could be, based on how humans at the time interacted with the environment and how that human interaction had damaging consequences. So to think people could predict climate change based on how they interacted with the land is especially interesting to think about. Whether that's actually true or accurate, really just a guess. I'd like to think there were people or societies throughout history that made such environmental predictions, and took heed or preventative measures. That would be an interesting subject to explore.
On an unrelated note, that speaker seriously looks like an older version of John Lennon.
A modern interpretation of animism will serve man well during the collapse of the climate. it will serve during the tens or hunreds of thousands of years of disruption and strife that lay ahead as we once again become subject to the will of nature as it seeks equilibrium. Egocentrism and the religions that separate us from the god consciousness will disappear, we will see our place in nature... again and ANYBODY who dares to try and establish hierarchy will get run through with sharp sticks.
Have you heard of the term Rewilding?
I hope so
I’m sharpening sticks.
Thank you.
That cellphone 📱 ringing in the beginning was the animist spirit of trickery. All hail the inanimate cellphone! We are not worthy! *bows down*
Cats will educate you 😻
I think this is common sense for children
Or open mind….
Please leave indigenous rock band recommendations!!
Heilung, Danheim, Wardruna. Not necessarily’rock’ bands. Give them a listen. They live the music they create, it’s it a gimmick.
Redbone, Blackfoot, The Cult, Indigenous
My Animism ate your Dogmatism.
There is a more parsimonious view on offer from 1819...Shopenhauer's master work World as Will and Representation. The common animist thread eluded to in this lecture is the Will which lie outside space and time, all the diversity are physical Representations of this Will within space and time.
If Taylor missed the whole thing that animism is just a way of talking about things differently and not that it's wrong, mistaken or locally primitive, then you can't argue that we have never been modern for that assumes the animism of Taylor, don't you think? are you saying that as an additional critique or another point for discussion irrelevant to Taylor?
What?
Yes, this is an obvious point, which has been ignored for probably ideologically driven reasons. The thing is, 'hippie' moderns like Mr Harvey want to at the same time affirm the cosmological truth of animists, while at the same time rejecting modernism because it divides nature and humans along arbitrary lines. Sorry, but so do animists, it's just that the arbitrary line is placed at a different point.
My tradition, culture, religion,
I don’t know is animism.
What does your comment mean 🤔
I am in no way close to being an expert on animism, but I have recently read Totem and Taboo by Freud and Man his Symbols by Jung, where animism is deeply discussed. I feel Professor Graham could have made much more value of his time in presenting a more organized rather than anecdotal presentation on animism and his work in this field. I felt his presentation did not reflect the magnitude and depth of this topic and his work.
Harvey ... At Harvard... I'm no conspiracy theorist but.... 🤔
Lol. This is awkward now eh.
This should be a lecture about how to whisper boringly, without ever really saying anything.
Some rocks are alive, but in my experience most are not. Most plants are alive, but things like cars are not. When I say alive, I mean Aware. I know this , because Maria knows this.
Yes idd everything is vibrate some so slow that u can't see others so fast that u can't see it... Right with u on cars and all these man made objects!
Looking back on this year-old comment, I now wonder if some self-driving cars and planes that can fly entirely on auto-pilot have some kind of awareness, because they perceive through instruments, and then evaluates and reacts based on the data. The AI is getting advanced enough for us to be able to ask these questions about our inventions. They might not be self-aware, but they have some rudimentary awareness of the environment.
@@ApostatePajamas does it matter? Am I aware? If you zoom out far enough, there is no difference between me and any of these other things, and awareness still doesn't give experience any existential or qualitative difference. That's how I conceive of it. There is no fundamental difference between me and a rock. No need for panpsychism (but panexpierencialism, sure) or believing everything has a "soul" ala Aristotle
Is this comment literal? I don't think they are alive in the biological sense. Within the context of animism, they are only treated as such as it is a way of relating. 🙂
yes interesting implications for AI!
Vegan animist
This man has an extremely boring voice and even worse public speaking skills. I'm fairly certain the most numerously used word in his entire presentation is "uh"
This was the dumbest thing I have ever heard about Animism. Not sending my children for this nonsense.
Actually talk about something