animal spirits

Examples of animal spirits in the following topics:

• Historical Returns: Market Variability and Volatility

  • Furthermore, market variability and volatility can be the cause of what John Maynard Keynes called animal spirits.
  • Animal spirits are the emotions felt by investors who affect markets.

• African Art and the Spirit World

  • Wooden masks, which often take the form of animals, humans, or mythical creatures, are one of the most commonly found forms of traditional art in western Africa.
  • Most African masks are made with wood and can also be decorated with ivory, animal hair, plant fibers, pigments, stones, and semi-precious gems.
  • The wooden sculptures, which represent a highly stylized animal or human figure, are washed, re-oiled and offered sacrifices.
  • In the Kingdom of Kongo, nkisi were objects believed to be inhabited by spirits.
  • Often carved in the shape of animals or humans, these "power objects" were believed to help aid in the communication with the spirit world.

• Animism

  • In Shinto, spirits of nature, or kami, are believed to exist everywhere.
  • These range from the major (such as the goddess of the sun), which can be considered polytheistic, to the minor, which are more likely to be seen as a form of animism.
  • Unlike supernatural forces, animist spirits may be inherently good or evil.
  • In animist societies, ritual is considered essential to win the favor of the spirits that ward off other malevolent spirits and provide food, shelter, and fertility.
  • Identify some of the key elements of animism and at least one real life instantiation

• Animism

  • Animism is the religious belief attributing a spiritual essence to natural phenomena, including animals, plants, and inanimate objects.
  • Animists hold that there is no separation between the spiritual and material world, and that souls or spirits exist—not only in humans, but also in all other animals, plants, rocks, geographic features such as mountains and rivers, or other entities of the natural environment.
  • Examples of animism can be found in forms of Shinto, Serer, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Pantheism, Paganism, and Neopaganism.
  • However, the common element among them is that they depict natural elements (animals, nature, earth) as spiritual entities.
  • Other groups, most notably the ancient Egyptians, fused animal features with human limbs in visual depictions of their pantheon .

• Dogon

  • The Satimbe mask represents the women ancestors who are said to have discovered the purpose of the masks by guiding the spirits of the deceased into the afterlife.
  • The yingim consists of the sacrifice of cows, or other valuable animals, and large mock battles performed in order to help chase the spirit, known as the nyama, from the deceased body and the village, and towards the path to the afterlife.
  • Until the masqueraders have completed their dances and every ritual has been performed, it is said that any misfortune can be blamed on the remaining spirits of the dead.

• Mendé Masks

  • The bells on the necklaces are of the type believed capable of being heard by spirits, ringing in both worlds, that of the ancestors and the living.
  • Masks represent the collective mind of the Mendé community; viewed as one body, they are seen as the Spirit of the Mendé people.
  • The standard set of Mendé maskers includes about a dozen personalities embodying spirits of varying degrees of power and importance.
  • The neck rolls are an indication of the health of ideal women; they have also been called symbols of the pattern of concentric, circular ripples the Mendé spirit makes when emerging from the water.
  • The headpiece is constructed of animal hide stretched over a bamboo framework, and the hide is decorated with cowrie shells and black, white, and red strips of cloth that are worked into a geometric pattern.

• Death

  • Pole sculptures in Eastern Africa are carved in human shapes and decorated with geometric forms, while the tops are carved with figures of animals, people, and various objects.
  • The Dogon people of Mali place kneeling statues of protective spirits at the head of the dead, in order to absorb spiritual strength and to accompany the deceased into the world of the dead.
  • Dogon masks often take the form of animals associated with their mythology, and their particular significance is known only by the highest ranking individuals.
  • People of the Kongo empire were known for their nkisi, objects believed to be inhabited by spirits.
  • Nkisi were containers such as ceramics vessels, gourds, animal horns, or shells, made often in the shape of animals.

• Sacrifices

  • Animal sacrifice is the ritual killing of an animal as part of a religion.
  • In Islam, animal sacrifice is performed not only as an act of piety, but also as an act of charity, as a portion of the meat from the slaughtered animal is given to the poor.
  • People would be ritually killed in a manner that was intended to please or appease a god or spirit.
  • Sacrifices were either blood sacrifices (animals) or bloodless offerings (grain and wine).
  • An animal sacrifice in Arabic is called Qurban.

• New Guinean Wood Carvings

  • Their carvings depict human figures standing on top of each other, as well as animal figures and carvings in the shape of a canoe prow.
  • The Asmat believed that if a member of the community had been killed, his spirit would linger in the village and cause disharmony.
  • Bisj poles were erected in order to satisfy these spirits and send them to the afterlife (known as Safan) across the sea.
  • Canoe prow symbols represented a metaphorical boat that would take the deceased spirits away to the afterlife; the human figures would represent deceased ancestors.
  • Carved out of a single piece of a wild nutmeg tree, bisj pole carvings depict human figures standing on top of each other, as well as animal figures and carvings in the shape of a canoe prow.

• New Britain

  • Made of human skulls or wooden boards, they were decorated with paint, animal hairs and other material and attached to sticks.
  • The use of the lor became limited to New Britain, and the Tolai people would often use them in initiation rites and dances or to represent specific spirits.