Page "Animism" Paragraph 5

The term Animism appears to have been first developed as animismus by German scientist Georg Ernst Stahl, circa 1720, to refer to the " doctrine that animal life is produced by an immaterial soul.

" The actual English language form of animism, however, can only be attested to 1819.

The term was taken and redefined by the anthropologist Sir Edward Tylor in his 1871 book Primitive Culture, in which he defined it as " the general doctrine of souls and other spiritual beings in general.