As one of the oldest forms of religious beliefs, animism* has brought forth an attempted explanation to the greatest mysteries of humanity; what is religion? Derived from the Latin origin of 'anima' meaning spirit, breath, life, or soul, animism is the belief that things in nature (e.g. plants, trees, animals, rivers, and intimate objects) have souls. Reintroduced by Sir Edward B. Tylor, animism became the foundation, according to Tylor's research, as he set to explain religion: how and why humans came to believe in the existence of spiritual beings. Many critics falsified his theories in stating that their faith held truth and their God came to them through revelation in scriptures and books such as the Quran or the Bible. Tylor goes much further than the beginning of Christianity and refers to times before the written language. Animism is said to have roots in the Paleolithic Age [merely in theory] though the belief did not become mainstream until the 19th century through Tylor-even though, many of the great philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle implied spiritual life in beings other than humans. Animism is still in the practices of modern religions such as Shinto, Hinduism, and Neo-paganism. Hinduism sets a well-known practice that holds rituals of animals worship*, the most important of which being that of the cow. In a simplified explanation, an animal holds the spirit of the being that died which has returned and was reborn in the body of said animal (Hefner, 2008). This belief taps into transmigration* yet still holds true to animism because the passage of the soul into another body requires the concept of animism. Animism branches into many religions as people take deities in all forms and worship and maintain high faith as if the object possessed a soul within. Though discredited as a primitive manner of explaining the "riddles of life", animism opens the mind to spirituality and a sense of...