Phantasmatic Imagination vs. Animism in the Amazon. About the Limitations in the Application of the Concept of a Phantasm in Anthropological Studies

Abstract

From the anthropological point of view, animism is understood as a set of attitudes and behaviors radically different from that based on the Western culture naturalism. The purpose of this text is a reflection on the question: whether the concept of the phantasm may be useful as a tool for interpretation in anthropological studies on animism? As I try to show, the endeavors to interpret animism in terms of the phantasm have been present since the very beginning of the scientific reflection on this phenomenon. In this text, I focus on two representatives of the classical psychological interpretation of animism. Basing on the works by Wundt and Freud, I show how animism began to be understood in terms of psychological mechanisms. Then I move on to indicating the restrictions and hidden assumptions relating to the psychoanalytic understanding of phantasm. However, a deeper critique of this tool is possible in the light of anthropological research only. According to the anthropological credo, the native point of view should be privileged if we want to understand the phenomenon referred to us as animism. Basing on the anthropological work, I point out how important knowledge in the animistic worldview derived from experience is. This procedure allows me to carry out the critique of the phantasm concept that poses new research problems.