Animism v. Totemism- rebecca hagen

10/10
I have recently been reading out of a book on religion that I found in my dad's house library. It's main focus is on the origin of religion. Presenting the arguments for many different possibilities. The two relgiions that I believe may be the origin of religion are animism and totemism.
I think that the most primal form of religion is Animism. In his article, “From Primitive Culture”, Edward B. Tylor describes Animism as simply belief in a spiritual being, the main theme being the eternal human soul. It is also seen as the origin of all religions by Tylor, as it travels from primitive man to civilized man. James George Frazer in his excerpt from “The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion and Totemism and Exogamy” states that religion has to contain a superior force that can not directly be viewed in nature. Animism is a more basic form of religion as we know it today. Participants went from treating everything in this world like a spirit with a soul, but then moved on to treating some as actual deities to worship.
However, Animism focuses mainly just on the soul and almost totally ignores the physical world and the scientific realm. The belief system has gone from believing in souls of animals, plants, etc. to primarily just human ones.
Frazer asserts that belief systems seen as Totemism and Magic came before modern day religion. Totemism is a belief in individual, sex, or clan totems which are animals and other naturalistic objects that represent the person, group, etc. spiritually. Totemists have the ability to think in analogical thoughts regarding spirituality, but because of this cannot think very logically or scientifically.
Frazer also believes that magic preceded religion. Those who believed in magic believed in the order and consistency of nature. Very cause and effect oriented with the same spells always doing the same thing. However, like Totemism, Magical thinkers again are limited in there thought processes, not being able to think in mathematical, scientific ways. Although those who practice Magic think they are causing something to happen, this is misleading and instead it was simply a correlation of things.
If I could break it down, I think the most primal form of religion would have to be the worship of nature. The earliest human beings, although perhaps not having the full mental capacity we have today, would have to be in awe of the world surrounding them. Without knowing the scientific reasoning behind it or any other logically thinking, they would be totally amazed by the phenomenon happening around them, with the revolving sun, changing of seasons, storms, etc. I personally find it fascinating today and I think the experience would be much more intense long ago.