gods of fire, wind and water, gods of the sea, and above all gods of the sky, show no signs of having been ghost gods at any period in their history. They may, it is true, be associated with ghost gods, but in Australia it cannot even be asserted that the gods are spirits at all, much less that they are the spirits of dead men; they are simply magnified magicians, super-men who have never died; we have no ground, therefore, for regarding the cult of the dead as the origin of religion in this area; this conclusion is the more probable, as ancestor-worship and the cult of the dead generally cannot be said to exist in Australia.
The more general view that polytheistic and other gods are the elemental and other spirits of the later stages of animistic creeds, is equally inapplicable to Australia, where the belief seems to be neither animistic nor even animatistic in character. But we are hardly justified in arguing from the case of Australia to a general conclusion as to the origin of religious ideas in all other parts of the world. It is perhaps safest to say that the science of religions has no data on which to go, in formulating conclusions as to the original form of the objects of religious emotion; in this connexion it must be remembered that not only is it very difficult to get precise information of the subject of the religious ideas of people of low culture, perhaps for the simple reason that the ideas themselves are far from precise, but also that, as has been pointed out above, the conception of spiritual often approximates very closely to that of material. Where the soul is regarded as no more than a finer sort of matter, it will obviously be far from easy to decide whether the gods are spiritual or material. Even, therefore, if we can say that at the present day the gods are entirely spiritual, it is clearly possible to maintain that they have been spiritualized pari passu with the increasing importance of the animistic view of nature and of the greater prominence of eschatological beliefs. The animistic origin of religion is therefore not proven.
Animism and Mythology.—But little need be said on the relation of animism and mythology (q.v.). While a large part of mythology has an animistic basis, it is possible to believe, e.g. in a sky world, peopled by corporeal beings, as well as by spirits of the dead; the latter may even be entirely absent; the mythology of the Australians relates largely to corporeal, non-spiritual beings; stories of transformation, deluge and doom myths, or myths of the origin of death, have not necessarily any animistic basis. At the same time, with the rise of ideas as to a future life and spiritual beings, this field of mythology is immensely widened, though it cannot be said that a rich mythology is necessarily genetically associated with or combined with belief in many spiritual beings.
Animism in Philosophy.—The term “animism” has been applied to many different philosophical systems. It is used to describe Aristotle’s view of the relation of soul and body held also by the Stoics and Scholastics. On the other hand monadology (Leibnitz) has also been termed animistic. The name is most commonly applied to vitalism, a view mainly associated with G. E. Stahl and revived by F. Bouillier (1813–1899), which makes life, or life and mind, the directive principle in evolution and growth, holding that all cannot be traced back to chemical and mechanical processes, but that there is a directive force which guides energy without altering its amount. An entirely different class of ideas, also termed animistic, is the belief in the world soul, held by Plato, Schelling and others.
Bibliography.—Tyler, Primitive Culture; Frazer, Golden Bough; Id. on Burial Customs in J. A. I. xv.; Mannhardt, Baumkultus; G. A. Wilken, Het Animisme; Koch on the animism of S. America in Internationales Archiv, xiii., Suppl.; Andrew Lang, Making of Religion; Skeat, Malay Magic; Sir G. Campbell, “Spirit Basis of Belief and Custom,” in Indian Antiquary, xxiii. and succeeding volumes; Folklore, iii. 289. xi. 162; Spencer, Principles of Sociology ; Mind (1877), 141, 415 et seq. For animism in philosophy, Stahl, Theoria; Bouillier, Du Principe vital. (N. W. T.)
ANIMUCCIA, GIOVANNI, Italian musical composer, was born at Florence in the last years of the 15th century. At the request of St Filippo Neri he composed a number of Laudi, or hymns of praise, to be sung after sermon time, which have given him an accidental prominence in musical history, since their performance in St Filippo’s Oratory eventually gave rise (on the disruption of 16th century schools of composition) to those early forms of “oratorio” that are not traceable to the Gregorian-polyphonic “Passions.” St Filippo admired Animuccia so warmly that he declared he had seen the soul of his friend fly upwards towards heaven. In 1555 Animuccia was appointed maestro di capella at St Peter’s, an office which he held until his death in 1571. He was succeeded by Palestrina, who had been his friend and probably his pupil. The manuscript of many of Animuccia’s compositions is still preserved in the Vatican Library. His chief published works were Madrigali e Motetti a quattro e cinque voci (Ven. 1548) and Il primo Libra di Messe (Rom. 1567). From the latter Padre Martini has taken two specimens for his Saggio di Contrapunto. A mass from the Primo Libra di Messe on the canto fermo of the hymn Conditor alme siderum is published in modern notation in the Anthologie des maîtres religieux primitifs of the Chanteurs de Saint Gervais. It is solemn and noble in conception, and would be a great work but for a roughness which is more careless than archaic.
Paolo Animuccia, a brother of Giovanni, was also celebrated as a composer; he is said by Fetis to have been maestro di capella at S. Giovanni in Laterano from the middle of January 1550 until 1552, and to have died in 1563.
ANISE (Pimpinella Anisum), an umbelliferous plant found in Egypt and the Levant, and cultivated on the continent of Europe for medicinal purposes. The officinal part of the plant is the fruit, which consists of two united carpels, called a cremocarp. It is known by the name of aniseed, and has a strong aromatic taste and a powerful odour. By distillation the fruit yields the volatile oil of anise, which is useful in the treatment of flatulence and colic in children. It may be given as Aqua Anisi, in doses of one or more ounces, or as the Spiritus Anisi, in doses of 5-20 minims. The main constituent of the oil (up to 90%) is anethol, C10H12O or C6H4[1·4](OCH3)(CH:CH·CH3.) It also contains methyl chavicol, anisic aldehyde, anisic acid, and a terpene. Most of the oil of commerce, however, of which anethol is also the chief constituent, comes from Illicium verum (order Magnoliaceae, sub-order Wintereae), indigenous in N.E. China, the star-anise of liqueur makers. It receives its name from its flavour, and from its fruit spreading out like a star. The anise of the Bible (Matt. xxiii. 23) is Anethum or Peucedanum graveolens, i.e. dill (q.v.).
ANJAR, a fortified town of India, and the capital of a district of the same name in the native state of Cutch, in the presidency of Bombay. The country is dry and sandy, and entirely depends on well irrigation for its water supply. The town is situated nearly 10 miles from the Gulf of Cutch. It suffered severely from an earthquake in 1819, which destroyed a large number of houses, and occasioned the loss of several lives. In 1901 the population was 18,014. The town and district of Anjar were both ceded to the British in 1816, but in 1822 they were again transferred to the Cutch government in consideration of an annual money payment. Subsequently it was discovered that this obligation pressed heavily upon the resources of the native state, and in 1832 the pecuniary equivalent for Anjar, both prospectively and inclusive of the arrears which had accrued to that date, was wholly remitted by the British government.
ANJOU, the old name of a French territory, the political origin of which is traced to the ancient Gallic state of the Andes, on the lines of which was organized, after the conquest by Julius Caesar, the Roman civitas of the Andecavi. This was afterwards preserved as an administrative district under the Franks with the name first of pagus, then of comitatus, or countship of Anjou. This countship, the extent of which seems to have been practically identical with that of the ecclesiastical diocese of Angers, occupied the greater part of what is now the department of Maine-et-Loire, further embracing, to the north, Craon, Bazouges (Château-Gontier), Le Lude, and to the east, Château-la-Vallière and Bourgueil, while to the south, on the other hand, it included neither the present town of Montreuil-Bellay, nor Vihiers, Cholet, Beaupréau, nor the whole district lying to the west of the Ironne and Thouet, on the left bank of
