One of the common features of most—but not all—religious traditions throughout the world is the belief that human beings are more than just physical bodies. Humans are felt to have a non-physical dimension which is often referred to as a soul. In many religious traditions, the soul is seen as a life force. In some cultures, the soul is immortal and continues to exist in some form after death. In some cultures, only humans have souls, while in other cultures, animals, plants, and inanimate objects such as rocks also have souls.
In his 1871 book Primitive Culture, Sir Edward Burnett Tyler saw the concept of the soul emerging from attempts to account for death, sleep, disease, trance, and dreams.
In many cultures, it is felt that the soul is what gives life to people. Anthropologist Edward Sapir, in The Selected Writings of Edward Sapir in Language, Culture, and Personality, writes:
“Most peoples believe in a soul which animates the human body; some believe in a variety of souls (as when the principle of life is distinguished from what the psychologists would call consciousness of the psyche); and most peoples also believe in the survival of the soul after death in the form of a ghost.”
One of the problems in discussing the concept of the soul is that the English word “soul” carries with it Christian cultural connotations which are not universal. In their entry for “soul” in the
Dictionary of Native American Mythology, Sam Gill and Irene Sullivan write:
“A term that, due to its Christian implications, may be insufficient to accurately reflect Native American conceptions. Generally its interpretation should be limited to ‘life force,’ although sometimes this force may be personified.”
Anthropologist Edward Sapir sums up the function of the soul in many societies:
“The experience of the soul or souls typically account for such phenomena as dreams, illness, and death.”
Described below are a few of the concepts related to the soul.
Who Can Have a Soul?
In some religious traditions only humans have souls. Many Muslims, Christians, and Jews, for example, feel that the soul, particularly the immortal soul, is something that only humans are able to have. On the other hand, the leader of the largest Christian church, Pope Paul II of the Roman Catholic Church, publicly declared that animals also have souls. Human beings, in this view, are identical with other living creatures.
Many Evangelical Protestant Christians claim that animals do not have an eternal spirit: animals have a soul in that they possess life, but this soul is extinguished at death. According to the Baptist tradition, there are no biblical references indicating that animals will be resurrected like humans and therefore animals do not have eternal souls.
In religious traditions which embrace the concept of reincarnation, it is commonly accepted that animals also have souls. In some of these traditions, plants are also seen as having souls.
In animistic societies, particularly the hunting and gathering cultures of the Americas and Australia, not only do humans, animals, and plants have souls, but so do features such as water, rocks, clouds, mountains, and so on. Anthropologist Paul Bohannan, in his textbook Social Anthropology, writes:
“Animism, to put it into its simplest terms, is the attribution of soul or spirit comparable to the soul or spirit of man, to nonhuman animals, to plants, and even to things and abstract concepts.”
How Many Souls?
In some traditions, humans have only one soul, while in others humans have many souls. Among the Sheepeater Shoshone, there are three kinds of souls. The first of these is the suap or “ego-soul” which is embodied in the breath. The second is the navushieip or “free-soul” that is able to leave the body during dreams, trances, and comas. It is the navushieip that encounters the guardian spirit that becomes one’s ally during life. Finally, there is mugua or “body-soul” which activates the body during the waking hours.
In Alaska, the Inuit have several souls. Puqli is the soul or invisible spirit that keeps a person alive, providing body heat. Tarneq is the likeness of the person (ghost) that is seen after death.
The Sioux, as well as some other Plains Indian nations, feel that humans have four souls.
Among the tribes of the Atlantic Northeast, humans were seen as having more than one soul. Among the Narragansett, for example, there was one soul that worked when the body was asleep and another soul that would leave the body after death. When the body was asleep, the dream soul—Cowwéwonck—would roam, often appearing as a light, and seek out guardian spirits. The other soul—Míchachunck—was located near the heart and was the individual’s animating force.
Among the Huron, each person has two souls: one of these souls animates the body and one soul extends beyond physical activities. In sleep, one soul communicates with spirits and with other human souls. When this soul returns to the body, dreams are the way in which the soul’s experiences are communicated. According to religion professor Henry Bowden in his book American Indians and Christian Missions: Studies in Cultural Conflict:
“Every Huron agreed that it was essential to reenact these dream adventures in order to unite the two souls and make each person whole again.”
The failure to do this would result in serious illness which could impact the entire village. After death one soul stays near the corpse until after the Feast of the Dead and then it is released so that it can be reborn. Some of these souls are resurrected in name-giving ceremonies. The other soul goes to the village of the dead after the Feast.
The concept of people having more than one soul also extends to other cultures. For example, among the Dusun in the village of Sensuron in North Borneo, Thomas Rhys Williams writes in his ethnography The Dusun: A North Borneo Society:
“In Sensuron it is the belief that each person is born with seven souls, which range in size from the thickness of the thumb to that of the little finger. The souls are believed contained one inside the other and to grow as the body grows.”
The Soul and Death?
In some traditions, the soul and its continuation after death is central to the belief systems, while in others it is not. In some religious traditions, such as Daoism and Confucianism, there is no concern for the soul. In most of the Native American religious traditions, the concept of the soul after death is not central to the belief system.
In their textbook Humanity: An Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, James Peoples and Garrick write:
“All worldviews hold that people have a spiritual dimension—a soul—that lives on after the physical body has perished.”
One common concept concerning the soul after death is that the souls of the dead continue to interact with and affect the living. In ancestor worship there are often rituals to induce the souls of the ancestors to perform certain favors.
Shape-Shifting and the Soul:
Another aspect of the soul in some cultures is the concept of shape-shifting: the ability of some people to transform themselves into animals. In the process of shape-shifting, the soul is transported to another body. Writing about Icelandic literature in the Journal of English and German Philology, Aðalheiður Guðmundsdóttir reports:
“The ability is generally viewed negatively, and those with such powers are often sorcerers or witches.”
Guðmundsdóttir also writes:
“It is clear that the animal into which a person is transformed has a symbolic value. This can be seen in shape-shifting stories from around the world, including those from Iceland, e.g. in tales in which beautiful maidens turn into attractive birds such as swans or cranes. Wolves were beasts of battle, with strongly negative associations.”
Shape-shifting is also found in a number of American Indian cultures, including the Yaqui and Navajo.
Souls and Dreams:
In many cultural traditions, the soul is closely associated with dreaming. During sleep a person’s soul may leave the body and join with the souls of other beings. During this time, the soul may learn many things which it can bring back to the person. If someone is awakened suddenly from a sound sleep, the soul may be stranded in the dream world and unable to return to the person.
According to Anishinabe (Ojibwa, Chippewa) spiritual teachings, human beings have two souls: one of these souls travels at night and lives in dreams. With two souls, human beings can communicate with both the spirits and the souls of non-human persons. Chippewa elder John Thunderbird explains it this way:
“Your soul dreams those dreams; not your body, not your mind. Those dreams come true.”
He also points out:
“The soul travels all over the world when you dream.”
Souls and Sickness:
In many cultural traditions, the soul is associated with health and with illness. Curing ceremonies may involve a shaman who sends his or her soul out to communicate with the soul of the sick person and diagnose the source of the illness. The loss of a soul may result in illness and even death.
Among the Sheepeater Shoshone, if a person was sick because the soul had fled, then the medicine person went into a trance to search for the soul. If the soul is found during the trance, the soul could be restored to the body and in this way the sick person was restored to health.
On the Northwest Coast, the Nootsack feel that the soul is so light that it can be easily dislodged. This soul loss can be caused by a number of things: sudden fright may cause the soul to depart from the body; the soul can be intentionally or unintentionally stolen; and the soul can be drawn out of the body because the person has a strong attraction to another person, object, or place. The loss of a soul results in sickness, and, if untreated, death.
To treat soul loss, the Nootsack use the services of a shaman whose soul can retrieve the lost soul. If a soul is lost due to sudden fright, it may seek refuge in a nearby person. This is particularly dangerous not only to the person who has lost the soul, but also to the person who has unwillingly attracted the soul. People have no way of removing a foreign soul and this must be done by a shaman.