CHILD ANIMISM: I. A CRITICAL SURVEY OF CROSS- CULTURAL RESEARCH.

This article presents information on child animism. It is informed that young children pass through a stage where their relationship to the physical world is characterized by "animism," defined broadly as the tendency to regard objects as living and endowed with will. The present status of this concept is somewhat uncertain. Information on a study is being provided wherein 98 Hopi subjects were evaluated. Research on the psychology of European children was carried out in Birmingham, England. Written tests were given to 452 school children aged 7-12, and 262 more aged 5-11 were personally interviewed. The types of objects considered included sun, moon, cloud, wind, and such other active and moving ones such as bicycle, candle, and motor car. The results look somewhat odd, being grossly at variance with most other research in the field. Thus in the oral administration, the over-all percentages of animism obtained from 5, 6, and 7-year olds were respectively 1,17, and 7. The general incidence of animism according to the written test was about 21 percent, with a comparable figure of only 6 percent for the interviews.