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 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.
Regarding the use of the English term “soul”, Sam Gill and Irene Sullivan, in their Dictionary of Native American Mythology, 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.”
Ethnographers working in non-Western cultures will often use the native term for “soul” or “life force” as a more accurate cultural designation.
With regard to the importance of the soul, British social anthropologist Edmund Leach, in his book Social Anthropology, writes:
“You might put it this way: We are human beings, not because we have souls but because we are able to conceive of the possibility that we might have souls.”
In his book In Gods We Trust, Scott Atran writes:
“In all cultures and religions, people believe that conscious souls live on after bodies die, like actors in a dream; they survive in the unseen realm of the spirit, where the purposes and truths pertaining to all existence are known. In every society, people believe that ritual can provoke spirits to alter the world for the better and make clearer its meaning, like stage directors called on to change and improve a play.”
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 a number of cultures it is felt that when people sleep their soul, or one of their souls, leaves the body and interacts with the souls of other people, both living and dead, both human and non-human. In his book Ulithi: A Mirconesian Design for Living, William Lessa reports:
“The soul is not a prisoner; it may, especially in dreams and illness, leave the body and wander or fly about and then return.”
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.”
In pondering the question “Does the Soul Exist?” in an essay in Science and Religion: Are They Compatible?, Jerome Elbert writes:
“I define a soul as, ‘A very special part of a human being, in addition to the body, that gives a person at least one of the following: life, a personality; or, the ability to move oneself, to think and feel, to leave the body, to know right from wrong, to survive death, and perhaps be reincarnated, to exercise free will, or to have a spiritual relationship with God.’”
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. James Shreeve, in his book The Neandertal Enigma: Solving the Mystery of Modern Human Origins, writes:
“Among world religions, the Judeo-Christian tradition draws an unusually clean line between what is animal and what is human. Many non-Western religions endow animals, birds, and even individual blades of grass with spirit. But in the Bible only human beings have souls and are capable of salvation.”
In her book Consciousness: A Very Short Introduction, Susan Blackmore writes of the major religions:
“Almost all are straightforward ego theories; based on the assumption that selves exist, whether those selves are conceived of as souls, spirits, the Atman, or anything else. The existence of such personal selves, underlies doctrines about identity, life after death, and more responsibility, and is central to the beliefs of Christians, Jews, Muslims, and Hindus.”
In his book God is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions that Run the World—And Why Their Differences Matter, Stephen Prothero reports:
“Hindus refer to the essence of the human being as Atman, which is typically translated as ‘self’ or ‘soul.’
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.”
Religion 101/102
Religion 101/102 is a series of essays on various religious topics. In this series the concept of religion is not confined to Christianity, nor to god-centered religions. Religion 102 is an expansion of an earlier essay. More from this series:
Religion 101: Women and marriage under ancient Irish Brehon law
Religion 102: African Ancestor Worship
Religion 101: Sacred Fire
Religion 102: Creation stories
Religion 101: The European witch craze
Religion 102: Agnosticism
Religion 101: Religious Prophets
Religion 201: Reincarnation