BEING A MUSLIM IN ANIMISTIC WAYS

This paper examines religious practices of Ammatoans professed to be "Islamic" by practitioners, but ethnocentrically understood as "animistic" in Tylorian sense by scholars. Scholars have argued that Ammatoans' practices are incompatible with Islam. Islam and animism are mutually exclusive. This paper, in contrast, argues that Islam and animism are all encompassing. To build the argument, this paper firstly elaborates scholars' revisited theory of animism that argues for the (indigenous) notion of personhood as not limited only to human beings, but extended to non-human beings: land, forest, trees, animals and so forth. Secondly, this paper reviews the Quranic verses that explicate the personhood of non-human beings, and finally Ammatoans' practices -visits to forest, refusal of electricity installation and others- as ethically responsible and mutually beneficial acts that ensure the well-beings of both human and non-human beings (interpersonal relations). These presentations show how Ammatoans exemplify being Muslim in animistic ways.