Of Animism and Belief in Reincarnation

"In Oriental [and African] cultures there is widespread belief in reincarnation, while in religions of the Western world, like Christianity and Islam, there are the doctrines of resurrection and immortality of the soul. All of these can be understood, in animist terms, as ways of extending the life of the soul beyond the time of death. Being separable from the flesh, the soul has an afterlife and destiny of its own. Animism also explains why sacred objects and trinkets--things called 'fetishes'--are important to [animists]. Such people are not 'idol-worshipper,' as narrow-minded Christian missionaries used to describe them. They do not worship sticks and stones; they adore the 'anima' within, the spirit which--not wholly unlike the god of Christians themselves--gives the wood of the stick or substance of the stone its life and power."

Daniel L. Pals, Eight Theories of Religion