Humans and Other Creatures

Abstract

Abstract The chapter discusses the modern sciences of ethnography and anthropology, and their impact on the history of biblical interpretation. According to Edward B. Tylor, for example, the narratives in Genesis contained indications of “animism,” as he famously framed the concept in the nineteenth century. Eschewing Tylor’s own imperial pretensions, this chapter takes up the more recent notions of animism in anthropological studies and applies them to the Bible. The peculiarities of the biblical traditions can also be brought into dialogue with sixteenth century Kabbalistic discussions of tsimtsum—an idea of divine withdrawal that leaves traces of God throughout creation but also allows for intensifications of divine presence at particular places. This Jewish reinterpretation of the Priestly traditions offers its own critique of colonial biblical interpretation already in the sixteenth century, while also playing a later role in the formation of German idealist philosophy.