Animism as perception

Part of the departure-in-place idea network, section 4.

Animist traditions are culturally developed perceptual apparatus for detecting life-supporting structure in non-human substrates. Love and care are also ways of knowing: we can only love what we know intimately, and only know intimately what is within reach over time, so place-scale is ontologically right, not just practically necessary.

Provenance: James, "Departure in Place (DiP) — idea network", 2026-10-26 (raw/notes/dip-idea-network-2026-10-26.md). His statement of his own position; not a sourced claim about the world. Disposition: stated.

Related: beauty-as-perception, relational-ontology, thread-place-membership