Techno-animism in Japan: Shinto Cosmograms, Actor-network Theory, and the Enabling Powers of Non-human Agencies

Techno-animism in Japan: Shinto Cosmograms, Actor-network Theory, and the Enabling Powers of Non-human Agencies Casper Bruun Jensen and Anders Blok Theory Culture Society 2013 30: 84

Jenson and Blok produce a rather lengthy article that discusses the influence on Shinto and Buddhism on Japanese culture, especially technology. They discuss how Shinto can be interpreted as a form of animism, where spiritual qualities or souls are projected onto inanimate natural objects.  But how can this idea be transferred onto modern technology?  They suggested Shinto helps us rethink the modern world. (97) How can such a spiritual belief fit in with modern technology?

They discuss medical researchers, conservationists, animator Miyazaki Hayao and robotics as modern examples of Shinto influence.  The Japanese see no distinction between non-human in nature and non-human in technology. In Shinto everything is capable of holding spirit.

They suggest the new interest in ecology and the preservation not just of humans but of the whole environment, including non-humans hints at a relinking with religion.

Aesthetically pleasing landscapes may inspire a sense of awe in humans; as may, indeed, the surprise encounter with an attractively strange and playful robotic creature like the AIBO-the-dog. Pg 105

They talk about Japanese Anime ability to move from human to non- human to robotic to spirits to animals or polymorphous perversity.  Traditionally Japan has a more generous spirit towards robots and cyborgs. He introduces the term techno-animisim as coined by Anne Allison in Millennial Monsters: Japanese Toys and the Global Imagination.

He mentions how it is very difficult to trace back the history of Shintoism and also it's relationship with Buddhism.

Aesthetically pleasing landscapes may inspire a sense of awe in humans; as may, indeed, the surprise encounter with an attractively strange and playful robotic creature like AIBO-the-dog. Pg 105