With diseases, Christianity and the fur trade, animistic spirituality broke down. Animals became something to be destroyed and traded. These values are independent of the usefulness of the nonhuman world for human purposes. However, because deep ecology is not human-centered, it ethically builds on but goes beyond animism. Ultimately, animism delivers the bounty of Nature for human use.
Animism is one way to reintegrate the human species into the community of all species.
If it is part of a cultural revival among indigenous peoples, and to the extent that it is food for the soul and not a public relations or commercial veneer, animism offers hope both for respectful relations with the Earth and for building real alliances with ecocentric environmentalists. China is, we are told, a huge potential market for Canadian wildlife and furs. Yet, typically the Inuit hunter has become dependent on the Southern industrial economy, requiring many thousands of dollars worth of equipment to engage in hunting. For example, in addition to a rifle, the aboriginal hunter in Canada usually needs an aluminium boat, a four wheeler, a skidoo, a sled, and gasoline. Governments justify an extremely relaxed regulatory approach to wildlife for indigenous people in the North, when the technologies used for killing animals are industrial, and the Northern lifestyle is now industrial-dependent.