Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you. The God who made the worlds and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth . . . Paul's declaration can have special meaning to a missionary working among people who worship spirits they believe inhabit everything around them.
Some animists do acknowledge a creator-god, usually seen as a deity of the sky or the sun.
And although this dim memory of the God of Genesis has been submerged in a plethora of lesser gods, it has not been totally erased. From these major gods have developed thousands of others. In animism there can be individual gods who hold sway over a local stream, a tree, or a particular type of animal. In societies based on hunting buffalo, for example, there may be a buffalo-god who, if his favor is curried, will provide the animal for tomorrow's kill. Animism also ascribes magical powers to animals, heavenly bodies, or other created objects.