Abram writes that, while staying with members of an oral culture, he had an interaction with some of the spirits they presented offerings to. These were not ghosts, as westerners might understand them, but rather a horde of small black ants. The offerings were not only symbolic (as it is of course a religious act to offer something to spirits), but practical: by giving the ants a source of food close to their homes, one could effectively keep the ants from trying to steal their own food.

The idea of spirits as corporeal beings is very interesting to me. It's not merely that the ants have spirits, but if I'm understanding Abram correctly, the ants are the spirits. I would love to see where this line of reasoning leads -- I think it could be very interesting to consider. Are we, as human beings, a type of spirit? Do all living things (or at least animals) count as spirits, if even the ants do? What distinguishes the spirits of the living from the spirits of the dead, if anything?

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