The Sami are an indigenous people living in the northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia's Kola peninsula. Originally, the Sami religion was animistic: that is, for them, nature and objects had a conscious life spirit. Therefore, one was expected to move quietly in the wilderness and avoid making a Khan is said to have declared that the same were one people he would never try to fight again. Because the Sami were not warriors and did not believe in war, they simply disappeared in times of conflict. They were Known as 'peaceful retreaters."
The closes meaning of the underlined word animistic as it is used in the passage , is ___
