A derogatory anthropological term for what most human cultures have believed throughout prehistory: that the Earth is alive and reactive, as are its many places. Greeks and Romans once thought a "genius loci" or spirit of place inhabited every hill, grove, and stream. Such beings still live in all human mythologies. The modern counterpart is panpsychism, the idea that all things possess qualities of mindfulness or psyche. With the coming of heavy industry, such ideas gave way to the financially convenient reduction of the Earth to the status of a lifeless resource.