Abstract: This dissertation introduces a new scholarly term called Animistic Bio-Regionalism, which refers to the idea that local stories, cosmologies and histories can provide one with a fulfilling sense of place. In this sense, the “bio” in my new term refers to “biography” as opposed to “biology” as it does in traditional bioregionalism; hence the need for the hyphen to emphasize this difference. I point out that the almost exclusive scholarly focus on knowing the biological aspects of an ecosystem has come at the expense of exploring the biographical elements of a landscape, namely, the stories, the cosmologies, and the histories of a bio-region. Some of the most fertile grounds for learning about the biographies of place come from Native American writer Linda Hogan in her novel Solar Storms, and also from Aldous Huxley’s Island. The real world, however, also provides us with poignant examples about local stories and worldviews (what bioregionalists might call ‘watershed stories, religions, and histories’) and how they help to foster a true sense of knowing where you are, and for this I draw on four research expeditions to northeast Cambodia where I spent time among the indigenous highlanders and learned about their traditional religion (animism) and spiritual topography and how these things help to establish a rich sense of place. We can say that bio-regionalism is the theory, and animism is the practice, and that key bioregional terms such as “inhabitation” and “reinhabitation” need to be reconsidered in the light of the central role that stories, (indigenous) cosmology, and history need to play when considering what it means to know one’s local bio-region or watershed.