If you said a group of humans believed the moon was a big animal, and that at certain cycles they had to coax it away, that would undoubtedly be spiritualism. The fact that it is a behavior unique to elephants among non-human animals, who we already know to practice funerary rituals involving burial and grave goods, means that it crosses a bar for spiritualism to me.

Youp provided the explanation as an attempted counterpoint. We are saying your example ‘sounds like’ what you were trying to counter. Doing actions at certain cyclical times with the moon sounds like a form of moon spirituality. Regardless of the internal explanation of whay they are thinking.

Coupling with the fact that elephants bury their dead (often with lots of food and decoration) its really starting it seems like they have some sort of primitkve spirituality.

:edit yeah sorry, you never mentioned the sun my point remains the same wheyher its sun and moon or moon cycles.