Crossword Genius

Brutishness is around country defended by broken man (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

animalism

'brutishness' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'is around country defended by broken man' is the wordplay.
'around' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'country' becomes 'mali' (Mali is an example).
'defended by' indicates putting letters inside.
'broken' is an anagram indicator.
'is' going around 'mali' is 'imalis'.
'man' is an anagram of 'anm'.
'imalis' put into 'anm' is 'ANIMALISM'.

(Other definitions for animalism that I've seen before include "Imam slain (anagr.)" , "Maim snail (anag)" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
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