mana, power, and by means of this mana, felt inwardly by himself, acknowledged by his fellows, he stems the social impulse to run away from a mystery. Not without nervous dread witness the special taboo to which the leader of society is subject—he draws near and strives to constrain, conciliate or cajole the awful forces with which the life of the group is set about. He enters the Holy of Holies; the rest remain without, and are more than half afraid of their mediator. In short, from the standpoint of lay society, the manipulator of the sacred is himself sacred, and shares in all the associations of sacredness. An anthropomorphism which is specifically a “magomorphism” renders the sacred powers increasingly one with the governing element in society, and religion assumes an ethico-political character, whilst correspondingly authority and law are invested with a deeper meaning.
The Abuse of the Sacred.—Lest our picture of primitive religion appear too brightly coloured, a word must be said on the perversions to which the exploitation of the sacred is liable. Envy, malice and uncharitableness are found in primitive society, as elsewhere, and in their behoof the mystic forces are not infrequently unloosed by those who know how to do so. To use the sacred to the detriment of the community, as does, for instance, the expert who casts a spell, or utters a prayer, to his neighbour's hurt, is what primitive society understands by magic (cf. arungquiltha, above), and anthropology has no business to attach any other meaning to the word if it undertakes to interpret the primitive point of view. On the other hand, if those in authority perpetrate in the name of what their society holds sacred, and therefore with its full approval, acts that to the modern mind are cruel, silly or revolting, it is bad science and bad ethics to speak of vice and degradation, unless it can be shown that the community in which these things occur is thereby brought nearer to elimination in the struggle for existence. As a matter of fact, the earlier and more democratic types of primitive society, uncontaminated by our civilization, do not present many features to which the modern conscience can take exception, but display rather the edifying spectacle of religious brotherhoods encouraging themselves by mystical communion to common effort. With the evolution of rank, however, and the concentration of magico-religious power in the hands of certain orders, there is less solidarity and more individualism, or at all events more opportunity for sectional interests to be pursued at other than critical times; whereupon fraud and violence are apt to infect religion. Indeed, as the history of the higher religions shows, religion tends in the end to break away from secular government with its aristocratic traditions, and to revert to the more democratic spirit of the primitive age, having by now obtained a clearer consciousness of its purpose, yet nevertheless clinging to the inveterate forms of human ritual as still adequate to symbolize the consecration of life—the quickening of the will to face life earnestly.
Bibliography.—The number of works dealing with primitive religion is endless. The English reader who is more or less new to the subject is recommended to begin with E. B. Tylor, Primitive Culture (4th ed., Lond. 1903), and then to proceed to J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough (2nd ed., Lond. 1900). The latter author's Lectures on the Early History of the Kingship (Lond. 1905) may also be consulted. Only second in importance to the above are W. Robertson Smith, Lectures on the Religion of the Semites (2nd ed., Lond. 1904); A. Lang, Myth, Ritual and Religion (2nd ed., Lond. 1899), and Magic and Religion (Lond. 1902); E. S. Hartland, The Legend of Perseus (Lond. 1894-1896); F. B. Jevons, An Introduction to the History of Religion (2nd ed., 1902); E. Crawley, The Mystic Rose (Lond. 1902), and The Tree of Life (Lond. 1905). The two last mentioned works perhaps most nearly represent the views taken in the text, which are also developed by the present writer in “Pre-Animistic Religion,” Folk-Lore xi. (1900), “From Spell to Prayer,” Folk-Lore, xv. (1904), and “Is Taboo a Negative Magic?” Anthropological Essays presented to E. B. Tylor (1907); L. R. Farnell, The Evolution of Religion (1905), follows similar lines. The present writer owes something to Goblet d'Alviella, Hibbert Lectures (Lond. 1891), and more to H. Hubert and M. Mauss, “Essai sur la nature et la fonction du sacrifice,” L'Année sociologique, ii.; and “Esquisse d'une théorie générale de la magie,” ibid. vii. If the reader wish to keep pace with the output of literature on this vast subject, he will find L'Année sociologique (1896 onwards) a wonderfully complete bibliographical guide.
Side by side with works of general theory, first-hand authorities should be freely used. To make a selection from these is not easy, but the following at least are very important: R. H. Codrington, The Melanesians (Oxford, 1891); W. B. Spencer and F. J. Gillen, The Native Tribes of Central Australia (Lond. 1899); The Northern Tribes of Central Australia (Lond. 1904); A. W. Howitt, The Native Tribes of South-Eastern Australia (Lond. 1904); A. C. Haddon, Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits (Cambridge, 1904, vol. v.); A. B. Ellis, The Tshi-Speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast (Lond. 1897); The Efwe-Speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast (Lond. 1890); The Yoruba-Speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast (Lond. 1894); Miss M. H. Kingsley, Travels in West Africa (Lond. 1898), and West African Studies (Lond. 1899); A. C. Hollis, The Masai (1905); W. Crooke, The North-West Provinces of India (Lond. 1897); W. H. R. Rivers, The Todas (1906). An immense amount of valuable evidence is to be obtained in the Reports of the Bureau of Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution, Washington. See Nos. 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, and specially J. O. Dorsey, A Study of Siouan Cults, in No. 11; A. C. Fletcher, The Hako, in No. 22; and M. C. Stevenson, The Zuñi Indians, in No. 23. Though dealing primarily with a more advanced culture, J. J. M. de Groot, The Religious System of China (1892-1901), will be found to throw much light on primitive ideas. Finally let it be repeated that there is offered here no more than an introductory course of standard authorities suitable for the English reader. (R. R. M.)
B. The Higher Religions
Various phenomena associated with the religions of the lower culture will be found discussed in the articles on Animism; Fetishism; Magic; Mythology; Prayer; Ritual; Sacrifice; and Totemism. In this article religions are treated from the point of view of morphology, and no attempt can be made in the allotted limits to connect them with the phases of ritual, sociological or ethical development. See the separate articles on each religious system, and the separate headings for different forms of ritual.
1. Developments of Animism.—Animism is not, indeed, itself a religion; it is rather a primitive kind of philosophy which provides the intellectual form for the interpretation alike of Man and of Nature. It implies that the first great step has been taken for distinguishing between the material objects—whether the conscious body, or the rocks, trees and animals—and the powers that act in or through them. The Zuñis of New Mexico, U.S.A., supposed “the sun, moon and stars, the sky, earth and sea, in all their phenomena and elements, and all inanimate objects as well as plants, animals and men, to belong to one great system of all-conscious and interrelated life, in which the degrees of relationship seem to be determined largely, if not wholly, by the degrees of resemblance.”[1] If the earliest conception is that of an obscure undifferentiated animation (panvitalism), the analysis of the human person into body and spirit with the corresponding doctrine of “object-souls” (e.g. the tornait, or “invisible rulers” of every object among the Eskimo)[2] constitutes an important development. Matter is no longer animated or self-acting; it is subject to the will of an agent which can enter or quit it, perhaps at its own pleasure, perhaps at the compulsion of another. The transition has usually been effected ages before the higher religions come into view; but it has left innumerable traces in language and custom. Thus the Vedic hymns, which exhibit the deposits of so many stages of thought, are founded ultimately on the conception of the animation of nature. The objects of the visible world are themselves mighty to hurt or help. The springs and rivers, the wind, the sun, fire, the Earth-Mother, the Sky-Father, are all active powers. The animals, domesticated or wild, like the horse or cow, the guardian dog, the bird of omen, naturally share the same life, and are approached with the same invocation. The sacred energy is also discerned in the ritual implements, in the stones for squeezing the soma-juice, and the sacrificial post to which animals were bound; nay, it was even recognized in fabricated products like the plough (the “tearer” or “divider”), the
