II. SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS--_continued_.
2. /Psychic Life/: _Games and Recreations_--Their
importance--Games of children and adults--Sports
and public spectacles--Masks--_Fine Arts_--Graphic
arts--Ornamentation--Drawing--Sculpture--Dancing--Its
importance among uncultured peoples--Pantomime and
dramatic art--Vocal and instrumental music--Instruments of
music--Poetry--_Religion_--Animism--Its two elements: belief in
the soul, and belief in spirits--Fetichism--Polytheism--Rites
and ceremonies--Priesthood--International
religions--_Myths_--_Science_--Art of
counting--Geometry--Calculation of time--Clocks and
calendars--Geography and cartography--Medicine and surgery.
2. PSYCHIC LIFE.
_Games and Recreations._--In two works based on carefully observed
facts, Groos has shown that animals do not expend all their muscular
and psychic energy in procuring the means of material existence, but,
further, expend this energy in games, which are really a process of
training, of education. In a greater degree is this the case with man,
that animal whose psychical life has expanded so enormously.[218] In
fact, games are the first manifestations of the psychical life not only
of man individually but of mankind as a whole.
It is necessary to distinguish between the _games of children_ and
those of adults. The former are above all imitation, while the latter
aim at either gaining an advantage or demonstrating muscular or mental
strength and skill.
The boys of “savages” handle tiny bows and lassoes made by themselves,
and hunt toy guancos, birds, and turtles made of clay and wood, in
imitation of their fathers; while the little girls treat their rag
dolls as actual children, repeating the gestures and words of their
mothers. It is the imitative game of the young.
But if the object of the game is to exercise the strength and skill,
it becomes common to children and adults. It is such with the game
of hand-ball, known to all peoples with the exception perhaps of the
Negroes; and stilts, which are met with in Europe, China, Eastern
Africa, and Polynesia. Side by side with these games in which muscular
skill plays the principal part, there are others in which attention and
quickness of the senses are put to the test. To guess in which hand
some object is hidden is a recreation among the Tlinkits, as among
Europeans. Among the Hottentots this game is complicated, inasmuch
as it is necessary to point out by a special position of the fingers
the hand of the partner which is supposed to conceal the object, thus
recalling the very ancient game known to the Egyptians, and called by
the Romans _mirare digitis_, which survives at the present time under
the name of “Morra” in Italy.
This is how it is played:--Simultaneously each partner, putting out
his hand, shows whatever number of fingers he may think fit, bending
the others, and at the same moment mentioning a number; he whose
figure equals the sum of the fingers stretched out by the two partners
wins the game. It is evident that this game, known in absolutely the
same form in China, is already a game of chance. It is the same with
most games played with dice, whether the latter be represented by
true dice (China, prehistoric Europe), or by otter’s teeth, seeds,
etc., variously marked or coloured (Indians of North America), or by
sheep’s astragali (Central Asia, Persia, etc.). _Lotto_ is known to the
Chinese, the Siamese, etc., and it was the Celestials who introduced
roulette or the thirty-four animal games into Indo-China.[219]
The chief intellectual game is chess, invented in India; varieties of
chess are the game of draughts, known wherever European civilisation
penetrates, and the game of _Uri_ or _Mugole_, spread by the Arabs
throughout the whole of Africa from Madagascar to Senegal. The object
used in this latter game is a block of wood with 16, 24, or 32 little
cups disposed in two or four rows, in which the aim is to place in a
certain way a certain number of little stones or seeds. A third variety
of the game of chess, backgammon, holds a middle place between _Uri_
and the game of dice, and in consequence is half a game of chance. It
is known under the name of _Tob_ in Egypt and Palestine, of _Pachisi_
in India, and of _Patolitzli_ in ancient Mexico.[220]
_Sports and Spectacles._--Hand-to-hand contests so prized by the
Japanese and the Mongols, horse-races esteemed by all nomads, the
superb nautical sports practised of old by the Hawaiians, in which,
standing upright or astraddle on a canoe, they descended cataracts
several metres in height,[221] and so many other sports still form,
as it were, a link between games properly so called, giving pleasure
to those taking part in them, and _spectacles_, which give pleasure
to others. Most spectacles are composed of the dance, pantomime,
scenic representations, music and song, of which I shall presently
treat. Outside the manifestation of these arts, public spectacles are
confined almost everywhere to the different ceremonies, festivals, and
processions connected with various rites or customs (initiation, common
marriages, worship of the dead, etc.), or to jugglery, exhibition of
animals, acrobatic performances, sleight-of-hand tricks, etc., most of
which have originated in India. To these we must add combats between
men and animals or between animals themselves, the best known of which
are the bull-fights so dear to the Hispano-Portuguese of Europe and
America, and the cockfights which have had ardent supporters not
only in England and the United States, but also in Spanish America,
all over the Malay Archipelago, etc. In China and Siam people are less
blood-thirsty; they are content to look at contests between crickets,
grasshoppers, and fishes.
[Illustration: /Fig./ 59.--Dance of Australians during the Corroboree
or ceremony of initiation.
(_Drawn by P. Moutet, partly after Brough Smyth and Sav. Kent._)]
_Masks_ play an important part in festivals, ceremonies, and
spectacles, as in so many other manifestations of the social life of
uncivilised and half-civilised peoples (religion, war, justice). Let us
merely mention the fantastic masks used in dances and processions among
the Javanese and the Dyaks, and especially those of the Melanesians;
certain of them are made of cocoa-nuts, with an imitation of the beard
and moustache in the fibres of this fruit, others have the human skull
as a groundwork. The Papuans are very skilful in making masks with
tortoise shells, etc.[222]
_The Arts._--Artistic manifestations are distinguished from games by
this fact, that their object is not only to afford pleasure to the
artist himself during the execution of his work, but also to cause
this pleasure to be shared by the greatest possible number of his
fellow-beings. These manifestations are called forth then by the
sentiment of human sociability, and the more they are developed in an
ethnic group the higher this group is from the point of view of social
organisation.
[Illustration: /Fig./ 60.--Anthropomorph ornamental design of the
Papuans of New Guinea.
(_After Haddon._)]
_The Graphic Arts._--It is often among the less advanced and more
uncultured peoples that we find very skilful draughtsmen. And here it
is necessary to make a distinction between design properly so called,
whether it be on the flat surface, in bas-relief, engraved, etc., and
what is generally called _ornamental_ or _decorative art_. The latter
exists among almost all peoples (except perhaps the Fuegians), and does
not always spring from artistic feeling. Sometimes vanity, the desire
to possess the most ornate object, inspires the hand of the artist,
who almost always, among the uncivilised, is not a professional. The
characteristic trait of the decorative art of primitive peoples is that
every leading idea is inspired by real objects; there are no lines
purely and voluntarily ornamental, and still less are there geometric
figures, as was thought until recent times. All the supposed figures
of this class are simplified drawings of animals, inanimate objects,
etc.[223] The most frequent ideas are inspired by animals (zoomorphs),
men (anthropomorphs), and manufactured objects (skeuomorphs); those
which are drawn from plants (phyllomorphs) are excessively rare
(Haddon).
[Illustration: /Fig./ 61.--Zoomorph ornamental design on a club (New
Guinea).
(_After Haddon._)]
[Illustration: /Fig./ 62.--Zoomorph ornamental design on a spatula (New
Guinea).
(_After Haddon._)]
Fig. 60 shows us, for example, in an engraving on a bark belt executed
by a Papuan, the human face transformed into an ornamental motive.
At the extremity of the object is still plainly seen a face with
both eyes, and a mouth widely opened showing a fine set of teeth;
lower down, perpendicularly to this, we see two faces with only the
mouth and a single eye left, its companion having strayed into the
intervening space between the two faces. Another example: the head of
the frigate bird, a favourite ornamental _motif_ of the half-Melanesian
populations of the south-east extremity of New Guinea, is plainly
visible in the middle of the second row, and throughout the fourth
row of ornaments on a club (Fig. 61), but it is transformed into
arabesques on the other rows. Overlapping in a certain order, this
head is transformed into spiral ornaments (Fig. 62). In the same way,
among the ancient inhabitants of Chiriqui (Isthmus of Panama) the
already somewhat diagrammatic figure of the alligator (Fig. 63) is
transformed into ornament (Fig. 64) in which it would be difficult,
without the presence of intermediate forms, to find a resemblance to
the reptile in question. Among the Karayas of Central Brazil ornaments
like those reproduced here (Fig. 65) are simplified forms of lizards
(A), bats (B), of the skin of a rattle-snake (C), and of another
snake (D).[224] Imitations of manufactured objects, drawing of cords,
arrangement of fibres in a tissue, etc., are often suggested by the
mode of manufacture of the decorated object--for example, in pottery
by the impress of the woven basket which has served as a mould in the
manufacture of the pot, etc. (see p. 154). Often the entire object is
transformed into ornament and becomes unsuitable for the use to which
it was intended, such as the double fish-hooks in mother-of-pearl
of the islanders of the Torres Straits,[225] and the ornamental and
symbolic axes of the Polynesians of the Hervey Islands or Cook’s
Archipelago (Fig. 67).
[Illustration: /Fig./ 63.--Conventional representation of an alligator;
ancient pottery of Chiriqui, Isthmus of Panama.
(_After Holmes._)]
[Illustration: /Fig./ 64.--Ornamental motive derived from the preceding
design (Chiriqui pottery).
(_After Holmes._)]
[Illustration: /Fig./ 65.--Decorative designs of the Karayas (Central
Brazil)--A, lizards (engraved on a tomb); B, flying bats; C,
rattle-snake; D, other snake (plaiting on a club).
(_After Von den Steinen._)]
It is interesting to note that the more a people loves ornament,
the less it is capable of producing drawings properly so called.
Thus the Polynesians, the Malays, the Indians of North-west America,
are past-masters in ornamentation, but they draw badly; while the
Australians, whose ornaments are rudimentary, paint on the polished
surfaces of rocks and grottos, in white, red, and yellow, large
pictures representing hunting scenes, “corroborees,” also human faces
with a sort of aureole around them (hair?), but almost always without
a mouth. The Bushmen, whose tools and arms bear no ornament, have
also their great rock-pictures. We can form an idea of them by the
annexed reproduction of a picture drawn on the wall of a cave near
Hermon, and published by Andree.[226] It represents Bushmen, who have
carried off the cattle of the Bechuanas, engaged in a struggle with
the latter, who are pursuing them. All the details of the picture are
well observed, even to the form and coats of the oxen, the respective
colours, stature, and arms of the combatants (the little yellow Bushmen
armed with bows, and the tall, black Bechuanas armed with assagais).
The Melanesians are as skilful in ornamentation as in drawing, their
drawing having a tendency to become transformed into pictography;
pictography has almost entirely swallowed up drawing among the Indians
of North America, but it reappears among the Hyperboreans (Eskimo,
Chukchi, Yakuts, Tlinkits). What all these primitive drawings lack is
perspective and relief; we should also look in vain for it in the art
of half-civilised peoples like the Chinese, the Hindus, the Persians,
the Cambodians.
[Illustration: /Fig./ 66.--Bushman painting, representing the battle
going in favour of the Bechuana, who are trying to recover their stolen
cattle.
(_After R. Andree._)]
_Sculpture_, which like drawing is met with even among the remains
of quaternary man in Europe (Fig. 85), attains little development
among uncultured peoples in general. The carved wooden articles of
the Melanesians and Negroes, the gigantic statues of the Polynesians
of Easter Island, the figures in low relief of the monuments of the
ancient Peruvians, Mexicans, and Khmers, the numerous little figures in
wood or potter’s clay of the Malays, Negroes, etc., are not superior
to the stage of development of Egyptian and Greek art earlier than
the fifth century /B.C./, in which the median or sagittal plan
of the human body is always straight, vertical, and never distorted.
Even if there is an assemblage of two or more figures, their lines are
always either parallel or perpendicular to each other.[227] Needless to
say that among many peoples “national art” has been profoundly modified
by an adopted religion, which has introduced or created an art of its
own (prohibition against representations of human figures by Islam,
conventional postures in Buddhist drawings, etc.).
_Dancing._--The productions of the graphic arts charm the eye after
completion; those of the musical arts are enjoyed only while being
performed. But there is an art which combines these two modes of
æsthetic enjoyment: it is _dancing_. Its plastic attitudes are so many
pictures, and its movements have a rhythm like music.
[Illustration: /Fig./ 67.--Symbolic adze of Mangaia Island (Hervey
Islands or Cook’s Archipelago, Polynesia), Museum of Copenhagen.
(_After Haddon._)]
This art, sunk among civilised peoples to the level of a simple
amusement, plays a large part in the life of uncultured peoples. Thus
the great nocturnal festivals of the Australians, the “Corroborees”
(Fig. 59), celebrated in connection with important events, are only a
succession of very varied dances, strictly regulated, and executed by
young men trained a long time beforehand by the elders of the tribe
for these choregraphic exercises. Men alone take part in them, as in
all serious affairs; women are only there as spectators or musicians.
It is by dancing alone that, among uncultured peoples, joy in common
is expressed in regard to a happy event which affects the whole tribe.
Let us also note that these dances are executed by a gathering of
individuals who have given proof of their solidarity, having sacrificed
part of their liberty by submitting to the discipline of the elders
in order to afford pleasure to the people of their tribe. The joy,
moreover, is mutual, for the performers “feel” the dance without seeing
it, and the spectators witness it without experiencing the immediate
effects of movement.
Dancing is then a great school of “solidarity” in primitive societies;
more than any other act, it brings into prominence the benefits of
sociality. But this favourable result is only possible in the smaller
groupings, in which at least half of the society may take part in
the dance; this condition no longer exists in civilised societies,
numbering millions on millions of members: thus in these societies the
choregraphic art is in a complete state of decay.
Dances of the character of “corroborees” are a step towards the _ritual
dances_ which play so great a part in most religions. I may instance
the epileptic dances of the Siberian and American Shamans, or the
Negro fetich-worshippers, the gyrations of the Dervishes, the masked
ballets performed by the Buddhist-Lamaite priests, the sacred dances
of the Levites among the ancient Jews, etc. Christianity retained the
dance in its rites even until the eighth century, and one may still see
the partial survival of it in what takes place in Seville Cathedral
during the Easter festival. Dancing assumed a sacred character by
being conjoined with a symbolic mimicry, especially as connected with
offerings, with sacrifices, or with religious ecstasy.
But it has also evolved in another direction by having associated with
it two other species of mimicry, one recalling strife and battles,
the other love. Hence come _warlike dances_ and _lascivious dances_.
The latter have this characteristic, that they are performed either
solely by women--as, for example, the “Hula-Hula” of the Hawaiians--or
by both sexes (Eskimo), and very seldom by men alone (the “Kaoro”
of the Australians, performed at the advent of the marriage season,
or the time of the yam harvest). Moreover, it may be presumed that
the alternating dances of men and women were, at the beginning of
societies, a powerful aid to sexual selection.
The movements performed during the dance vary with every people, and
also according to the nature of the dance. The Australians leap,
advance suddenly, then fall back with threatening or lascivious
gestures, as the case may be (Fig. 59); Negroes add to the steps and
innuendoes movements of the head and pelvis. Among most Asiatics
(Chinese, Japanese, Malays) men do not dance, and in the case of women,
the choregraphic art degenerates into a series of rhythmical movements
of the arms and trunk, without change of position. It is to mimicry,
that is to say, the first step towards pantomime, that dances imitating
the movements of animals (Eskimo, Araucans) owe their origin. The
pantomime of the uncultured, like their dancing, is always accompanied
by music and song, sometimes by masks and disguises. We have but to
develop the share of song and recitation, to render the music less
dependent on the rhythm, in order to transform these exercises into
real _dramatic representations_.[228]
Vocal and instrumental _music_ are the common property of mankind as
a whole. There is no people that does not know at least how to hum an
air of a few notes; and rare are those who have no instrument of music
(Fuegians, certain Micronesians, Veddahs). The music of uncivilised
peoples is most frequently reduced to one only of its elements,
rhythm,--better understood when we bear in mind that the greater part
of the time it forms only the accompaniment of dancing. Melody and
harmony are reduced to their simplest expressions.[229] And yet in the
opinion even of specialists it is very difficult to note the airs of
“savages,” and three-fourths of the notations published in different
works are incorrect. That is the result of these airs having been
written down according to our scale, which is heptatonic. Now this
scale, although existing even among many uncivilised peoples, is not
the only one which is used.
We find them using certain successions of sounds with fixed intervals,
that is to say, true scales of two, three, and even six sounds.
Most frequently “natural tones” (tonic, third, fifth) form the
scale (Bushmen). The airs of uncivilised peoples are often in the
_minor_ tone, for example, the following Fuegian air, transcribed by
Carfort:--[230]
[Illustration]
In fine, the scale being merely a convention based on the construction
of instruments, the most perfect of which, like our violin, can only
give half-tones or, exceptionally, quarter or third tones, there can
be no such thing as a “natural scale.” It is the musical instruments
of a people that determine the scale it uses; thus the study of these
instruments should precede that of singing.[231]
As the most primitive music may be reduced to rhythm alone, the
earliest musical instruments were objects serving to beat time; pieces
of wood clapped together, as still seen to-day among the Annamese,
or rude drums like those which the Australian women use during the
corroborees--a cloak of opossum skin stretched between the thighs,
on which they tap with a stick (Fig. 59). But, like castanets, the
triangle, etc., these, properly speaking, are not instruments of
music producing a scale, or at any rate a series of varying sounds.
Three kinds of true musical instruments may be distinguished--wind
instruments, string instruments, and percussion instruments. Of wind
instruments the most ancient is probably the flute or the shepherd’s
pipe of cane, bamboo, animal or human bone, etc., as seen among the
Botocudos and the Yurunas of Xingu (Brazil).[232] The bow was the
first corded instrument; the Kafirs and Negroes of Angola “play on the
bow” by attaching to it a gourd and tightening at will by means of a
sliding ring the cord which they play (Fig. 135). As to instruments of
percussion: the most generally used among the Negroes are the Sansá, a
sort of musical box (Fig. 68), and the xylophone, a kind of piano (Fig.
69). The most uncivilised peoples, however, have composite instruments;
as, for instance, the “gora” of the Bushmen (Figs. 70 and 71).[233]
[Illustration: /Fig./ 68.--“Sansá” or “Zimba,” a musical box of the
Negroes, placed on or in a calabash; played with the fingers.
(_After Wood._)]
The harp of the Kafirs and the gora give forth only feeble sounds,
and serve chiefly to satisfy the musical taste of the performer; they
are scarcely heard by the others. This fact, like others, proves
that music is a less powerful means of socialisation than dancing; it
affords joys more intimate, more individual, except when it is reduced
to what is its least musical element so to speak--rhythm; then the part
it plays is a considerable one, especially in warlike manifestations.
No army has been able to do without music.
[Illustration: /Fig./ 69.--“Marimba,” the Negro xylophone.
(_After Wood._)]
_Poetry._--Singing and poetry are indistinguishable during the early
stages of civilisation. The poetic productions of uncultured peoples
have as yet been very little studied,[234] but from what is known
about them it appears that the earliest creations of this kind are
repeated rhythmical phrases, expressing the most common sensations, and
concerned chiefly with the digestive functions: complaint in regard
to hunger, the pleasure experienced after feasting, or a desire for
certain articles of food as expressed in this song of the Australian--
“The peas that the white men eat are good--
I should like some, I should like some.”
Afterwards come the emotions of hunting: the jubilation at having
killed an animal, recitatives after the manner of the following:--
“The Kangaroo ran very fast,
But I ran faster still.
How fat he was,
How plump he was!
What a fine roast he made!
O Kangaroo, O Kangaroo.”
[Illustration: /Fig./ 70.--Bushman playing on the “gora.”
(_Partly after Wood._)]
War-songs are not unknown to Australian savages, but the beauties of
nature and the feelings of love are subjects only occasionally met
with in the poetry of uncivilised hunters. They begin to appear among
the Eskimo, and are highly developed among half-civilised nomads,
contemplators of nature, whose lyric poetry is sometimes inspired by
very elevated feelings, as is shown, for example, by Kalmuk songs.[235]
As to epic poetry, it is met with only among half-civilised peoples who
possess a history.
[Illustration: /Fig./ 71.--Detail of construction of the “gora.”
(_After Wood._)]
_Religion._--For a considerable time now the question has been
discussed by ethnographers, theologians, and moralists, whether or not
there exist peoples without a religion. The answer to this question
depends entirely on the meaning we give to religion. If by this word is
meant an acknowledged revealed doctrine, accompanied by a well-ordered
ritual and a strongly organised priesthood, as implied in current
speech, or even if it simply means the belief in “beings superior
to man” and in “a future beyond the tomb,” as Quatrefages would use
it,[236] there are certainly peoples who have nothing of this kind. If,
on the contrary, we content ourselves with the _minimum definition_
of religion, given by E. B. Tylor,[237] “belief in spiritual beings,”
it is difficult to find a tribe on the earth which has not this
belief. I should like to modify a little this definition of Tylor’s by
substituting “imaginary beings” for “spiritual,” to indicate clearly
their psychological origin, for it is in beings entirely created out of
their imagination that savages believe.
This belief originates chiefly in the fear of unusual or extraordinary
events, and especially of disease and death. Sometimes the idea of a
“spiritual being” is so inseparable from the sensation of fear that it
only presents itself when the latter occurs. Thus the Fuegian Yahgan
have no clear idea of “spirits,” and it is only at dusk under the
influence of fear that they imagine themselves to be attacked by the
“savages of the west,” by the “Walapatu,” which some of them regard as
ghosts, and others quite simply as individuals of a neighbouring tribe,
that of the Alakalufs.[238]
But cases of this kind are rare, and most uncivilised peoples have the
rudiments of natural religion a little more developed, a belief in
spirits less vague. We may, with the eminent ethnologist Tylor, give
the name of “Animism” to this primitive religion.
Animism in the most primitive forms consists in believing that the
body of a man contains another more subtle being, a “soul,” capable
of being temporarily separated from its envelope, and admitting
further that everything that exists, beasts, plants, stones, down to
objects fashioned by hand, have equally a soul which is endowed with
corresponding qualities. Thus the Shans of the Kieng-Tung (upper Burma)
believe that the soul leaves the body of a man asleep in the form of
an iridescent butterfly;[239] the Malays have the same ideas, and take
care on that account not to awaken a man asleep. His observation of the
shadow which exactly repeats every movement of a man, of reflections
in the water, may confirm a savage in his animistic beliefs, but what
especially establishes them are the dreams and visions during which
he lives another life and is “another man.” Death is considered as
a separation of man from his shadow or his soul, something like the
separation which is effected during sleep. Most frequently it is the
breath, the air breathed out, which represents the immaterial being
that forsakes the body. Thus, among the natives of Nias Island, the one
to become chief is he who succeeds, sometimes not without a desperate
struggle with his rivals, in swallowing the last breath of the dying
chief.[240] Besides, for the most part uncivilised people think that
death is only a prolonged sleep, and it is on that account that some
are accustomed to keep the corpse as long as possible, sometimes until
putrefaction sets in, in their huts or in the immediate neighbourhood
(see p. 243). They imagine that the soul seeks to re-enter the body,
and if it does not find it, wanders restlessly around the dwellings,
and is angry with the living who have hidden the body from it. Cases
of lethargy, of hypnotic sleep, of fainting-fits, which strike the
imagination the more forcibly because more rare than ordinary sleep,
confirm the belief in the separation of man and his double. In fine,
the mind of a savage does not regard death as a natural phenomenon, but
as a violent and very prolonged separation of man and his soul.
But what is the cause of this separation? Here comes in the second
element of animism, the belief in “spirits,” imaginary beings who take
the most diverse forms, like the soul itself. Sometimes the “soul” of
a dead man is also a “spirit”; there are here no subtle distinctions.
However, what especially differentiates “spirits” from “souls” is
this, that the former are more active, that they constantly take part
in human affairs, so that the whole life of a savage is passed in
compromises or continual struggles with spirits. Every disease, every
misfortune, every death, comes from the angry “spirit.” Happily, side
by side with wicked spirits, who are legion, there are encountered
from time to time benevolent ones, who become protectors, or “patrons”
of men. Most frequently these are the “souls” of the old men of the
tribe, of the “ancestors.” As these old men have ordinarily endowed
the tribe or the family with some material advantage by giving during
life counsels dictated by their long experience, they are laid under
contribution after death. Their memory is recalled in times of
misfortune, and advice is asked of them. This is the origin of ancestor
worship.
The number of spirits is infinite, there is a whole world of them.
Every object, sometimes every category of objects, has its spirit,
and as objects may be made so spirits may be created, or at least
may be made to communicate to objects a portion of their power. This
circumstance gives birth to _fetichism_,[241] which is only one of
the sides of animism, one of the grossest forms. Fetichistic peoples
consider certain objects called _fetiches_, _gris-gris_, etc., as
beings endowed with an inherent will and power. Every object, a piece
of wood, a bundle of grass, a stone, a nail, a claw, a lock of hair,
a horn, a rag, a bit of string, may become fetiches; the material
value of the object bears no relation to its power as a fetich; the
most insignificant things may be the greatest fetiches.[242] As to
the relations which exist between spirits and objects, they are of a
twofold character: either the fetich is regarded as an animated being,
as the material envelope of a spirit, or it is only an instrument by
which the existence of the spirit is manifested, a vehicle in some way
of part of its power. It must be remarked, however, that the two forms
of connection between the spirit and the material object are frequently
interblended, and a fetich to which sacrifices are offered as to a
living being, may become a simple amulet preserving its possessor from
wounds or any other misfortune. Fetichism is the first step towards
_idolatry_, but it is essentially distinguished from it in that idols
are only _images_, _representations_ of certain supernatural beings,
whilst fetiches are these beings themselves, or at least the direct
vehicles of a portion of their power. The boundary line between
idolatry and fetichism is, however, often difficult to define exactly.
Animism with its variants, more or less developed, is the religion
of all uncivilised peoples untouched by international or universal
religions: Buddhism, Christianity, Mahomedanism, etc., and even among
those who have accepted one of these religions, animistic ideas persist
with great obstinacy.
How many Christian peasants there are who believe as firmly in spirits,
in ghosts, in guardian genii of cattle and crops, as in the various
saints of the church with whom they sometimes confound them! Besides,
spirits, such as angels and demons, are admitted by most Christian
churches. Fetichistic practices also form part of the outer worship
of Lamaite Buddhism and Taoism, and they are not only tolerated but
prescribed by other universal religions. I need but mention the
amulets, talismans, scapularies, miracle-working relics, etc., among
Mahomedans (Figs. 139 and 140) and Christians (Fig. 161).
_Worship of Natural Objects and Phenomena._--It is impossible to review
even the principal forms which animism assumes. As society grows and
develops, the notion of the soul and of spirits is transferred from
the more immediate objects surrounding man to objects more remote and
the phenomena of nature. The latter, by reason of their greatness or
violence, are regarded as spirits much higher and more powerful than
the others. They become superior divinities entitled to “worship.” Thus
we have the worship of water (sacred rivers, Ganges, Nile), worship of
plants and especially trees (sacred forests of the Gauls, the Germans,
the Finns, the Papuans), the worship of animals and more especially
birds (the eagle of the Aztecs and the Peruvians, the ibis of the
Egyptians), and serpent-worship (prevalent everywhere, but principally
in India and Western Africa).
The worship of the elements varies according to the kind of life led
by a people; the succession of climates, the rain which gives life
to the seed, the sun which burns the grasses, etc., are incarnations
of so many divinities for agricultural peoples, while they have no
importance for peoples living by the chase. Fire is considered as a
divinity by several peoples (see p. 153). The adoration of fire was the
ancient religion of the Persians, and is still preserved to-day among
certain Parsees of India: we pass over the god Xiuhtecutli, “lord of
fire,” of the ancient Mexicans, the goddess Vesta of the Romans, etc.
Often the worship of the sun was combined with that of fire, and the
ancient solar festivals sung by Ovid have become the midsummer eve
bonfires, which the clergy still bless every year in several places in
Lower Brittany. I can only mention the legends relating to the divine
origin of fire, which all resemble more or less that of Prometheus (the
_Mahonika_ of the Polynesians, the _Tleps_ of the Circassians, etc.).
The difference between the great spirits which animate the phenomena
of nature and the little spirits concerned with the trivial facts of
man’s daily life once admitted, there is established a hierarchy in the
world of spirits entirely modelled on the hierarchy of human society.
Above gnomes, elves, demons, sprites, and so many common spirits, we
find among the Khonds[243] the six great gods (of rain, first-fruits,
procreation, hunting, war, and boundaries), who in their turn are
governed by the sun-god and his wife, the powerful goddess of the
earth. The religion of the Khonds is already _polytheism_, and this may
end either in the dualism of two contrary principles (the germs of
which are seen in the example quoted above, and which are impersonated
by Ormuzd and Ahriman of the religion of Zoroaster) or in _pantheism_
or _monotheism_.
_Religion and Morality._--Animistic religion is destitute of the moral
element which many persons consider inseparable from religion. Its
code of morals has nothing to do with religion; it is based on public
opinion and social conventions independent of beliefs. It is only in
the more developed forms of polytheistic or monotheistic religions,
and especially in those whose ministers sought to have an effective
influence on the people, that the moral element was introduced little
by little and placed beside the dogmatic and ritual element.[244] If
the survival of the soul and the after-life form part of the beliefs of
a great number of uncultured peoples, as shown especially by funereal
rites, the life beyond the tomb is for them only the continuation of
real life; the country of the dead resembles the country of the living,
the same customs flourish there, the same usages, the same kind of
life; the Eskimo continue their fishing feats, and may even die there
a second time; the Polynesians give themselves up there to the same
pleasures as they enjoyed on earth, etc. The other world is only a
duplicate of this world, and no idea of justice is connected with it;
the evil and the good in it have the same destiny.[245]
_Rites and Ceremonies._--What is the nature of the relations of man
and spirits in primitive religion? Sometimes an attempt is made to
combat the spirits. The Fuegians barricade themselves in their huts and
keep themselves armed, in readiness to ward off blows, the whole night
long, when they fancy they hear the “walapatu”;[246] the Australians
hold an annual celebration for the purpose of getting rid of all
the ghosts of the last year’s dead; the Negroes of the Gold Coast
assemble together in arms from time to time to drive the evil spirits
from their village; rushing about in all directions, with frantic
howling, they return home and assert that they sleep more easily, and
for a while afterwards enjoy better health.[247] But these contests
with spirits are rare, and it is usually found preferable to employ
craft against them (hence exorcism, incantation, the use of symbols,
etc.), or gentleness (prayer, offerings, sacrifices). The last method,
which is most frequently used, develops into an outward cult; the
“fetich-house,” like that seen in Dahomey and other Negro countries,
becomes transformed into a temple; the place of sacrifice into an
altar, and instead of real animals or plants, images of them in paper,
butter, clay, etc., are sacrificed, or finer offerings such as grass,
flowers, perfumes, etc.
_Priesthood._--In the earliest stages of religion man put himself into
communication with spirits at his own risk and peril; but as he soon
perceived that he was frequently unsuccessful in obtaining what he
wished, and could not prevent them laying their spells on him, he was
compelled to have recourse to intermediaries. He observed that certain
individuals are better fitted to deal with spirits; that they can fall
into a trance and remain in this death-like condition long enough to
be able to treat with demons, and he came to the conclusion that they
were appointed to intercede with spirits for simple mortals and to
direct propitiatory ceremonies, offerings, and prayers. It was thus
that the priesthood arose, under the form of fetich-men or shamans, who
play so important a part in the life of Negroes, the Tunguse peoples
and Mongols, and the Indians of North America. All the functions of
life, marriage, pregnancy, the entering upon the age of puberty, birth,
death, hunting or warlike expeditions, require the offices of the
sorcerer, of the shaman, who is usually at the same time a doctor (see
below). As society develops, numerically and in civilisation, there
is formed a sacerdotal class, which sometimes holds both the temporal
power and the civil (as is still the case to-day in certain regions of
Africa, and in Thibet). Often side by side with the regular priesthood
thus constituted the ancient sorcerers continue to live and to wield
great authority over the people; in most of the Lama-Buddhist temples
the presence of a sorcerer is admitted for oracles, propitiations, etc.
_International Religions._--This is not the place to speak of universal
or international religions like _Brahmanism_, spread over India and
the Asiatic archipelago; the once flourishing _Buddhism_ of the south,
based on the doctrine of the “little vehicle” (Hinâyâna), the last
remains of which are to be found in Siam and the Island of Ceylon; the
Buddhism of the north, or Lamaism, based on the doctrine of the “great
vehicle” (Mâhāyāna), which rules the Thibetan and Mongol world,
nor of the other more or less altered forms of this religion, Chinese
Foïsm, Japanese and Annamese Buddhism, Indian Jainism, etc. And we
must take for granted as better known the other universal religions,
_Judaism_ with its sects which do not acknowledge the _Talmud_ (like
the _Karaites_ of the Crimea); _Mahomedanism_, with its two principal
divisions, the sect of _Shiahs_ (Persians) and that of the _Sunis_
(other Mahomedan peoples); _Christianity_, with its great divisions and
numerous sects (Copts, Nestorians, etc.). And we must notice finally
the “national religions”--_Taoism_ in China, _Shintoism_ in Japan,
_Confucianism_ in both these countries, etc.
_Myths._--Myths occupy an intermediate position between science,
poetry, and religion, for they try to explain all phenomena while
leaving a great deal to the imagination. The infinite variety of myths
is only apparent. They all may be reduced to a very limited number
of ideas or fancies, which are the same among all peoples. They are
all explanations, more or less simple and childish, of the origin of
plants, animals, men, the earth, the stars, etc., founded on the idea
of animism. The details change according to the nature of the country,
but the substance remains always the same. It is a vegetation of fancy
more or less luxuriant and beautiful on the common ground of animism.
Thus religion and myths are often one and the same thing, since they
are derived from a common source, from that habit which primitive
men share with children of giving a personality to every object they
contemplate, from the sun to a knife, from a blade of grass to the
ocean. We cannot dwell longer on this subject, which would require
developing at considerable length;[248] I will merely say that on
carefully studying myths we find in them psychological data relating
to the mode of thinking of a people, rather than indications of the
relations and affinity of one people with another, for borrowed details
in myths are innumerable among all peoples.[249]
_Sciences._--It is only with the rudiments of the sciences that we have
to deal in the case of uncivilised and even half-civilised peoples.
The _knowledge of numbers_ exists more or less among all the peoples
of the earth. We often say, “Such a people can only count up to three,
because it has no special word to denote a higher number.” This
reasoning is not always just, for, by adopting it, we might accuse the
French of scarcely being able to count beyond sixty, since they have no
special words for, say, seventy-five or eighty, and to express these
fall back on words already employed in counting--sixty and fifteen
or four score. Many savages employ a similar method. Thus the Yahgan
Fuegians have only words for the number one (_Kaueli_), two (_Kombaï_),
and three (_Maten_); but they make use of the words _Akokombaï_
(literally “the other two,” or “another time two”) to denote four, and
_Akomaten_ (the other three) to indicate six.[250]
Certain Australians proceed in a similar manner.[251] If these tribes
had been able to continue the same process beyond this point they would
have arrived at the duodecimal system; what they lacked for that were
objects which should always be within their reach to assist them in
this mode of calculation. Peoples who thought of distinguishing by
special words the first five figures had at once, in their fingers,
an aid to enable them to set up a decimal system. Many South American
Indians, Caribs, Tupis, and Tamanacas of the Orinoco count by the
fingers, hands, and feet, employing thus the decimal system; instead
of five they say “a hand”; instead of ten, “two hands”; instead of
twelve, “two hands and two fingers”; instead of fifteen, “two hands
and one foot”; instead of twenty, “a man”; and so forth. With the
development of civilisation the fingers of the hand are replaced by
objects, by little stones, seeds or shells, which are arranged in boxes
representing units, tens, etc. From these were derived the abaci of the
Chinese and Russians.
_Geometry--Calculation of Time._--Measures of distances, surfaces,
etc., which gave birth to geometry, are found again among certain
uncivilised peoples. The Indians of Veragua find the height of a
tree by measuring the distance from which they see it, turning their
back and bending the body in such a way that the head is between the
outstretched legs; the ancient Egyptians measured the surfaces of their
lands empirically by means of geometric figures, etc. The measurement
of time by the movement of the stars exists among all peoples, the
succession of day and night, and the phases of the moon, being the
things easiest to observe. Thus days and months or “moons” are nearly
everywhere equal. But it is not the same with regard to the year. It
is the succession of vegetation or seasons which determines periods
longer than months. Thus the Andamanese count by successions of three
seasons (cold, dry, and wet); the Papuans by successions of two seasons
(corresponding to the prevailing monsoons), but the epochs at which
these seasons arrive do not coincide exactly with lunar divisions, and
tallying computation becomes more difficult. Thus, as soon as writing
was invented, the more intelligent of the nomadic tribes, especially,
turned their attention towards noting coincidences of the position of
the sun in relation to the constellations, according to the seasons,
for the principal constellations, especially the Great Bear, Orion, the
Southern Cross, are known by almost all the peoples of the earth, who
have emerged from the state of savages dependent on the chase.
The verification of the time when the year begins (coinciding generally
with some commemorative festival) became later the business of State
astronomers (Egypt, India), who were at the same time astrologers or
magicians.
_Calendars and Clocks._--There are yet in China astronomers who
periodically harmonise the lunar with the solar year, though, for the
ordinary purposes of life, other peoples make use of the solar year
calculated either from a reign (as in ancient Egypt), or day by day in
a cycle of sixty years, formed by the combination of ten _kou_ (stock)
and twelve _tchi_ (branches), as in the Hindu calendar. A similar
calendar is found among the ancient Mexicans.[252] In regard to the
divisions of the days into hours, they are somewhat uncertain among
the Andamanese and Australians, and they begin to assume a definite
character only with the introduction of the sundial, as for example
among the Zuñi Indians, who have before nearly every cabin a pillar,
the shadow of which serves to indicate the hours. In China and in Corea
the use of the candle which burns a certain time is a remnant of the
mode of calculating time according to the duration of the fire.[253]
The running of water and sand has been utilised, as we know, in the
construction of clepsydras and other primitive clocks of classic
antiquity and of the Middle Ages.
_Geography and Cartography._--We can only indicate summarily what
primitive navigators and half-civilised nomads know of geography.
Orientation according to the cardinal points is known even to peoples
as primitive as the Fuegians and the Andamanese, but cartography is
only developed among those who draw. The Australians can draw maps on
the sand very accurately, except as regards distances; we have even
maps drawn on weapons, like that of figure 79, /F/, representing
a lagoon and an arm of Broken River, between which is situated the
territory of the tribe to which the owner of the weapon belonged.[254]
The Micronesians of the Marshall Islands construct with bamboo rods
geographical maps in which these rods represent the direction of the
currents, and the shells or seeds attached to their intersections, the
different islands.[255]
[Illustration: /Fig./ 72.--Eskimo geographical map.
(_After Holm._)]
But it is the Eskimo who excel in the cartographic art, as may be seen
from the specimen which I reproduce from S. Holm.[256] This consists
of two wooden tablets (Fig. 72). One of them (A) represents all the
fiords, bays, and capes of that part of the coast of Eastern Greenland
comprised between Kangerdenarsikajik (_a_) and Sicralik (_b_); we
must read the names of these places in the direction of the arrow.
The second tablet (B) represents the islands off the coast; situated
opposite to different bays. By bringing it near to, or removing it
from the first, we have the distance between the coast and each of
the islands. The ancient Mexicans had topographical maps, marine
charts, and even cadastral plans, much more perfect than those of the
ancient Egyptians. The Chinese maps still further surpass these models,
and remind one already of our coasting pilot books in their use of
orientation by means of the compass.[257]
I should take up the whole chapter if I were to give an account,
even in an abridged form, of everything concerning _primitive
medicine_.[258] I will merely point out that, according to their
animistic conception of the world, “savages” have no other idea of
disease than as a malevolent manifestation of a spirit who enters into
the man, of a demon who “possesses” him. Thus, fetich-men and shamans
are the first doctors. They know how to “drive” from the body of the
patient the evil spirit who torments him, to “draw out” the disease
in the form of a pebble, or some other object deftly concealed before
the operation. Moreover, the bones, mummified portions of the body
of sick persons, or of fetich-men themselves, may become after their
death relics possessing miraculous healing power, etc. For the matter
of that, even among civilised peoples diseases are often attributed
to the “evil eye,” to “spells” (France), to “Jettatura” (Italy), etc.
Among the Indians of North America there are also special healers
(medicine-men) who are held in great esteem, and who sometimes form a
corporation (_Mide_), into which admission can only be gained after
a professional examination in the “doctors’ cabin” (Schoolcraft,
Hoffmann). Along with incantations and magical proceedings, with
dancing and music, the principal remedies of the Australian healers
and the American medicine-men are scarifications, blood-letting,
and blood-sucking. Negroes show a preference for cupping-glasses.
The processes of advanced surgery among certain peoples go as far
as ovariotomy (Australians), laparotomy and the cæsarian operation
(Negroes of Uganda); but not as far as the amputation of limbs, the
fingers excepted. Trepanning, known from the quaternary period in
Europe, is also employed among Negroes, Persians, New Hebridians, etc.,
for nervous diseases, epilepsy, etc. The clyster, the great remedy of
our ancestors, is hardly used, except by the Dakota Indians and the
Negroes of the west coast of Africa, where also the doctor squirts
the drug into the sick person from his mouth through the medium of a
calabash (Monnier).[259] Attenuation of virus is even practised by,
for example, the Bushmen, who use it to cure the bite of scorpions and
serpents.[260]