influence on the emotions, it follows that the individual must
establish some connection between himself and the object of his
worship. This is brought about through certain actions, or through the
creation of circumstances in which special conditions of consecration
are perceived, and therewith the possibility of a close relationship
with the Supreme Being. The acts through which this relationship may be
brought about, taken collectively, are embraced in the word “worship,”
and if performed according to a strict system they are called “rites.”
Sacrifice has an important place among the ceremonies observed in
accordance with ritual. It is based on a conception of the wants and
necessities of the higher beings, and, in later times, is refined
into a representation of man’s ethical feelings--unselfishness and
gratitude, which give pleasure to the Deity and thus contribute to
its happiness. But sacrifice does not retain its unselfish character
for any great length of time. Man thinks of himself first: he makes
offerings to the good spirits, but more particularly to the evil
gods, in order to pacify their fury and appease their evil desires.
Sacrifices are also offered to the dead, and from such offerings and
memorials is developed the idea of a “family” or “clan,” which outlives
the individual.
Thus, emotion is the principal active agent; but intellectual power
also must gradually lay its hold on the system of belief. The
principles discovered are formulated into a science and the cultivation
of this science becomes the special duty of the priesthood, often as
a secret art--esoteric system--in which concealment is conducive to
the maintenance of the exclusiveness and peculiar power of the priest
class. The science becomes partly mythologic-historical, partly
dogmatic, and partly ritualistic.
[Sidenote: Out of Religion Came Art]
The artistic instinct develops partly in connection with worship,
partly in the direction of its practical application to life; and
although no very sharp line of distinction is drawn between the two
tendencies, the germ at least of the difference between the fine
and the industrial arts is thus in existence from the very earliest
times. Worship gives rise to images and pictures, at first of the
very roughest form. They are not mere symbols; they are the garments
or habitations with which the spirit invests itself. The spirit
may take up its abode anywhere according to the different beliefs
of man--in a plant, an animal, a stone, above all, in a picture or
effigy that symbolically reflects its peculiarities. Therefore, the
ghosts of ancestors are embodied in ancestral images. Just as skulls
were reverenced in earlier times, in later days the images of the
dead (_korwar_) are worshipped. Such images are the oldest examples
of the art of portraiture; and the oldest dolls are the rude puppets
which according to the rites of many races--the American Indians, for
example--widows must wear about them as tokens, or as the husks or
wrappers of their husbands’ doubles.
Religion itself becomes poetry. The belief in the identity of spirits
of the departed with animals, and the myths of metamorphosis, take
the form of fables and fairy tales; the cosmogonic and theogonic
conceptions develop into mythologies; hero sagas become epics; the
myths of life in Nature become a glorification of the external world,
an expression of unity with Nature, and thus a form of lyric poetry.
[Sidenote: Artistic Expression of Life]
Everyday life, too, demands artistic expression. At first the childish
passion for the changing pictures that correspond with different ideas
of the imagination joins with the desire to impress others, and finery
in dress and ornamentation result. This has developed in every clime.
Tattooing arises not only from a religious motive, but also from the
desire for ornament. The painting of men’s bodies, the often grotesque
ideas, such as artificial deformation of the head, knocking out and
blackening of teeth, ear ornaments and mutilation of ears, pegs thrust
through the lips, and various methods of dressing the hair, may be in
part connected with religious conceptions, for here the most varied of
motives co-operate to the same end. Yet, on the other hand, there is no
doubt that they are also the outcome of a craving for variation in form
and in colour. In the same way the dance is not only an act of worship;
it is also a means of giving vent to latent animal spirits: thus,
dances are often expressions of the tempestuous sensual instincts of a
people.
[Sidenote: The Birth of the Drama]
The dance exhibits a special tendency to represent the ordinary affairs
of life in a symbolic manner; thus there are war and hunting dances,
and especially animal dances in which each of the participants believes
himself to be permeated by the spirit of some animal which throughout
the dance he endeavours to mimic. In this way dramatic representation,
which is certainly based on the idea of personification, on the notion
that a man for the time being may be possessed by the spirit of some
other creature that speaks and acts through him, originates. Thus
arose the primitive form of masques, in which men dressed themselves
up to resemble various creatures, real or imaginary, as in the case
of the animal masques of old time; for according to the popular idea
the spirit dwells in the external, visible form, and through the
imitation or adoption of its outward appearance we become identified
with the spirit whose character we assume. Among many races not only
masks proper were worn, but also the hides and hair or feathers of the
creatures personated. Dramatic representation was furthered by the
dream plays--especially popular among the American Indians--in which
the events of dreams are adapted for acting and performed. Even as men
seek illumination in dreams as to questions both divine and mundane, so
do they anticipate through dreams the dramatic representations which
shall be performed on holidays as expressions of life.
[Illustration: SAVAGE DANCES: THE FAR-OFF BEGINNINGS OF THE DRAMA
The dance is an effort to give symbolic expression to affairs and moods
of everyday life. Thus the Zulu wedding dance is self-evident in its
purpose. The second illustration depicts a strange religious dance of
the Australian natives, associated with totemism or animism. The third
picture shows dancers in Kandy endeavouring to banish evil spirits, and
the last illustrates an Australian corroboree. From such sources the
drama has been slowly evolved.]
[Sidenote: Art & Play in the Life of Man]
Play is a degeneration of the dance, and it arises less from
the instinct for beauty than from a desire to realise whatever
entertainment and excitement may be got from any incident or
occurrence. From another special inclination originate those satirical
songs of Northern peoples, written in alternating verses, in which
the national tribunal and the voice of the people are given expression
at the same time. Thus they have a truly educative character. These are
the preliminary steps to the free satire and humour that gleam through
the lives of civilised peoples, now like the flicker of a candle, now
like a purifying lightning flash, freeing men from life’s monotony, and
illuminating the night of unsolved questions. Capacity for organised
play is a characteristic that lifts man above the lower animals. The
expression of individuality without any particular object in view,
the elevation of self above the troubles of life, and free activity,
uncoerced by the necessities of existence, are characteristic both of
play and of art. Thus play, as well as art, exhibits to a pre-eminent
degree man’s consciousness of having escaped, if only temporarily,
from the coercion of environing nature; being without definite object,
it proves that he can find employment when released from the pressure
of the outer world--that is, when he is momentarily freed from his
endeavour to establish a balance between himself and the necessities
of life, with a view to overcoming the latter. Man stands in close
connection with his environment and with the immutable laws of nature;
but in play and in art he develops his own personality--a development
that neither in direction nor in object is influenced by the outer
world and its constraint.
[Sidenote: Fall of Man and Rise of the Race]
The step that leads to the overcoming of custom is the recognition
of right. “Right” is that which society strictly demands from every
individual member. Not all that is customary is exacted by right;
a multitude of the requirements of custom may be ignored without
opposition from the community as a whole, although, of course, detached
individuals may express their displeasure. The aggregate, however,
grants immunity to all who do not choose to follow the custom. In other
words, the separation of custom from right signifies the development
of a sharper line of demarcation between that which is and that which
ought to be. In primitive times “is” and “ought to be” are fairly
consonant terms; but gradually a spirit of opposition is developed;
cases arise in which custom is opposed, in which the actions of men
run counter to a previous habit. Man is conscious of the possibility
of raising himself above the unreasoning tendencies toward certain
modes of conduct, and he takes pleasure in so doing--the good man as
well as the evil. Whoever oversteps the bounds of custom, even through
sheer egotism, is also a furtherer of human development; without sin
the world would never have evolved a civilisation; the Fall of Man was
nothing more than the first step toward the historical development of
the human race.
This leads to the necessity for extracting from custom such rules
as must prove advantageous to mankind, and this collection of
axioms--which “ought to be”--becomes law.
[Sidenote: Custom, Right, and Morality]
The distinction between right and custom was an important step. The
relativity of custom was exposed with one stroke. Many, and by no means
the worst members of communities, emancipate themselves from custom. It
is the opening in the wall through which the progress of humanity may
pass. Nor do the demands of right remain unalterable and unyielding.
A change in custom brings with it a change in right; certain rules of
conduct gradually become isolated owing to the recession of custom,
and to such an extent that they lose their vitality and decay. And
as new customs arise, so are new principles of right discovered.
In this manner an alteration in the one is a cause of change in
the other--naturally, in conformity with the degree of culture and
contemporary social relations. Custom and right mutually further each
other, and render it possible for men to adapt themselves to newly
acquired conditions of civilisation.
Together with right and custom a third factor appears--morality. This
is a comparatively late acquisition. It, too, contains something of
the “ought to be,” not because of the social, but by virtue of the
divine authority or order based on philosophical conceptions. Morals
vary, therefore, as laws vary, according to peoples and to times. The
rules of morality form a second code, set above the social law, and
they embody a larger aggregate of duties. The reason for this is that
men recognise that the social system of rules for conduct is not the
only one, that it is only relative and cannot include all the duties
of human beings, and that over and beyond the laws of society ethical
principles exist.
Naturally conflicts arise between right and morals, and such struggles
lead to further development and progress.
The late appearance of ideas of morality proves that ethical
considerations were originally foreign to the god-conceptions. The
spirits, fetiches, and world-creators of different beliefs are at
first neutral so far as morals are concerned; myths and legends are
invented partly from creation theories, partly from historic data, and
partly through efforts of the imagination. In primitive beliefs there
is no trace of an attempt to conceive of deities as being good in the
highest--or even in a lower--sense; and it would not be in accordance
with scientific ethnology to appraise, or to wish to pass judgment
on, religions according to the point of view of ethics. Not until the
importance of morality in life is realised, and the profound value
of a life of moral purity recognised, do men seek in their religious
beliefs for higher beings of ethical significance, for morally perfect
personalities among the gods.
[Illustration:
Underwood & Underwood
THE EMBLEM OF A TRIBE: ALASKAN INDIAN TOTEM
This mysterious “totem” distinguishes a family or tribe of the old
Hydah Indians and is erected at Wrangel in Alaska.
]
Different elements of civilisation vary greatly in their development
in different civilised districts; one race may have a greater tendency
toward intellectual, another toward material culture. No race has
approached the Hindoos in philosophic speculation, yet they are as
children in their knowledge of natural science. One people may develop
commerce to the highest extent, another poetry and music, a third the
freedom of the individual. The language of the American Indians is in
many respects richer and more elegant than English. Therefore nothing
is farther from the truth than to say that, in case one institution of
civilised life is found to exist in a hunting people, another in an
agricultural race, or the one in an otherwise higher, and the other
in an otherwise lower nation or tribe, the institution in question
must have reached a state of perfection corresponding with the general
development of the people possessing it. According to this, the
monogamic uncivilised races were further advanced than the polygamous
Aryans of India and the Mohammedans; and the Polynesians, with their
skill in the industrial arts and their dramatic dances, perhaps in a
higher state of civilisation than Europeans!
Development fulfils itself in communities of men. Except in a human
aggregate it cannot come to pass; for the germs of development which
are brought forth by the potentiated activity of the many may exist
only in a society of individuals.
It has therefore been a significant fact that from the very beginning
men have joined together in social aggregates, partly on account of an
instinctive impulse, partly because of the necessity for self-defence.
Thus it came about that primitive men lived together in wandering,
predatory hordes, or packs. The individuals were bound to one another
very closely; there was no private life; and the sex-relationships were
promiscuous. Men not only dwelt together in groups, but the groups
themselves assimilated with one another, inasmuch as marriages were
reciprocally entered into by them. So far as we are able to determine,
one of the earliest of social institutions was that of group-marriage.
Individuals did not first unite in pairs, and then join together
in groups--such would soon have fallen asunder; on the contrary,
group-marriage itself created the bond that held the community
together; the most violent instinct of mankind not only united the few
but the many, indeed, complete social aggregates.
[Illustration: THE BEGINNINGS OF MONARCHY: AFRICAN CHIEF SEATED IN
STATE AMONG HIS HEADMEN
The tribal state has a fixed form of government. The chiefs or
patriarchs of the various families stand at the head of affairs,
the position of chief being either hereditary or elective. In most
cases, however, it is determined by a combination of both methods,
a blood descendant being chosen, provided he is able to give proof
of his competence.
]
Group-marriage is the form of union established by the association of
two hordes, or packs, according to which the men of one group marry the
women of the other; not a marriage of individual men with individual
women, but a promiscuous relationship, each man of one group marrying
all the women of the other group--at least in theory--and vice versâ;
not a marriage of individuals, but of aggregates. Certainly with such
a sex-relationship established, sooner or later regulations develop
from within the community, through which the marital relationships of
individuals are adjusted in a consistent manner; but the principle
first followed was, as community in property, so community in marriage;
and this must of itself lead to kinships entirely different from those
with which we are familiar.
Group-marriage was closely bound up with religious conceptions; single
hordes, or packs, considered themselves the embodiment of a single
spirit. And since at that time spirits were only conceived of as things
that existed in nature, the horde felt itself to be a single class of
natural object--some animal or plant, for example; and the union of
one pack with another was analogous to the union of one animal with
another. Each group believed itself to be permeated by the spirit of
a certain species of animal, borrowed its name thence and the animal
species itself was looked upon as the protecting spirit. The ancestral
spirit was worshipped in the animal, and the putting to death or
injuring of an individual of the species was a serious offence.
Such a belief is called Totemism. “Totem”--a word borrowed from the
language of the Massachusetts Indians--is the natural object or animal
assumed as the emblem of the horde or tribe, and correspondingly the
group symbolised by the class of animal or natural object is called a
Totem-group.
This belief led to a close union of all who were partakers of the
spirit of the same animal; it also strictly determined which groups
could associate with one another. And as the totem-group mimicked the
animal in its dances, and fancied itself to be possessed by its spirit,
it also ordered the methods of partaking of food, and all marriage,
birth, and death ceremonies in accordance with this conception. It
is said that, the totem being exogamous, marriages were not possible
within the totem, but only without it. Precisely so; for the original
conception was not that individuals formed unions, but that the whole
totem entered the marriage relationship; a single marriage would have
been considered an impossibility.
To which totem the children belonged--to the mother’s, to the father’s,
or to a third totem--was a question that offered considerable
difficulty. All three possibilities presented themselves; the last
mentioned, however, only in case the child belonged to another group,
a sub-totem, and in that event its descendants could return to the
original totem.
[Sidenote: The First Ideas of Kinship]
Descent in the male or in the female line occasioned in later times
the rise of important distinctions between nations. If a child follow
the mother’s totem, we speak of “maternal kinship”; conversely, of
“paternal kinship” in case of heredity through the father. Which of
these is the more primitive, or did tribes from the very first adopt
either one or the other system, thus making them of equal antiquity, is
a much-vexed question. There is reason to believe that maternal kinship
is the more primitive form, and that races have either passed with more
or less energy and rapidity to the system of descent through males, or
have kept to the original institution of maternal succession. There
are many peoples among whom both forms of kinship exist, and in such
instances the maternal is undoubtedly the more primitive; from this it
appears very probable that development has thus taken place, the more
so since there are traces of maternal kinship to be found in races
whose established form is paternal.
[Sidenote: Growth of Marriage]
As time passed, marriage of individuals developed from group-marriage
or totemism. Such unions may be polygamous--one man having several
wives--or polyandrous--one woman having several husbands. Both forms
have been represented in mankind, and, indeed, polygamy is the general
rule among all races, excepting Occidental civilised peoples. The
form of marriage toward which civilisation is advancing is certainly
monogamy; through it a complete individual relationship is established
between man and wife; and although both individualities may have
independent expression, each is reconciled to the other through the
loftier association of both. Nearly associated with monogamy is the
belief in union after death; it arises from the religious beliefs
prevalent among many peoples. Among other races there is at least the
custom of a year of mourning, sometimes for husband, sometimes for
wife, often for both.
Marriage of individuals has developed in different ways from group
or totem marriage: sometimes it was brought about through lack of
subsistence occasioned by many men dwelling together; sometimes it
arose from other causes. One factor was the practice of wife-capture:
whoever carried off a wife freed her, as it were, from the authority
of the community, and established a separate marriage for himself.
Marriage by purchase was an outcome of marriage by capture and of the
paying of an indemnity to the relatives of the bride; men also learned
to agree beforehand as to the equivalent to be paid. The practice of
acquiring wives by purchase developed in various directions, especially
in that of trading wives and in the earning of wives by years of
service. Gradually the purchase became merely a feigned transaction;
and a union of individuals has evolved--now sacerdotal, now civil in
form--from which every trace of traffic and of exchange has disappeared.
[Sidenote: Religion Ennobles Marriage]
Thus already in early times marriage had become ennobled through
religion. It is a widespread idea that through partaking of food in
common, blood-brotherhood, or similar procedures, a mystic communion of
soul may be established; and in case of marriages brought about by the
mediation of a priesthood the priest invokes the divine consecration.
Marriage is thereby raised above the bulk of profane actions of life;
it receives a certain guarantee of permanency; indeed, in many cases,
by reason of the mystic communion of souls, it is looked upon as
absolutely indissoluble.
[Illustration: THE IDEA OF MARRIAGE: WEDDING CUSTOMS IN MANY LANDS
In countries where women are subservient to men the idea of
marriage by capture or by compulsion prevails. The Bedouin bride
(2) makes a pretence of escaping and is pursued by the bridegroom
and his kinsmen. Some Africans (4) show their love by knocking
down their prospective brides. The Moorish bride (6) shrouded and
seated in bed is an object of curiosity. 1, 3, and 5 represent
respectively the marriage customs of Persians, Chinese, and
Moslems.
]
The ownership of property also was originally communistic, and the
idea of individual possession has been a gradual development. The idea
of the ownership of land, especially when developed by agricultural
peoples, is of a communistic nature; and, from common possession,
family and individual ownership gradually comes into being. It is
brought about in various ways, chiefly through the division of land
among separate families: at first only temporary, held only until the
time for a succeeding division arrives; later, owned in perpetuity. Nor
was it a rare method of procedure to grant land to any one who desired
to cultivate it--an estate that should be his so long as he remained
upon it and cultivated the soil, but which reverted to the community,
on his leaving it. There gradually developed a constant relationship
between land and cultivator as agriculture became more extended and
lasting improvements were effected on the soil. Land became the
permanent property of the individual; it also became an article of
commerce.
Ownership of movable property even was at first of communistic
character. Clothing and weapons, enchantments effectual for the
individual alone, such as medicine-bags or amulets, were, to be sure,
assigned to individuals in very early times; but all property obtained
by labour, the products of the chase or of fishing, originally belonged
to the community, until in later days each family was allowed to claim
the fruits of its own toil, and was only pledged to share with the
others under certain conditions. Finally, individuals were permitted
to retain or to barter property which they had produced by labour; and
exchange, especially exchange between individuals, attained special
significance through the division of labour.