CHAPTER I--PRIMITIVE MAN

1. THE DISCOVERY OF PRIMITIVE MAN Early philosophical hypotheses--Prehistoric remains--Schweinfurth's discovery of the Pygmies of the Upper Congo--The Negritos of the Philippines, the inland tribes of Malacca, the Veddahs of Ceylon.

2. THE CULTURE OF PRIMITIVE MAN IN ITS EXTERNAL EXPRESSIONS Dress, habitation, food, weapons--Discovery of bow and arrow--Acquisition of fire--Relative significance of the concept 'primitive.'

3. THE ORIGIN OF MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY Bachofen's "Mother-right" and the hypothesis of an original promiscuity--Group-marriage and the Malayan system of relationship--Erroneous interpretation of these phenomena--Polygyny and polyandry--The monogamy of primitive peoples.

4. PRIMITIVE SOCIETY The primitive horde--Its relation to the animal herd--Single family and tribe--Lack of tribal organization.

5. THE BEGINNINGS OF LANGUAGE Languages of primitive tribes of to-day--The gesture-language of the deaf and dumb, and of certain peoples of nature--natural gesture-language--Its syntax--General conclusions drawn from gesture-language.

6. THE THINKING OF PRIMITIVE MAN The Soudan languages as examples of relatively primitive modes of thinking--The so-called 'roots' as words--The concrete character of primitive thought--Lack of grammatical categories--Primitive man's thinking perceptual.

7. EARLIEST BELIEFS IN MAGIC AND DEMONS Indefiniteness of the concept 'religion'--Polytheistic and monotheistic theories of the origin of religion--Conditions among the Pygmies--Belief in magic and demons as the content of primitive thought--Death and sickness--The corporeal soul--Dress and objects of personal adornment as instruments of magic--The causality of magic.

8. THE BEGINNINGS OF ART The art of dancing among primitive peoples--Its importance as a means of magic--Its accompaniment by noise-instruments---The dance-song--The beginnings of musical instruments--The bull-roarer and the rattle--Primitive ornamentation--Relation between the imitation of objects and simple geometrical drawings (conventionalization)--The painting of the Bushmen--Its nature as a memorial art.

9. THE INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PRIMITIVE MAN Freedom from wants--Significance of isolation--Capacity for observation and reflection--No inferiority as to original endowment demonstrable--Negative nature of the morality of primitive man--Dependence upon the environment.