The Origin of Man and of His Superstitions

§ 2. _What the Hypothesis Explains._—World-wide range; why the earliest known men were hunters; the erect gait; specialisation of hands; reduction of arms; and of teeth and jaws...

§ 2. _The Original Stock and the Conditions of Differentiation._—Mind of the higher apes the best clue to that of the original stock. Conditions of differentiation: the hunting...

§ 4. _Causes and Grounds of Belief._—Derived from perception. Evidentiary causes, or grounds, raising some probability; and non-evidentiary causes which are not grounds. Memory,...

§ 3. _The Beginnings of Magic._—A matter of speculation. The earliest were probably the simplest, and the kinds that have prevailed most widely by tradition and hereditary predi...

§ 7. _How Ghosts and Spirits are imagined._—Have the same attributes, and not at first immaterial; confused with the corpse. Various conceptions. Number of souls to each body. E...

§ 3. _Ideas and Practices of Magic adopted by Animism._—Invisible force. Power of charms ascribed to spirits. Omens first magical, then spiritual warnings. Spells become prayers...

§ 3. _Some Signs Conceived of as Magical._—By coincidence some events become signs of others by a mysterious and infallible tie. Moods of elation or depression favour belief in...

§ 1. _The Rise and Fall of Wizardry._—At first no professionals. Early professionals unpaid; except by influence; which enables them to maintain order. Animism gives rise to sor...

§ 2. _Of the Origin of Totemism._—Totemism not universal. Totemic names sometimes recent, generally ancient. Totemism has not the psychological necessity of Magic and Animism. O...

§ 2. _The Differentiation._—The Wizard a physician—genuine and magical drugs; a surgeon with some knowledge of Anatomy—effective remedies and the sucking-cure; of Psychology and...

That the human species as we now see it, with its several races, Mongolian, Negro, Mediterranean, etc., represents a Family of the Primates is generally agreed; and there is evi...

Following the general belief that Man is descended from a stock nearly allied to the greater anthropoids—Orang, Chimpanzee, Gorilla—we may assume that his mental endowments were...

Inasmuch as the influence of superstition upon the history of society can hardly be exaggerated, it must be worth while to inquire into its origin and nature. But this inquiry l...

Magic, until recently, was somewhat neglected by those who treated of savage ideas. In Sir E. B. Tylor’s _Primitive Culture_ only one chapter is given to Magic, against seven to...

If, when the cohesion of the hunting-pack had weakened, belief in Magic by giving authority to elders became very influential and useful in primitive societies, still greater in...

Magic and Animism now everywhere flourish side by side, or in confused association, and, by those who believe in them, are not discriminated as they may be by a spectator. As to...

“When great disasters are about to befall a state or nation it often happens that there is some warning,” says Herodotus.[339] It happens, indeed, not only to states and nations...

In describing the occult arts and those who practise them, terms are so loosely used that it may be convenient to premise that by “Wizard” (or Medicine-man) is here meant either...

Of very much less importance in the history of culture than Animism or Magic, Totemism interests us by its strangeness. To be descended from a crocodile, or blood-brother to the...

It is not infrequently said that Science is derived from Magic, and the tenet is strengthened by eminent names; nor is it displeasing to some bystanders whose attitude toward Sc...