in terms of our own, the confasion disappears. When, verifying a priori inference by a posteriori proof, we recog- nize the fact that the primitive man has no snch ideas as na- tural and unnatural, possible and impossible, — ^no such ideas as law, order, cause, etc.; and that while he shows neither rational surprise nor the curiosity which prompts examina- tion, he lacks fit words for carrying on inquiry, as well as the requisite power of continued thinking; we see that instead of being a speculator and maker of explanations, he is at firsfc an almost passive recipient of conclasions forced on him. And on asking what these are, we find that he is inevitably betrayed into an initial error, and that this in- evitably originates an erroneous system of thought which elaborates as he advances.
How natural is the evolution of this system of thought, we shall perceive on now recapitulating, in the briefest way, the results reached in the foregoing eighteen chapters.
§ 206. Changes in the sky and on the earth, hourly, daily) and at shorter or.longer intervals, go on in ways about which the savage knows nothing — ^unexpected ap- pearances and disappearances, transmutations, metamor- phoses. These, while seeming to show that arbitrariness characterizes all actions around, foster the notion of a duality in the things which become visible and vanish, or which transform themselves; and this notion is confirmed by experiences of shadows, reflections, and echoes.
The impressions thus produced by converse with external nature, favour a belief set up by a more definite and familiar experience — ^the experience of dreams. Having no con- ception of mind, the primitive man regards a dream as a series of actual adventures: he did the things, went to the places, saw the persons, dreamt of. Untroubled by incon- gruities, he accepts the facts as they stand; and, in pro- portion as he thinks about them, he is led to conceive a double which goes away during sleep and comes back.
THE PRIMinVB THEOBT OF THINGS. 443 .This conception of his own duality, seems confirmed by the somnambulism occasionally witnessed.
Still more decisively does it seem confirmed by the oc- currence of certain other abnormal insensibilities. In swoon, Apoplexy, catalepsy, and the unconsciousness following vio- lence, it appears that the other-self, instead of returning at call, will not return for periods varying from some minutes to some days. Occasionally after one of these states, the other-self gives an account of what has happened in the in- terval; occasionally no such account of its adventures can be got; and occasionally prolonged absence raises the doubt whether it has not gone away for an indefinite period.
The distinction between these conditions of temporary insensibility and the condition of permanent insensibility, is one which, sometimes imperceptible to the instructed, cannot be recognized by the savage. The normal uncon- sciousness of sleep from which the other-self is readily brought back, is linked by these abnormal kinds of uncon- sciousness from which the other-self is brought back with difficulty, to that permanent kind of unconsciousness from which the other-self cannot be brought back at all. Still, analogy leads the savage to infer that it will eventually come back. And here, recalling the remark often made among ourselves after a death, that it is difficult to believe the deceased, lying not more quietly than he has often done, will never move again, let me point out how power- ful over the primitive mind must be the association between this sleep-like quiescence and the waking that habitually follows — an association which, even alone, must go far to- wards suggesting resurrection. Such resurrection, shown by the universal fear of the dead to be vaguely imagined even by the lowest races, becomes clearly imagined in pro- portion as the idea of a wandering duplicate is made defi- nite by the dream -theory.
The second-self ascribed to each man, at first differs in tiothing from its original. It is figured as equally visible.
444 THE DATA OF SOCIOLOGT.
eqDallj material; and no less suffers hunger^ tliirst, fafigne, pain. Indistingoisliable from tlie person UmseU, capable of being slain^ drowned^ or otherwise destroyed a second time, the original ghost, soul, or spirit, differentiates slowly in supposed nature. Aiming to reconcile conclusions, pro- gressing thought ascribes a less and less gross materiality; and while the ghost, haying at the outset but a temporary second life, gradually acquires a permanent one, it deviates more and more in substance from body: becoming at length etherealized.
This double of the dead man, originally conceiyed as like him in all other respects, is conceiyed as pursuing like occupations after going away at death. If of predatoiy race, it fights and hunts as before; if of pastoral, it con- tinues to look after cattle, and drink milk; if of agricul- tural, it resumes the business of sowing, reaping, etc. And from this belief in a second life which is also like the first in form of goyemment and social arrangements, there result the practices of leaying with the corpse f ood^ drink, clothes, weapons, and of sacrificing at the grave do- mestic animals, wives, slaves.
The place in which this life after death is believed to be passed, varies with the antecedents of the race. Often the ghosts are thought of as mingling with their descendants, and portions of meals are daily set aside for them; some- times the adjacent forests are their imagined haunts, and they are supposed to consume the offerings of food left there; while in other cases the idea is that they have gone back to the region whence the race came. This other-world is reached by a journey over land, or down a river, or across the sea^ towards this or that point of the compass, according as the traditions determine. Hence at the grave there are left fit appliances for the journey — canoes for the voyage, or horses to ride, dogs to guide, weapons for de- fence, money and passports for security. And where burial on a mountain range entails belief in this as a residence of THB PBIHITIVB THE0B7 OF THIt^GS. 445 ancestral ghosts^ or where snch range has been held by a conquering race^ the heayens, supposed to be accessible from the mountains^ come to be regarded as the other- world, or rather as one of the other-worlds.
The doubles of dead men, at first assumed to have but temporary second lives, do not, in that case, tend to form in popular belief an accumulating host; but they necessarily tend to form such a host when permanent second lives are ascribed to them. Swarming everywhere, capable of appear- ing and disappearing at will, and working in ways that cannot be foreseen, they are thought of as the causes of all things which are strange, unexpected, inexplicable. Every deviation from the ordinary is ascribed to their agency; and their agency is alleged even where what we call natural causation seems obvious.
Begarded as workers of all remarkable occurrences in the surrounding world, they are regarded as workers also of unusual actions in living persons. The body, deserted by its other-self during insensibility, normal or abnormal, can then be entered by the other-seH of some one else, living or dead; and hence to the malicious doubles of dead men are ascribed epilepsy and convulsions, delirium and insanity. Moreover, this theory of possession, accounting for all those bodily actions which the individual does not will, makes comprehensible such acts as sneezing, yawning, etc., and is extended to diseases at large and to death; which is habi- tually attributed to an invisible enemy.
While the entrance of friendly spirits into men, giving supernatural strength or knowledge, is desired and prayed for, this entrance of spirits which inflict evils, physical and mental, is of course dreaded; and when it is believed to have occurred, expulsion is the only remedy. The exorcist, by loud noises, frightful grimaces, abominable stenches, etc., professes to drive out the malicious intruder. And this simpler form of exorcism is followed by the developed form in which a more powerful spirit is called in to help.
446 TBI DATA or SOCIOLOOT.
Whence, also, there eyentaally grow ap the practices of the^ sorcerer; who, using means to coerce the souls of the dead^ commissions them to work his eyil ends.
Bat while primitive men, regarding themselves as at the mercy of surrounding ghosts, try to defend themselves by the aid of the exorcist and the sorcerer, who deal with ghosts antagonistically; there is simultaneously adopted a contrary behaviour towards ghosts — a propitiation of them. Two opposite ways of treating the corpse show us the di- vergence of these two opposite policies. In some cases the avowed aim is that of preventing revival of the deceased, so that he may not trouble the living: a kind of motive which, where he is supposed to have revived, prompts an- tagonistic dealings. But in most cases the avowed aim is that of securing the welfare of the deceased on resuscitation: a kind of motive which prompts subsequent propitiatory observances.
Out of this motive and these observances comd all forms of worship. The awe of the ghost makes sacred the shelter- ing place of the tomb, and this grows into the temple; while the tomb itself becomes the altar. From provisions placed for the dead, now habitually and now at fixed in- tervals, arise religious oblations, ordinary and extraordi- nary— daily and at festivals. Immolations and mutilations at the grave, pass into sacrifices and offerings of blood at the altar of a deity. Abstinence from food for the benefit of the ghost, develops into fasting as a pious practice; and journeys to the grave with gifts, become pilgrimages to the shrine. Praises of the dead and prayers to them, grow into religious praises and prayers. And so every religious rite is derived from a funeral rite.
After finding that the earliest conception of a superna- tural being, and the one which remains common to all races, is that of a ghost; and after finding that the ways of propi- tiating a ghost were in every case the originals of the ways of propitiating deities; the question was raised whether the J THB PAIMITIYB THB0B7 OF THINGS. 447 ghost is not tlie type of supernatural being out of wliicli all other types are evolved. The facts named in justifica- tion of an affirmative answer were of several classes. From the lips of primitive peoples themselves^ were quoted proofs that out of ghost-worship in general, there grew up the worship of remote ancestral ghosts, regarded as creators or deities. Worship of deities so evolved, we found character- ized ancient societies in both hemispheres: co-existing in them with elaborate worship of the recent dead. Evidence was given that by the highest races as by the lowest, ancestor-worship, similarly practised, similarly originated deities; and we saw that it even now survives among the highest races, though overshadowed by a more developed worship. Concluding, then, that from worship of the dead every other kind of worship has probably arisen, we pro- ceeded to examine those worships which do not externally resemble it, to see whether they have traceable kinships.
From the corpse receiving daily offerings before burial, to the embalmed body similarly cared for, and thence to figures formed partly of the dead man^s remains and partly of other things, we passed to figures wholly artificial: so finding that the effigy of a dead man supplied with food, etc., is then propitiated in place of him. Proof was found that this effigy of the dead man occasionally becomes the idol of a god; while this continued propitiation becomes an estab- lished worship of it. And since the doubles of the dead, believed to be present in these images of them, are tbe real objects to which offerings are made; it follows that all idolatry, hence arising, is a divergent development of ancestor-worship. As this belief extends to objects rudely resembling human beings, and to supposed parts of human beings, as well as to those which by contact with their bodies have absorbed their odour or spirit, it results that resident ghosts come to be assumed in many things besides idols: especially those having extraordinary appearances, properties, actions. That the propitiation of tbe in- 448 THE DATA 01 SOCIOLOaT.
habiting ghosts^ constitating fetishism^ is thus a col- lateral result of the ghost-theory^ is shown by yarions facts; bat especially by the fact that fetishism is absent where the ghost-theory is absent or bat little developed, and extends in proportion as the ghost-theory evolves.
It was demonstrated that animal-worship is another de- rivative form of ancestor-worship. Actual and apparent metamorphoses occurring in the experiences of the savage, encourage belief in metamorphosis when anything suggests it: all races showing us that the transformation of men into animals and of animals into men, is a familiar thought. Hence house-haunting creatures are supposed to be the dead returned in new shapes; and creatures which frequent the burial-place are taken for other disguises which souls put on. Further, the widely-prevalent habit of naming men after animals, leads, by the inevitable misinterpretation of traditions, to beliefs in descent from animals. And thus the sacred animal, now treated with exceptional respect, now propitiated, now worshipped, acquires its divine cha- racter by identification with an ancestor, near or remote.
Similarly with plant-worship. In every case this is the worship of a spirit originally human, supposed to be con- tained in the plant — supposed either because of the exciting effects of its products; or because misapprehended tradition raises the belief that the race descended from it; or because a misinterpreted name identifies it with an ancestor. Every- where the propitiated plant-spirit is shown by its conceived human form, and ascribed human desires, to have originated from a human personality.
Even worship of the gi'eater objects and powers in Nature proves to have the same root. When it marks the place whence the race came, a mountain is described in tradition as the source or parent of the race, as is probably the sea in some cases; and both also give family names: worship of them as ancestors thus arising in two ways. Facts imply that the conception of the dawn as a person, results from THS PBIMITIYB THSOBY OF THINGS. 449 the giTJQg of dawn as a birth-name. The personalizatioa of stai*s and of constellations, we found associated among in* ferior races with the belief that they are men and animaU who once lived on the eivrth; So, too, is it with the Moon, Traditions of people in low stages tell of the Moon as having been originally a man or woman; and the Moon is still a source of birth-names among the uncivilized: the impliea- tion beiug that reverence for it is reverence for a departed person. Lastly, worship of the Sun is derived in two ways from ancestor-worship. Here conquerors coming from tb^ region of sunrise, and therefore called '^ children of tha Sun,'^ come to regard the Sun as ancestor; and there tii9 Sun is a metaphorical name given to an indiridual, either because of his appearance, or because of his achievemea(9, or because of his exalted position: whence identification with the Sun in tradition, and consequent Sun-worship.
Besides these aberrant developments of ancestor-worship which result from identification of ancestors with idols, animals, plants, and natural powers, there are direct deve- lopments of it. Out of the assemblage of ghosts, some evolve into deities who retain their anthropomorphic charac- ters. As the divine and the superior are, in the primitive mind, equivalent ideas — as the living man and re-appearing ghost are at first confounded in his beliefs — ^as ghost and god are originally convertible terms; we may understand how the deity develops out of the powerful man, and the ghost of the powerful man, by small steps. Within the tribe the chief, the magician, or the man otherwise skilled, held in awe during his life as showing powers of unknown origin, and extent, is feared in a higher degree when> after death, he gains the further powers possessed. by all ghoats; and still more the stranger bringing new arts, as well as tha conqueror of superior race, is treated as a superhuman \mng during life and afterwards worshipped as a yet greater superhuman being. Kemembering that the most marvellous version of any story habitually obtains the gi*eatest currenoyi Q a 450 THE DATA Of BOCFOLOQT.
and that so^ from generation to generation^ the deeds of such traditional persons must grow by unchecked exaggerations eagerly listened to; we may see that in time any amount of expansion and idealization can be reached.
Thus it becomes manifest that setting out with the wandering double which the dream suggests; passing to the double that goes away at death; advancing from this ghost, at first supposed to have but a transitory second life, to ghosts which exist permanently and therefore accumulate; the primitive man is led gradually to people surrounding space with supei*natural beings which inevitably become in his mind causal agents for everything unfamiliar. And in consistently carrying out the mode of interpretation ini- tiated in this way, he is committed to the ever-multiplying superstitions we have traced out.
§ 207. How entirely natural is the genesis of these be- liefs, will be seen on now observing that the Law of Evolu- tion is as clearly exemplified by it as by every other natural process. I do not mean merely that, as we have found, a system of superstition arises by continuous growth, each stage of which leads to the next; but I mean that the general formula of Evolution is conformed to by it.
The process of integration is, in the first place, shown us by simple increase of mass. In extremely low tribes who have but faint and wavering beliefs in the doubles of the dead, there is no established group of supposed super- natural beings. Among the more advanced, who hold that ghosts have temporary second lives, the dead members of the tribe form an imagined assemblage which, though continually augmented, is continually dissolving away — a cluster which does not increase because the subtractions equal the additions. But when, later, there arises the be- lief in a permanently-existing ghost, this cluster necessarily grows; and its growth becomes great in proportion both as the society enlarges and as traditions are longer preserved* THl PBIHITIYB THEORY OF THINQS. 4&1 Hence sncli a multiplication of supernatural beings that even tlie superior among them are scarcely numerable. Gomara tells us that '^ the gods of Mexico are said to number 2,000 "; and to this number must be joined the far greater numbers of demons, spirits, and ghosts of undistiD- guished persons, recognized in every locality. A like immense increase by simple integration was exhibited in ancient mythologies; and is now exhibited by the mythology of India, as well as by that of Japan. Along with this increase of mass, conforming to the Law of Evolution, there goes increase of coherence. The superstitions of the prin^itive man are loose and inconsistent: difiEerent membern of a tribe make different statements; and the same individual varies in his interpretations as occasion suggests. But in course of time the beliefs are elaborated into a well-knit system. Further, the hypothesis to which the ghost-theoiy leads, at first limited to anomalous occurrences, extends itself to all phenomena; so that the properties and actions of surrounding things, as well as the thoughts and feelings of men, are ascribed to unseen beings, who thus constitute a combined mechanism of causation.
While increasing in mass and in coherence, the super- natural aggregate increases in heterogeneity. Substan- tially similar as ghosts are at first conceived to be, they become unlike as fast as the tribe grows, complicates, and begins to have a history: the ghost-fauna, almost homo- geneous at the outset, differentiates. Originally, the only distinctions of good or bad among the doubles of the dead, are such as were shown by the living men; as are also the only unlikenesses of power. But there soon arise conceived contrasts in goodness between the ghosts of relatives and the ghosts of other persons; as well as stronger con- trasts between friendly ghosts belonging to the tribe and malicious ghosts belong^g to other tribes. When social ranks are established, there follow contrasts of rank and accompanying potency among supemalund beings; which, as 452 THB DATA OF 80C1OL00T.
legends expand^ git>w more and more mailed. Bvenkiallj there is formed in this way a hierarchy of partially-deified ancestors, demigods, great gods, and among the great gods one who is supreme; while there is simultaneously formed a hierarchy of diabolical powers. Then oome those further differentiations which specialize the functions and habitats of these supernatural beings; until each mytho- logy has its g^eat and small presiding agents, from Apollo down to a dryad, from Thor down to a water-sprite, from a Saint down to a fairy. So that out of the originally small and almost uniform aggregate of supernatural beings, there gradually comes an aggregate as multiform as it is vast.
Change from the indefinite to the definite is no less idearly displayed. That early stage in which men show fear of the dead and yet do not themselves expect any future existence, shows us an extreme indefiniteness of the ghost- Iheory. Even after the ghost-theory is well established the iMliefs in the resulting supernatural beings, though strong, are indistinct. At the same time that Livingstone describes the people of Angola as *' constantly deprecating the wrath of departed souls,^^ he says that they '^ have half -developed ideas and traditions of something or other, they know not what.'' And kindred accounts of uncivilized races elsewhere, are given by various travellers. But along with progress there goes increasing clearness of these conceptions. The different kinds of supernatural beings grow more defined in their forms, dispositions, powers, habits; until, in developed mythologies, they are specifically and even individually dis- tinguished by attributes precisely stated.
Undeniably, then, the beliefs constituting a system of superstitions evolve after the same manner as all other things. By a process of contiimous integration and dif* f erentiation, they are formed into an aggregate which, while izicreasing, passes from an indefinite incoherent homogeneity to a definite coherent heterogeneity. This correspondence is, iBdeed, inevitable. The law which is conformed to by the THB PBIMITiyB THEOBT OF THINGS. 453 erolving haman being, and wliicli is consequently conformed to bj tbe evolving buman intelligence^ is of necessity con- formed to by all products of that intelligence. Expressing itself in stmctores, and by implication in the functions of those structures^ this law cannot but express itself in the concrete manifestations of those functions. Just as lan« guage^ considered as an objective product^ bears the impress of this subjective process j so^ too^ does that system of ideas concerning the nature of things, which the mind gradually elaborates. The theory of the Cosmos, beginning with fitful ghost-agency, and ending with the orderly action of a uni- versal Unknown Power, exemplifies once more the law ful- filled by all ascending transformations.
So that in fact the hypothesis of Evolution absorbs the antagonist hypotheses preceding it, and strengthens itself by assimilating their components.
CHAPTER XXVII.
THE SCOPE OF SOCIOLOGY.
§ 208. Thbouqh the minds of some who are critical re- specting logical order, there has doubtless passed the thought that, along with the Data of Sociology, the foregoing chap- ters have included much which forms a part of Sociology itself. Admitting an. apparent justification for this objec- tion, the reply is that in no case can the data of a science be Btated before some knowledge of the science has been leached; and that the analysis which discloses the data cannot be made without reference to the aggregate of phenomena analyzed. For example, in Biology the inter- pretation of functions implies knowledge of the various physical and chemical actions going on throughout the organism. Yet these physical and chemical actions become comprehensible only as fast as the relations of structures and reciprocities of functions become known; and, further, these physical and chemical actions cannot be described without reference to the vital actions interpreted by them. Similarly in Sociology, it is impossible to explain the origin and development of those ideas and sentiments which are leading factors in social evolution, without re- ferring directly or by implication to the phases of that evolution.
The need for this preliminary statement of data^ and th^ THB BCOPA Of SOCIOLOOT* 455 especial need for the latter part of it, will be seen when the results are gathered up, generalized, and formulated.
§ 209. After recognizing the truth that the phenomena of social evolution are determined partly by the external actions to which the social aggregate is exposed, and partly by the natures of its units; and after observing that these two sets of factors are themselves progressively changed as the society evolves; we glanced at these two sets of factors in their original forms.
A sketch was given of the conditions, inorganic and organic, on various parts of the earth's surface; showing the effects of cold and heat, of humidity and dryness, of surface, contour, soil, minerals, of floras and faunas. After seeing how social evolution in its earlier stages depends entirely on a favourable combination of circumstances; aud after seeing that though, along with advancing dovelopmeut, there goes increasing independence of circumstances, these ever remain important factors; it was pointed out that while dealing with principles of evolution which are common to all societies, we might neglect those special external factors which determine some of their special characters..
Our attention was then directed to the internal factors as primitive societies display them. An account was given of " The Primitive Man — Physical '^: showing that by stature, structure, strength, as well as by callousness and lack of energy, he was ill fitted for overcoming the difficulties in the way of advance. Examination of *' The Primitive Man — Emotional,^' led us to see that his improvidence and his uxplosiveness, restrained but little by sociality and by the altruistic sentiments, rendered him unfit for co-operation. And then, in the chapter on " The Primitive Man — Intel- lectual,'' we saw that while adapted by its active and acute perceptions to primitive needs, his type of mind is defi- cient in the faculties required for progress in knowledge.
After recognizing these as the general traits of the pri- 456 THB DATA OF SOCIOLOOT.
mitire social uuit^ we found tliat tliere remained to be noted certain more special traits, implied by bis ideas and their accompanying sentiments. This led us to trace the gVBdsis of those beliefs concerning his own nature and the nature of surrounding things, which were summed up in the last chapter. And now observe the general conclusion reached. It is that while the conduct of the primitive man is in part determined by the feelings with which he regards men around him, it is in part determined by the feelings with which he regards men who have passed away. From these two sets of feelings, result two all-important sets of eocial factors. While the fear of the living becomes the root of the political control, the fear of the dead becomes the root of the religious control. On remembering how large a ahare the resulting ancestor-worship had in regulating life among the people who, in the Nile-valley, first reached a high civilization — on I'emembering that the ancient Peru- vians were subject to a rigid social system rooted in an ancestor-worship so elaborate that the living might truly be called slaves of the dead — on remembering that in China, too, there has been, and still continues, a kindred worship generating kindred restraints; we shall perceive, in the fear of the dead, a social factor which is, at first, not less important, if indeed it is not more important, than the fear of the living.