The human species

by A. de Quatrefages

I grant that religion and superstition are often, as it were, fused into the creeds of certain races, so that the priest and the sorcerer are confounded in one person. But this is not always the case; and, even where the connection forms an apparent confusion, we should unquestionably endeavour to distinguish the two elements. Now this task has been too often neglected in dealing with inferior races. Here again.

I remark at each step the prejudicial influence of European pride. The most careless writer would certainly not connect with Christianity, as it is understood at the present day in France, the dismal or ludicrous tales collected in the country districts by Villemarqué, Souvestre, and others. He would place them, with all their accompanying practices, in what may be called the popular mythology. Should not also the man of science make a similar distinction, when trying to form a true estimation of the religion, properly so called, of barbarous or savage nations?

To those who ask how Fetishism came to be implanted in Guinea side by side with the conception of a Supreme Being, the creator and governor of all that exists? how northern populations could reconcile Shamanism with the belief in that God of whom Ghengis Khan had formed such a great and elevated idea? I ask again how the strangest superstitions came to be accepted in former times by all Christian sects? how it is that they still exist amongst us? True, in our enlightened classes, neither Protestant nor Catholic would enter upon a course of sorcery, of which there were so many instances but two or three centuries ago, and which were so often followed by condemnation and capital punishment. In our more remote country districts, however, the belief in sorcery is as strong as it was universal in the Middle Ages. The newspapers inform us from time to time of actions, proving that, if left to themselves, these populations would willingly burn the unfortunate victims suspected of having told fortunes; protect themselves against witchcraft, the evil eye, etc., these same populations have often had recourse to practices strongly resembling those signalized by travellers as the proof of inferiority in certain races. In reality, the amulets of our peasants are identical with the grisgris of the Negroes.

In all these respects and in many others, all Aryan Christians have believed in that which we proudly reproach the Negroes and Mongols with believing. All Christian communities have sanctioned, and sometimes sanctified, these absurd superstitions.

The anthropologist, who has to do with science and not with theology, who has to seek the pure element in the inferior religions, ought not, on the other hand, to hesitate in pointing out that singular admixture of alloy in the superior religions, of which I have just quoted a familiar example.

From this double form of investigation, a general fact, to which I have often called attention, will, I think, be established in the minds of all, a fact which may be formulated in the following terms; great or small, religions are principally connected by the most elevated and the lowest element possessed by each; they are principally separated by intermediary forms and conceptions.

VIII. The following fact has, in several instances, been remarked, that a religion when replaced by another, leaves upon the latter more or less evident traces. Often also, the divinities of the former, without entirely disappearing, will undergo a singular process of degradation, and find a place only in the region of popular superstition. Which of our readers will not call to mind the articles, at once so charming and so impressive, of M. Heine upon the poor gods of the Greek and Roman Olympus, passed into legendary characters? These representatives of classical mythology have, in the heart of popular beliefs, become associated with Germanic and Scandinavian divinities; but have not both had predecessors?

From Quaternary ages to the present time, many races have inhabited Europe. None, undoubtedly, have entirely passed away. They have been successively subjugated, and more or less absorbed. Can the beliefs even of our most remote ancestors be entirely lost? I think not. Undoubtedly, a portion has been forgotten, but very probable also a large part has survived, more or less modified by the additions of each fresh immigration. In this manner would be formed, little by little, that popular mythology which has resisted all official doctrines, and even found a place by their side.

What has happened in our own case cannot but have happened elsewhere. Future research will perhaps show this to be the cause of the common element of the religious beliefs of peoples, separated by their different degrees of civilization, as well as by geographical position.

IX. M. Burnouf has remarked that the science of religion does not as yet exist. This is true, especially from the point of view to which I have just called attention. All general classification is, then, premature. Before attempting one, let us wait till we are at least fairly acquainted, not only with the great mass of doctrines supported by profound metaphysics, which have been accepted by civilized nations, but also with the simpler, more artless beliefs which preceded them, some of which are still in existence. Then only shall we be in a position to trace the general form and the sub-divisions of the several manifestations of the religious faculty common to all human beings. Then, also, we shall be in a position to follow the development of this faculty, and to mark its stages, by a process similar to that of the embryogenist, who studies the different phases undergone by the same being before attaining its state of perfection.