[PREFACE]
This volume pursues a different method, in its treatment of the problems of folk psychology, from that employed in my more extensive treatment of the subject. Instead of considering successively the main forms of expression of the folk mind, the present work studies the phenomena, so far as possible, synchronously, exhibiting their common conditions and their reciprocal relations. Even while engaged on my earlier task I had become more and more convinced that a procedure of this latter sort was required as its supplement. Indeed, I believed that the chief purpose of investigations in folk psychology must be found in a synthetic survey. The first prerequisite of such a survey is, of course, a separate examination of each of the various fields. The history of the development of the physical organism aims to understand not merely the genesis of the particular organs but primarily their co-operation and the correlation of their functions. An analogous purpose should underlie an account of the mental development of any human community and, finally, of mankind itself. In addition to the problem of the relations of the separate processes to one another, however, we must in this case face also the broader question as to whether or not mental development is at all subject to law. This it is, therefore, that the sub-title of the present volume is intended to suggest. That we can be concerned only with outlines, moreover, and not with an exhaustive presentation of details, follows from the very fact that our aim is a synthetic survey. An exhaustive presentation would again involve us in a more or less detached investigation of single problems. A briefer exposition, on the other hand, which limits itself to arranging the main facts along lines suggested by the subject-matter as a whole, is, without doubt, better adapted both to present a clear picture of the development, and to indicate its general amenability to law, the presence of which even the diversity of events cannot conceal.
This being my main purpose, I believed that I might at once reject the thought of giving the various facts a proportionate degree of attention. In the case of the better known phenomena, it appeared sufficient to sketch their place in the general development. That which was less familiar, however, or was still, perhaps, generally unknown, seemed to me to require a more detailed discussion. Hence the following pages deal at some length with the forms of original tribal organization and of the consummation of marriage, with soul, demon, and totem cults, and with various other phenomena of a somewhat primitive culture. On the other hand, they describe in barest outline the social movements that reach over into historical times, such as the founding of States and cities, the origin of legal systems, and the like. No inference, of course, should be drawn from this with regard to the relative importance of the phenomena themselves. Our procedure, in this matter, has been governed by practical considerations alone.
The above remark concerning the less familiar and that which is as yet unknown, will already have indicated that folk psychology in general, and particularly a history of development in terms of folk psychology, such as this book aims to give, are as yet forced to rely largely on suppositions and hypotheses, if they are not to lose the thread that unites the details. Questions similar to the ones which we have just mentioned regarding the beginnings of human society, or others, which, though belonging to a later development, nevertheless still fall within the twilight dawn of history—such, for example, as those concerning the origin of gods and of religion, the development of myth, the sources and the transformations in meaning of the various forms of cult, etc.—are, of course, as yet largely matters of dispute. In cases of this sort, we are for the most part dealing not so much with facts themselves as with hypotheses designed to interpret facts. And yet it must not be forgotten that folk psychology rests on precisely the same experiential basis, as regards these matters, as do all other empirical sciences. Its position in this respect is similar, more particularly, to that of history, with which it frequently comes into touch in dealing with these problems of origin. The hypotheses of folk psychology never refer to a background of things or to origins that are by nature inaccessible to experiential knowledge; they are simply assumptions concerning a number of conjectured empirical facts that, for some reason or other, elude positive detection. When, for example, we assume that the god-idea resulted from a fusion of the hero ideal with the previously existing belief in demons, this is an hypothesis, since the direct transition of a demon into a god can nowhere be pointed out with absolute certainty. Nevertheless, the conjectured process moves on the factual plane from beginning to end. The same is true, not merely of many of the problems of folk psychology, but in the last analysis of almost all questions relating to the beginning of particular phenomena. In such cases, the result is seldom based on actually given data—these are inaccessible to direct observation, leaving psychological probability as our only guide. That is to say, we are driven to that hypothesis which is in greatest consonance with the sum total of the known facts of individual and of folk psychology. It is this empirical task, constituting a part of psychology and, at the same time, an application of it, that chiefly differentiates a psychological history of development, such as the following work aims briefly to present, from a philosophy of history. In my opinion, the basis of a philosophy of history should henceforth be a psychological history of development, though the latter should not intrude upon the particular problems of the former. The concluding remarks of our final chapter attempt, in a few sentences, to indicate this connection of a psychological history of development with a philosophy of historical development, as it appears from the point of view of the general relation of psychology to philosophical problems.
W. WUNDT.
LEIPZIG,
March 31, 1912.
[CONTENTS]
[INTRODUCTION]—History and task of folk psychology—Its relation to ethnology—Analytic and synthetic methods of exposition—Folk psychology as a psychological history of the development of mankind—Division into four main periods.
[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.
[1. THE GENERAL CHARACTER OF TOTEMISM]—The word 'totem'—Its significance for cult—Tribal organization and the institution of chieftainship—Tribal wars—Tribal ownership of land—The rise of hoe-culture and of the raising of domestic animals.
[2. THE STAGES OF TOTEMIC CULTURE]—Australian culture—Its low level of economic life—Its complicated tribal organization—Perfected weapons—Malayo-Polynesian culture—The origin and migrations of the Malays—Celestial elements in Malayo-Polynesian mythology—The culture of the American Indians and its distinctive features—Perfection of totemic tribal organization—Decline of totem cults—African cultures—Increased importance of cattle raising—Development of despotic forms of rulership—Survivals of totemism in the Asiatic world.
[3. TOTEMIC TRIBAL ORGANIZATION]—Similarity in the tribal organizations of the Australians and the American Indians—Totem groups as cult associations—Retrogression in America—The totem animal as a coat of arms—The principle of dual division—Systems consisting of two, four, and eight groups.
[4. THE ORIGIN OF EXOGAMY]—Unlimited and limited exogamy—Direct and indirect maternal or paternal descent—Effects upon marriage between relatives—Hypotheses concerning the origin of exogamy—Hygienic theory—Marriage by capture.
[5. MODES OF CONTRACTING MARRIAGE]—Marriage by peaceful capture within the same kinship group—Exogamous marriage by barter—Marriage by purchase and marriage by contract—Survivals of marriage by capture.
[6. THE CAUSES OF TOTEMIC EXOGAMY]—Relation of clan division to totem groups—Totem friendships—Parental and traditional totem alliances—The rise of exogamy with direct and with indirect maternal or paternal descent.
[7. THE FORMS OF POLYGAMY]—Origin of group-marriage—Chief wife and secondary wives—Polyandry and polygyny and their combination—The prevalence and causes of these forms of marriage.
[8. THE DEVELOPMENTAL FORMS OF TOTEMISM]—Two principles of classification—Tribal and individual totemism—Conception and sex totemism—Animal and plant totemism—Inanimate totems (churingas)—Relation to ancestor worship and to fetishism.
[9. THE ORIGIN OF TOTEMIC IDEAS]—Theories based on names—Spencer and Lang—Frazer's theory of conception totemism as the origin of totemism—The animal transformations of the breath soul—Relations to soul belief—Soul animals as totem animals.
[10. THE LAWS OF TABOO]—The concept 'taboo'—The taboo in Polynesia—The taboo of mother-in-law and father-in-law—Connection with couvade—The sacred and the impure—Rites of purification—Fire, water, and magical transference.
[11. SOUL BELIEFS OF THE TOTEMIC AGE]—The psyche as a breath and shadow soul—Its relation to the corporeal soul—Chief bearers of the corporeal soul—Modes of disposition of the dead.
[12. THE ORIGIN OF THE FETISH]—Fetishes in totem cult—Attainment of independence by fetishism—Fetishes as the earliest forms of the divine image—Retrogressive development of cult objects—Fetish cult as a cult of magic and demons—Amulet and talisman.
[13. THE ANIMAL ANCESTOR AND THE HUMAN ANCESTOR]—The Mura-Mura legends of the Australians—The animal ancestor—Transition to the human ancestor—Relation to disposal of the corpse and to cults of the dead—Surviving influences of totemism in ancestor cult.
[14. THE TOTEMIC CULTS]—Customs relating to disposition of the corpse and to sacrifices to the dead—Initiation into manhood—Vegetation cults—Australian Intichiuma festivals—Cults of the soil at the stage of hoe-culture—Underlying factor of community of labour—Unification of cult purposes and their combination with incipient deity cults.
[15. THE ART OF THE TOTEMIC AGE]—Tatooing—Ceramics—Construction of dwellings—Pole-houses—The ceremonial dance—Instruments of concussion and wind Instruments—Cult-songs and work-songs—The märchen-myth and its developmental forms.
[CHAPTER III—THE AGE OF HEROES AND GODS]
[1. GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE HEROIC AGE]—Significance of the individual personality—The hero an ideal human being, the god an ideal hero—Changes in economic life and in society—The rise of the State.
[2. THE EXTERNAL CULTURE OF THE HEROIC AGE]—Folk migration and the founding of States—Plough-culture—Breeding of domestic animals—The wagon—The taming of cattle—The ox as a draught animal—The production of milk—Relation of these achievements to cult—Warfare and weapons—Rise of private property—Colonization and trade.
[3. THE DEVELOPMENT OF POLITICAL SOCIETY]—The place of the State in the general development of society—The duodecimal and the decimal systems in the organization of political society—The mark community and military organization.
[4. FAMILY ORGANIZATION WITHIN POLITICAL SOCIETY]—The joint family—The patriarchal family—Paternal descent and paternal dominance—Reappearance of the monogamous family.
[5. THE DIFFERENTIATION OF CLASSES]—Common property and private property—The conquering race and the subjugated population—Distinction in rank and property—The influence of State and of legal system.
[6. THE DIFFERENTIATION OF VOCATIONS]—The priesthood as combining class and vocation—Military and political activity—Agriculture and the lower vocations—-The gradual equalization of respect accorded to vocations.
[7. THE ORIGIN OF CITIES]—The original development of the city—Castle and temple as the signs of a city—The guardian deity of city and State—Secondary developments.
[8. THE BEGINNINGS OF THE LEGAL SYSTEM]—Custom and law—Civil law as the original province of law—Political and religious factors—The council of elders and the chieftain—The arbitrator and the appointed judge—The religious sanction of legal practices.
[9. THE DEVELOPMENT OF PENAL LAW]—Blood revenge and its replacement—Wergild—Right of sanctuary—Development of imprisonment out of private custody of wrongdoer—The Jus Talionis—Increase in complexity of rewards and punishments.
[10. THE DIFFERENTIATION OF LEGAL FUNCTIONS]—Division of the judicial function—Influence of social organization—Logical classification of forms of the State lacking in genetic significance—Development of constitutions out of history and custom.
[11. THE ORIGIN OF GODS]—Degeneration theories and developmental theories—Hypotheses of an original monotheism or polytheism—Theory based on nature-mythology—Demon theory of Usener—Characteristics distinguishing the god from the demon and the hero—The god as the result of a fusion of ideal hero and demon.
[12. THE HERO SAGA]—The hero of saga and the hero of märchen—The purely mythical and the historical hero saga—Magic in märchen and saga—The religious legend—The saint legend.
[13. COSMOGONIC AND THEOGONIC MYTHS]—The gods as demoniacal beings—Their struggle with the demons of earliest times—Myths of creation—Sagas of flood and of universal conflagration—Myths of world-destruction.
[14. THE BELIEF IN SOULS AND IN A WORLD BEYOND]—Sequence of ideas of the beyond—The spirit-village—The islands of the blessed—Myths of the underworld—Distinction between dwelling-places of souls—Elysium—The underworld and the celestial regions—Purgatory—Cults of the beyond—The conception of salvation—Transmigration of souls.
[15. THE ORIGIN OF DEITY CULTS]—Relation of myth and cult—Religious significance of cult—Vegetation cults—Union of cult purposes—Mystery cults.
[16. THE FORMS OF CULT PRACTICES]—Prayer—Conjuration and the prayer of petition—Prayer of thanksgiving—Praise—The penitential psalm—Sacrifice—Purpose of sacrifice originally magical—Jewish peace-offering and sin-offering—Development of conception of gift—Connection between value and sacrifice—Votive and consecration gifts—Sacrifice of the first fruits—Sanctification ceremonies—Means of lustration as means of sanctification—Water and fire—Baptism and circumcision—Magical sanctification—Human sacrifice as a means of sanctification.
[17. THE ART OF THE HEROIC AGE]—Temple and palace—The human figure as the subject of formative art—Art as generic and as individualizing—The appreciation of the significant—Expression of subjective mood in landscape painting—The epic—Its influence upon the cult-song—The drama—Music as an accessory and as an independent art.
[CHAPTER IV—THE DEVELOPMENT TO HUMANITY]
[1. THE CONCEPT 'HUMANITY']—Herder's idea of humanity as the goal of history—The concepts 'mankind' and 'human nature'—Humanity as a value-concept—The idea of a cultural community of mankind and its developmental forms.
[2. WORLD EMPIRES]—The empires of Egypt and of Western Asia—The monarch as ruler of the world—The ruler as deity—Apotheosis of deceased rulers—Underlying cause of formation of empires—Disappearance of world empires from history.
[3. WORLD CULTURE]—The world dominion of Alexander—Greek as the universal language—Writing and speech as factors of culture—Travel as symptoatic of culture—Hellenistic world culture and its results—The culture of the Renaissance—Cosmopolitanism and individualism.
[4. WORLD RELIGIONS]—Unity of the world of gods—Cult of Æsculapius and cults of the beyond—Their transition into redemption cults—Buddhism and Christianity—Development of the idea of a superpersonal deity—The incarnate god as the representative of this deity—Three aspects of the concept 'representative.'
[5. WORLD HISTORY]—Twofold significance of the concept 'history'—History as self-conscious experience—The rôle of will in history—Prehistoric and historic periods—Influence of world culture and world religions on the rise of the historical consciousness—The philosophy of history—Its relation to a psychological history of the development of mankind.