How natives think

INTRODUCTION V
author's foreword 1
author's introduction 3
I. A brief definition of collective representations. 3
The object of this book. Its bearing upon the
work of sociologists and upon present-day psychology.
n. Earlier theories. Comte and his teaching with re- 5
gard to the higher mental functions. The mind of
the primitive, from the point of view of ethnography,
anthropology, and that of the English
school in particular.
in. A postulate granted by all: the human mind is at 7
all times and everywhere true to type. The "animism"
of Tylor and Frazer and their school implies
acceptance of this postulate.
IV. A critical examination of the methods of this 10
school. Examples drawn from Frazer's work. 1. It
leads to probabilities merely. 2. It disregards the
social nature of the phenomena to be explained.
The influence of this school upon associationistic
psychology, and Herbert Spencer's philosophy of
evolution.
V. Types of mentality differ among themselves as do 17
social types. The paucity of documentary evidence,
either contemporaneous or earlier, in determining
these differences. To what extent, and
by what methods, can this deficiency be made
good?
PART I
CHAPTER ONE
COLLECTIVE REPRESENTATIONS IN PRIMITIVES' PERCEPTIONS
AND THE MYSTICAL CHARACTER OF
SUCH 22
I. Emotional and motor elements inherent in the 22
collective representations of primitives. Mystic
properties attributed to animals, plants, part of the
human body, inanimate objects, the soil, the shape
of manufactured articles. The persistence of this
form and the danger of making any change in it
whatever. Primitives do not perceive things as we
do. Our traditional problems have to be reversed.
n. Predominance of mystic elements in primitives' 32
perceptions; their ideas of images and portraits,
names, shadows, dreams.
m. Perceptions peculiar to certain privileged persons. 47
IV. The primitive's impermeabihty to experience. The 49
reahty he perceives at once natural and supernatural.
The omnipresence of spirits.
CHAPTER TWO
THE LAW OF PARTICIPATION 54
L The diflSculty of reconstructing the connections 54
uniting the collective representations of primitives.
Examples of connections which are foreign to our
thought, and cannot be explained either by a
simple association of ideas, or by a childish application
of the principle of causahty.
n. The law of participation. An approximate state- 61
ment of this law. Primitive thinking is both mystic
and prelogical, as proved by the collective representations
respecting souls. Tylor's animism; his
theory examined. The concept of "soul" a comparatively
recent one.
m. The law of participation determines the social 74
group's idea of itself and the human and animal
groups around it. It is implied in the intichiuma
ceremonies of the Aruntas, in their idea of
mythical beings in the shape of animals, and in
Contents xxi
general in their group idea of the relations between
human beings and animals.
IV. This law is implied in the primitive conception 81
of the influences which persons and things exert
upon each other (by contact, transference, contamination,
sympathy, possession, etc.)- The representation
of personified spirits does not appear
to be a primitive one.
CHAPTER THREE
THE FUNCTIONING OF PRELOGICAL MENTALITY ... 88
I. Lx)gical and prelogical elements co-existent in pre- 88
logical mentality. Such a mentality is essentially
synthetic.
n. How memory functions in prelogical mentality; its 92
development. The sense of locahty, and of direction.
ni. Abstraction, and the concepts peculiar to pre- 98
logical mentahty.
rV. Generalization peculiar to prelogical mentality. 103
V. Primitive classification. The concepts of mana, 109
wakan, orenda, etc., and other collective representations
of a similar nature involve the law of
participation.
PART n
CHAPTER FOUR
THE MENTALITY OF PRIMITIVES IN RELATION TO THE
LANGUAGES THEY SPEAK 118
I. Number in the language of primitive peoples: the 119
dual, trial, and plural.
n. These languages strive to express the detailed 124
form, position, and movements of persons and
things.
in. An example taken from the language of Klamath 130
Indians. The immense number of suffixes and prefixes,
and their uses.
IV. The custom of talking by gesture common in 136
many undeveloped races. The similarity of sign
language and vocal language. The Lautbilder.
V. The wealth or poverty of the vocabulary of primi- 145
tive languages corresponds with the primitives*
methods of abstraction and generalization.
VI. The mystic power of words. Languages peculiar 152
to special circumstances or certain classes of
people. Sacred languages.
CHAPTER FIVE
PRELOGICAL MENTALITY IN RELATION TO NUMERATION . 158
I. Methods by which prelogical mentality supple- 158
ments any deficiency in numerals when it does not
count beyond two or three.
n. Number not at first distinct from the objects 169
enumerated. Sometimes the number-series varies
with the class of objects to be counted. "Classifiers."
The same word may indicate several numbers
in succession.
ni. There is no basis upon which primitives establish 177
their numerical system, nor is there a natural one.
The numerical system depends upon the collective
representations of the social group, and the participations
which these representations involve.
IV. The mystic power inherent in numbers. Critical 180
examination of Usener's theory. The mystic value
of the numbers four, five, six, etc. Mystic numbers
in the Vedic texts. Reply to an objection.
PART m
CHAPTER SIX
INSTITUTIONS IN WHICH COLLECTIVE REPRESENTATIONS
GOVERNED BY THE LAW OF PARTICIPATION ARE
INVOLVED (l) 199
I. Hunting. Mystic influences exercised upon the 200
quarry (such as dances, fasts, incantations, etc.)
in order to summon it, to paralyse or blind it
Mystic influences exerted upon the hunter, and
prohibitions imposed upon him and his. Ceremonies
calculated to appease the spirit of the slaughtered
game.
Contents xxiii
n. Fishing. Mystic influences, similar to the above, 210
exercised to ensure the presence of fish and to
cause it to enter the nets. Mystic arts practised
upon the fisherman, and prohibitions upon him
and his. Rites of expiation and propitiation after
fishing.
ni. Similar rites applied to warfare. 215
IV. Rites the object of which is to secure regularity 216
in the natural order of phenomena. The Aruntas'
intichiwna ceremonies. The mystic relation of
the totemistic group to its totem.
V. The couvade. Participation between child and 227
parents. Customs pertaining to pregnancy, parturition,
and eariy infancy. Persistence of participation,
even at the time of initiation.
CHAPTER SEVEN
INSTITUTIONS IN WHICH COLLECTIVE REPRESENTATIONS
GOVERNED BY THE LAW OF PARTICIPATION ARE
INVOLVED (n) 233
I. Illness always produced by the influence of 233
spirits in various forms. Diagnosis concerned with
the discovery of the spirit involved. Treatment
essentially mystic, spirit acting on spirit. Cherokee
prescriptions. Classification of diseases.
n. Death never "natural." The double significance 245
of the term. Practices of divination to discover
the power responsible for the death, and where it
is to be sought for. Juxta hoc, ergo propter hoc.
ni. Divination, a means of discovering latent or hid- 256
den participation. The divinatory significance of
games. Sympathetic magic.
CHAPTER EIGHT
INSTITUTIONS IN WHICH COLLECTIVE REPRESENTATIONS
GOVERNED BY THE LAW OF PARTICIPATION ARE
INVOLVED (ni) 269
I. The dead continue to live. Contradiction of ideas 269
which this continued existence involves. The
several stages of dying.
II. Practices immediately following a death. Prema- 276
ture burials. The condition of the dead between
his decease and the funeral obsequies. The sentiments
a dead man inspires.
in. The ceremony which ends the period of mourn- 284
ing completes the death. The obUgations which
cease when this ceremony has taken place. The
dead whose bodies do not decay are peculiarly
maleficent ghosts.
IV. The destruction of the deceased's personal effects. 289
The sense in which they continue to belong to
him. Property a mystic participation. The condition
of the widow.
V. Birth a reincarnation. Like death, it is going on 303
at different times. Mystic idea of conception.
White men are reincarnations of natives. Infanticide,
and its significance to prelogical mentaUty.
The naming of the child.
VI. The child previous to initiation not yet partici- 313
pating in the Ufe of the social group. The mystic
meaning of the rites of initiation. Apparent death
and re-birth.
Vn. Initiation of medicine-men, wizards , shamans, 319
etc., and members of secret societies. Mystic
meaniug of the rites to which they are subjected.
PART IV
CHAPTER NINE
THE TRANSITION TO THE HIGHER MENTAL TYPES . . 323
I. In coromunities of the lowest type, participations 324
are felt rather than perceived. The paucity of
myths in most of such communities.
n. Among more advanced peoples, participations 327
tend towards representation. Development of
myths and symbols. The individualization of
spirits.
in. Myths and their mystic significance. The partici- 330
pations they express. How the interpretation is
to be sought for.
Contents xxv
IV. General conditions of the retreat from prelogical 335
mentality and the progress towards logical thought.
How the impermeability to experience is lessened
as soon as its logical absurdity comes to be felt.
The development of conceptual thought.
V. Logical thought cannot pretend to supplant pre- 340
logical mentality entirely. They are co-existent in
the apparent unity of the thinking subject. Postulates
and prejudices which till now have hindered
the clear perception of their relations, and the
comprehension of their conflicts.
INDEX