PAPER 88 — FETISHES, CHARMS, AND MAGIC 1. BELIEF IN FETISHES §254. The Extraordinary. (1017)...

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PAPER 88 — FETISHES, CHARMS, AND MAGICCopyright © 2004 by Matthew Block. All rights reserved.

— SOURCE —

[Unless otherwise noted, all source passages arefrom: William Graham Sumner and AlbertGalloway Keller, The Science of Society, VolumesII and IV (1927)]

XXVIII: FETISHISM (979)XXIX: FETISHISM: TOTEMISM (1017)

— PAPER 88 —

§246. “Possession.” (979)

Possession is ... where a ghost or daimon,or even the soul of a living man, isconceived to have penetrated into someobject or person with whom it has nooriginal connection (979).

88:0.1 The concept of a spirit’sentering into an inanimate object, ananimal, or a human being,

§247. The Fetish. (981)

Fetishism is not “superstition” in thetrue sense and deserves none of thecontempt or ridicule often cast upon it....Such tenets as those of fetishism are ... therough blocks of crude belief ... out ofwhich later developed systems haveevolved ... (987).

is a very ancient and honorable belief,

having prevailed since the beginning ofthe evolution of religion.

Fetishism, says Tylor, “is the doctrine ofspirits embodied in, or attached to, orconveying influence through, certainmaterial objects.” A fetish is the abode,permanent or temporary, of a possessingspirit (981-82).

This doctrine of spirit possession isnothing more nor less than fetishism.

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Wilken holds that “in fetishism thespirit is wholly identified with the objectin which it is housed, is not distinguishedfrom it, so that it is really the object whichis worshipped as a possessed andpowerful being. . . . Many Javanese assertvery succinctly and definitely that theyreverence no trees, rivers, mountains, butthe . . . spirit that lives in them.” Othersmake no such fine distinctions and justifytheir worship with the question: “Howwould it be with us if there were no water,wood, and the like?” (984)

The savage does not necessarily worshipthe fetish; he very logically worships andreverences the spirit resident therein.

When fetishes were first describedand discussed, they were regarded as theproduct of the attribution of life toinorganic objects. This misapprehensionwas exposed by Spencer, who saw in thefetish an indwelling spirit which was, inorigin at least, the ghost of a dead man.

88:0.2 At first, the spirit of a fetish wasbelieved to be the ghost of a dead man;

Lippert carried forward the idea ofpossession by the ghosts of the dead ...We do not follow Lippert in his belief thatfetishes are so predominantly ghost-possessed objects but think that fetishismrises from possession by a daimon oreven an anima, that is, directly out ofdaimonism or even animism (982).

later on, the higher spirits were supposedto reside in fetishes.

What stands out from the discussion sofar is that there is no warrant forconfusing fetishism with animism,eidolism, or daimonism; it is, indeed, asort of application of all three,

And so the fetish cult eventuallyincorporated all of the primitive ideas ofghosts, souls, spirits, and demonpossession.

but there is no reason for allowing theoryand application to become entangled. Thenature of soul, ghost, and spirit has beensurveyed; either one of the three mayenter to possess some object, inanimate oranimate; then fetishism has to do with thephenomena and results of such possession(984-85).

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1. BELIEF IN FETISHES

§254. The Extraordinary. (1017)

[contd] The object possessed by thespirit is always out of the ordinary. Fromthis circumstance it readily eventuatesthat the extraordinary is accredited withfetish-quality (1017).

88.1.1 Primitive man always wanted tomake anything extraordinary into afetish;

By some coincidence, let us say, chance therefore gave origin to many.

an Indian is relieved of pain just afterswallowing some substance whichmodern science has demonstrated to bequite ineffective, either for good or for ill.

A man is sick, something happens, and hegets well.

That substance, to the Indian mind,working as it does on the post-propterbasis, has secured the effect; it hasbrought about a cure by expelling thespirit of disease. That is enough. Theremedy in question becomes forthwith afetish to the one who took it and to allwho know his story.

It is not necessary to attach this incidentto the Indian; the history of folk-medicineor of modern patent panaceas can bedrawn upon in confirmation (1018-19).

The same thing is true of the reputation ofmany medicines and the chance methodsof treating disease.

Strangeness of appearance in anobject ; except ional i ty of thecircumstances attending its advent; thesuggestion of its significance through adream or other spiritual revelation—anysuch condition is enough to demonstratefetish-quality (1018).

Objects connected with dreams werelikely to be converted into fetishes.

It is the volcano rather than the ordinarymountain, the comet rather than the planet... that catch attention and seem to need,and so straightway receive, explanationupon the only basis possible under thecircumstances (1022-23).

Volcanoes, but not mountains, becamefetishes; comets, but not stars.

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It was not the apparent and daily progressof the sun across the sky or the nightlyswinging of the stars that claimedattention and called for someexplanation—not, at least, until interestwas awakened by the conviction that suchmotion was influential over life and luck(1017).

The [Solomon Islanders] think that fallingstars are wandering spirits and are muchafraid (IV 450).

Early man regarded shooting stars andmeteors as indicating the arrival on earthof special visiting spirits.

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[From: Lewis Browne, This Believing World(1926)]

I. MAGIC (B 27)

4: Fetishism. (B 36)

The first fetishes were probably pebbleswith markings which happened to attractthe eye of the savage because of theirextraordinary color or shape. (Millions ofpeople in the most civilized lands stillbelieve in such “lucky stones.”)

88:1.2 The first fetishes were peculiarlymarked pebbles, and “sacred stones”have ever since been sought by man;

Later on, however, fetishes weremanufactured. Frequently they were littlepouches containing objects with reputedlymagic properties.... The savage gathereda whole collection of such fetishes on astring, and hung them around his neck, orfastened them over the door of his hut....With those amulets on his person, thesavage was no longer so afraid (B 36-37).

a string of beads was once a collection ofsacred stones, a battery of charms.

5: Idolatry—the beginning of sacrifice—ofprayer—of the church. (B 38)

[contd] Tribal fetishes, like privateones, were originally natural objects: forinstance, boulders of a peculiar color, ortrees of a strange shape. (The KaabaStone, still worshipped by Moslems inMecca, was originally just such a tribalfetish.) (B 38)

Many tribes had fetish stones, but fewhave survived as have the Kaaba and theStone of Scone.

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§248. Types of Fetishes. (988)

Fire, water, precious stones, andmany other natural elements may come,through possession, to be fetishes of greatsignificance.

Fire and water were also among the earlyfetishes,

That fire may become a fetish in a countrywhere cremation is practised can be easilyunderstood; then fire-worship on thePersian lines is not far off.... Lippertthinks that the sea and rivers becamefetishes from the custom of throwingcorpses into them: instance, not tomention the Ganges, the Scamander,Inachus, Asopus, Kephissos, and Peneus(989).

and fire worship, together with belief inholy water, still survives.

In animate nature, the tree-fetishfigures extensively; trees in whichreceptacles for the dead were lodged andthose planted over graves have beenregarded as the abodes of ghosts (989).

88:1.3 Tree fetishes were a laterdevelopment,

In Melanesia certain spirits that are not ghosts(Vuis) are generally associated with stones, lesscommonly with snakes, owls, and sharks. “It is notthat the stone is a Vui, or that a Vui is a stone, butthat there is such a connection between the Vui andthe stone that the stone is the spirit’s outward partor organ.” These spirits can be readily propitiatedbut are jealous of neglect.... [T]here are stones nearwhich an accident has happened, whose Vuis arethought to have a turn for mischief. Here enters thepersistent preoccupation with the aleatory element(988).

but among some tribes the persistence ofnature worship led to belief in charmsindwelt by some sort of nature spirit.

[T]rees which have provided the ancestorswith nourishment, though their fruits mayno longer be used, ... became fetishes andthe souls of those gone before weresupposed to lodge in the branches.... Thusarises the idea of a “tree of life,” tabooedbecause of the holy character of its fruit.

When plants and fruits became fetishes,they were taboo as food.

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The “apple” (a sort of generic name forthe tabooed fruit), says Gubernatis, “hascome to be considered in all the Orientaltraditions as a symbol of seduction”; andhe mentions Eve, Atalanta, and alsoAthena and Hera who, in the case of theJudgment of Paris, departed so widelyfrom their matronly and virginal austerity,as its victims (989).

The apple was among the first to fall intothis category;

[?] it was never eaten by the Levantinepeoples.

There is enough evidence concerningthe fetish-quality of animals which eat orare supposed to eat the flesh of men towarrant the inference, without at allignoring transmigration, that connectionwith the ghost is at least one of the primereasons for that quality (990).

88:1.4 If an animal ate human flesh, itbecame a fetish.

The Parsee thought the fly the evil spiritof the northern tribes and the ancientepics represent it as assailing the dying.The vanquisher of the fly is the dog of acertain breed; by devouring the body, hesaves the soul from the evil fly-spirit andthus becomes a fetish of the first order(993).

In this way the dog came to be the sacredanimal of the Parsees.

The topic of fetishism links on tomany that have preceded but scarcelyanywhere more closely than to the idea oftransmigration or reincarnation. Anyanimal into which the soul of an ancestorhas been reborn is in an unmistakablesense a fetish (992).

If the fetish is an animal and the ghost ispermanently resident therein, thenfetishism may impinge on reincarnation.

§256. The Animal-Fetish. (1026)

[The savage] does not feel himself to bethe “lord of creation”; to him the animalshave enviable superiorities which hecannot rival. They can outfight him,outrun him, outclimb him; they have self-preservative instincts, not to mentionfighting weapons, which arouse hisrespect and envy (1028).

In many ways the savages envied theanimals; they did not feel superior to them

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There is no doubt ... that men intenselyadmired the beasts, named themselvesafter them, gave their gods titles of honorsuch as “Conquering Bull,” and felt asense of affection and obligation towardthe animal world before they had come toharbor any sympathy for men outside thelocal group (1030).

and were often named after their favoritebeasts.


[I]t is characteristic of the fetish-animalthat its flesh is tabooed as food (990).

88:1.5 When animals became fetishes,there ensued the taboos on eating the fleshof the fetish animal.

In West Africa the crocodile, snake,leopard, fish, shark, and a species ofiguana are fetish-animals, as also are theanthropoid apes and some monkeys—thelatter because of their likeness to men andnot because they prey upon human bodies(991).

Apes and monkeys, because ofresemblance to man, early became fetishanimals;

[N]ot ... all animal or other fetishes become suchthrough connection with the bodies of the dead; asnake, for example, by reason of its habits, maysuggest the presence within it of the spirit of a deadman ... (991).

“Living sacred objects in the Solomon Islandsare chiefly sharks, alligators, snakes, bonitos, andfrigate-birds ...” (991).

In New Guinea, pigs are killed slowly for themango-tree, so that its spirit can enjoy the sacrificethe more; pigs are sacred to that tree (990).

later, snakes, birds, and swine were alsosimilarly regarded.

§256. The Animal-Fetish. (1026)

Among the Greeks of Homer’s time therewas evidently a taboo on the milk of cows... (IV 508).

At one time the cow was a fetish, the milkbeing taboo

Cases of Hindu reverence for the cowmight cover much space: “the water itejects ought to be preserved as the best ofall holy waters—a sin-destroying liquidwhich sanctifies everything it touches,while nothing purifies like cow-dung” (IV508).

while the excreta were highly esteemed.

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The serpent has been worshipped in India,Phœnicia, Persia, Greece, Italy,Lithuania, and elsewhere ... The snake asan evil daimon, as tempter, and as acreature associated with wisdom has beenclearly depicted in the Old Testament (IV456).

The serpent was revered in Palestine,especially by the Phoenicians, who,along with the Jews, considered it to bethe mouthpiece of evil spirits.

Superstitions regarding snakes still exist.“Near Leeds they say that when a snakecrosses the path rain is near; and in WestSussex to kill the first snake you see inthe year gives you power over yourenemies for a twelvemonth, or its skinhung up in the house brings good luck tothe tenant ...” (IV 456).

Even many moderns believe in the charmpowers of reptiles.

The snake is regarded as a fetish inIndia, where the annual loss of life andproperty due to unmolested cobras andother species is very great.... Theprominent rôle played by the rattle-snakein the Moki Indians’ life is well-knownthrough popular descriptions of the SnakeDance (993).

From Arabia on through India to thesnake dance of the Moqui tribe of redmen the serpent has been revered.

Like the American Indians, the Arabshave their snake-dance (IV 455-56).

§255. The Lucky and Unlucky. (1023)

“Every clan has certain days of the weekon which people are restricted fromfollowing many of their ordinaryoccupations, although they are not theoccasions of any special ceremonies” (IV495).

88:1.6 Certain days of the week werefetishes.

Friday is widely regarded as an unluckyday, especially Friday the thirteenth (IV496).

For ages Friday has been regarded as anunlucky day and the number thirteen as anevil numeral.

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There are certain “round numbers,” suchas three and seven, that seem to haveimpressed themselves upon our culturalforebears; but they are not of universalacceptation (1024).

The lucky numbers three and sevencame from later revelations;

We are told ... that “the favorite numberamong the [American] aboriginal races isundoubtedly four ... Such a predilectionhas generally been attributed to theknowledge possessed by these people ofthe equinoxes and solstices.” ... “The mostwidespread of the mystical numbers isfour; it finds expression in Cults of theQuarters in North America, SouthAmerica, Asia, and Africa, and issuggested by certain customs in Australia... The devotee of the Cult of the Quartersis unable to think or speak withouthabitual reference to the cardinal points...” (1024).

four was the lucky number of primitiveman and was derived from the earlyrecognition of the four points of thecompass.

In the East African Protectorate it isheld to be unlucky to count cattle or anyother living creatures, while it isparticularly unlucky to count girls (IV493).

It was held unlucky to count cattle orother possessions;

And David's heart smote him after that he hadnumbered the people. And David said unto theLORD, I have sinned greatly in that I have done:and now, I beseech thee, O LORD, take away theiniquity of thy servant; for I have done veryfoolishly (2 Sam. 24:10).

And Satan stood up against Israel, andprovoked David to number Israel (1 Chr. 21:1).

the ancients always opposed the taking ofa census, “numbering the people.”

§253. The Image. (1011)

A phase of religion of which someauthors make much is the worship of thesex-organs, which is largely a cult ofimages—the so-called phallic cult. It isentirely probable that its importance hasbeen exaggerated.... In general it is quitewrong to think of the savage as alwayspreoccupied with sex;

88:1.7 Primitive man did not make anundue fetish out of sex; the reproductivefunction received only a limited amountof attention.

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it was much more a matter of course withhim than it is with us; systematicobscenity belongs rather to developingcivilization (1014-15).

The savage was natural minded, notobscene or prurient.

XXXII: SIN, EXORCISM, COERCION(1133)

§276. Exorcism. (1144)

Another special case of exorcism isby the use of a bodily secretion.... To spiton a person is to drive off evil spirits fromhim. In one sense, the saliva is fetishistic,just as the rest of the exuviæ are ...(1150).

88:1.8 Saliva was a potent fetish; devilscould be driven out by spitting on aperson.

The Masai attached much importance tothe act of spitting. To spit at a person is,with them, a great compliment. “Theearlier travellers in Masailand wereastonished, when making friendship withold Masai chiefs and head-men, to beconstantly spat at ...” (1150).

For an elder or superior to spit on onewas the highest compliment.

§249. Exuvial Fetishes. (994)

[E]xuviæ, or “strippings,” are outlying,dispensable, or discarded portions of thebody such as skin, hair, blood, or excreta.Their fetishistic quality is attested by theirregular employment in magic ... If asorcerer can get hold of a man’s exuviæhe has a grip upon the spirit of the manhimself (994).

Parts of the human body were lookedupon as potential fetishes, particularly thehair and nails.

A chief in Togoland had a fetish-nailon his little finger: “This nail was theobject of painful attention and must not bebroken off, because if it were, accordingto the popular belief, a misfortune wouldoccur to the owner ...” Allowing the nailsto grow to incredible lengths is a vanity-practice but there is often something offetishism also in the custom, when it is asymbol of holiness (995).

The long-growing fingernails of thechiefs were highly prized,

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[contd] The Indians of South Americaascribe magical value to hair, nails, teeth,and claws, attributing their new growth,when cut, to superior power. Thereforethose parts, when sound, can transfer suchpower to those who get them (995).

and the trimmings thereof were apowerful fetish.

As the treatment of the skull istypical, further illustration is limited tothe skull-fetish. It is often decorated,especially by painting, and is assigned aposition of honor in the house orcommunity.... Here again ... we encounterthe topic of head-hunting (999).

Belief in skull fetishes accounts for muchof later-day head-hunting.

The umbilical cord was a highly prizedfetish; even today it is so regarded inAfrica.

“In the little toy . . . which is suspendedbefore the [American Indian] child’s face,is carefully and superstitiously preservedthe umbilicus, which is always secured atthe time of its birth, and, being rolled intoa little wad the size of a pea, and dried, itis inclosed in the center of this little bagand placed before the child’s face, as itsprotector and its security for ‘good luck’and ‘long life’” (995).

Mankind’s first toy was a preservedumbilical cord.

In Uganda the naval-cord of a princeis dried, set with pearls, and hung up on apost. A man is set to guard it (995).

Set with pearls, as was often done,

No sooner is a child born in CentralAustralia than it becomes the object ofmagic arts: the navel-string is dried,swathed in fur, and tied round the child’sneck. “The necklace not only facilitatesgrowth, keeps it quiet and contented, butit also has the admirable faculty ofdeadening to the child the noise made bythe camp dogs” (IV 459).

it was man’s first necklace.

§257. The Man-Fetish. (1036)

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In the New Hebrides deformedchildren are well cared for; while inSamoa hunchbacks and the scrofulousare regarded as favorites of the spirits,generally, be it noted, becoming priestswhen grown up (1036).

88:1.9 Hunchbacked and crippledchildren were regarded as fetishes;

The very term “lunatic” indicates that theperson in question is “moon-struck,” andunder external and supernatural influence(1039).

lunatics were believed to be moon-struck.

Mental peculiarities are an even greaterdistinction than physical; they are foundon both sides of the normal, the extremesbeing insanity and genius. That theseextremes are wont to meet is a proverbialsaying, and the evidence from primitivelife does not disprove it; it is not alwaysso easy to determine whether the shaman,for instance, is unsettled in mind or issimply sly and shrewd above his fellows(1039).

Primitive man could not distinguishbetween genius and insanity;

Topinard goes into some detailconcerning the cult-functions of twomicrocephalous idiots in Mexico.Burckhardt gives several cases of honoraccorded to idiots.... Beating andmaltreating the insane was once acommon practice ... (1040).

idiots were either beaten to death orrevered as fetish personalities.

§258. Ecstasy and Inspiration. (1041)

“Insane persons and those suffering fromepilepsy, hysteria, and hypnosis are[considered] endowed with prophetic giftsthrough the fact that a powerful spirit hasentered them ...” (1041).

Hysteria increasingly confirmed thepopular belief in witchcraft; epilepticsoften were priests and medicine men.

Inebriation ... forms a good exampleof possession;

Drunkenness was looked upon as a formof spirit possession;

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in the Congo region drunkenness “wasnot condemned in either men or women,but was looked upon with good-naturedamusement. When a man went ‘on thedrink,’ he pinned a leaf in his hair toshow he was drinking, then if he abusedanyone no notice was taken of it; and if heentered into a contract which heafterwards considered was to hisdisadvantage he need not ratify it, becausehe had a leaf in his hair—a sign of hisfuddled condition” (1042).

when a savage went on a spree, he put aleaf in his hair for the purpose ofdisavowing responsibility for his acts.

[I]t is not at all uncommon in ethnographyto encounter cases where plants andintoxicating drinks made from them arethought to be possessed of a spirit.... InEast Africa, herbs which are thought toeffect miraculous cures and many nativepoisons are fetishes ... (IV 491).

Poisons and intoxicants became fetishes;they were deemed to be possessed.

The word “inspiration” (from inspiro,“to breathe in”) betrays in its etymologyits original significance.... Thus men whoare skilled in the arts are spoken of in theBible as those that are “wise-hearted,” inwhom “I have put wisdom” (1045).

88:1.10 Many people looked upongeniuses as fetish personalities possessedby a wise spirit.

An important example of the inspiredperson or medium is that reported byWeeks of the Bangala in the Congo; itemphasizes the importance of religion asa disciplinary factor, even when theperson in question is a fakir or tries toutilize religious practices and beliefs tohis own aggrandizement. “Bololi, theheadman of his family, died and wasburied in the usual way. Some time afterhis younger brother, Mangumbe, ...worked himself into a frenzy, and whenhe was supposed to be under the sway ofhis brother’s mongoli, he said:

And these talented humans soon learnedto resort to fraud and trickery for theadvancement of their selfish interests.

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That a certain man (giving the name ofthe man whose wives he coveted) mustget rid of his wives or they wouldencompass his death by a serious and fatalillness. Then Mangumbe went to a friendand told him to treat with the husband forthe wives, and the husband, thoroughlyafraid now of his wives, was quite willingto sell them at a cheaper price thanMangumbe had previously offered forthem” (IV 519).

§259. “The Great Man” and “The People.”(1047)

[T]he head of the religious system,designated by the deity as his mouth-piece, is a genuine fetish-man. Such werethe founders and prophets, fromZoroaster and Moses to the Dalai Lama,Mohammed, and the Mahdi.... Always hasthe race known that “to err is human”; if,now, the head of the religious system isinfallible, he is no mere man ... It ispossession by the spirit that makes thefetish-man more than human and lendshim that which just before he did not have(1048-49).

A fetish man was thought to be morethan human; he was divine, eveninfallible.

[T]he ruler is another prominent type ofsuperhuman fetish-man. It must not beforgotten that he was often both priestand king and that there was in the earlierperiods of religious evolution noseparation of church and state....

“The greater part of Fiji is ruled overby chiefs who are invested with divine orghostly attributes such as mana, ormiraculous power.... In short, these chiefsare divine.” ... “For the chiefs aresupposed to have power ... like that ofGod; a power which works itself onaccount of its inherent virtue, and notpower exerted through soldiers and strongservants”(1049).

Thus did chiefs, kings, priests, prophets,and church rulers eventually wield greatpower and exercise unbounded authority.

2. EVOLUTION OF THE FETISH

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§247. The Fetish. (981)§249. The Exuvial Fetish. (994)

If [the ghost] has returned—or has nevergone at all—where is he to be looked for?Of course, in the neighborhood of hisbody. He returns to his own. What washis becomes then a fetish.... [C]ertain ofthe most unmistakable fetishes are objectswhich contain or are in proximity to thedead body (985).

88:2.1 It was a supposed preference ofghosts to indwell some object which hadbelonged to them when alive in the flesh.

Perhaps the most readily recognized ofexuvial fetishes is the relic. This is somepart of the body, often a bone, and isplainly of eidolistic origin; and if it isthought to have exhibited virtue andproved its power, it attains tounquestioned sanctity (998).

This belief explains the efficacy of manymodern relics.

In the Solomon Islands the bones ofpersons of distinction are gathered andkept—those of the chief in a coffin ofshark-shape, in the [taboo-] house ...(999).

The ancients always revered the bones oftheir leaders,

A famous saint whose relics are highlyrevered in this country, and moreespecially in Canada, is Ste. Anne. Herfirst shrine [in Ste. Anne de Beaupré,Quebec] ... has been visited by thousandsof people and many miraculous cureshave been ascribed to the relics (IV 464).

and the skeletal remains of saints andheroes are still regarded with superstitiousawe by many.

Consider the pilgrimages to the graves ofeminent and revered men, even in moderntimes (988).

Even today, pilgrimages are made to thetombs of great men.

[repeated] Such tenets as those of fetishism areinevitable in their time; they are the rough blocksof crude belief about the unknown and inexplicableout of which later developed systems have evolvedthrough the process of correction and refinement.

88:2.2 Belief in relics is an outgrowthof the ancient fetish cult.

Many of the “symbols” of a moreadvanced stage are but survivals,somewhat adapted and rationalized, ofprimitive fetishism (987-88).

The relics of modern religions representan attempt to rationalize the fetish of thesavage and thus elevate it to a place ofdignity and respectability in the modernreligious systems.

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It is said of one Dr. Duff “that he was onceexamining an Indian School, and, wishing toridicule this idea of animal incarnation, said to theboys: ‘Can any boy tell me whether it is likely thatGod’s spirit would associate itself with a snail?’No one answered for some time; at last anintelligent lad said: ‘I think He might condescendto do so, if any useful purpose were to be servedthereby for the good of His creatures.’ ‘Then,’ saidDr. Duff, ‘you think as a fool’” (987).

It is heathenish to believe in fetishes andmagic

The press of today recurrently reportsmiracles connected with relics, and oftengoes into historic detail concerning thelatter (IV 464).

but supposedly all right to accept relicsand miracles.

§251. Hearth- and Altar-Fetishes. (1004)

[The hearth] is a true fetish and istraditionally the habitation of the ancestralghosts....

The kotla is the hearth-place andsacred spot of the Bechuanas as thehearth was to the Romans; “no one mayenter the kotla with his shoes on” (1005).

88:2.3 The hearth—fireplace—becamemore or less of a fetish, a sacred spot.

Fawcett1 thinks that if more evidencewere needed to support the Spenceriantheory “that the temple originated out ofa sheltering structure for the dead ..., itwould be found in the Saora country”(1007).

[T]he fetish-quality of the shrine, as wellas of other sacred structures and places, isderived ultimately from eidolistic beliefs(1008).

The shrines and temples were at firstfetish places because the dead were buriedthere.

Presumably the [Israelite] tabernacle wasoriginally a fetish-hut of the dead.... Theark was a receptacle for fetishes; thetablets of the law were placed in it (IV468).

The fetish hut of the Hebrews waselevated by Moses to that place where itharbored a superfetish, the then existentconcept of the law of God.

§253. The Image. (1011)

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The pentateuchal law looks on the use ofsacred pillars as idolatrous. “This is thebest evidence that such pillars had animportant place among the appurtenancesof Canaanite temples ...” ... At the timewhen the oldest of the pentateuchalnarratives were written, the Canaanitesand the great mass of the Hebrewscertainly treated the masseba as a sort ofidol or embodiment of the divine presence(IV 475-76).

But the Israelites never gave up thepeculiar Canaanite belief in the stonealtar:

And this stone, which I have set for a pillar,shall be God's house: and of all that thou shalt giveme I will surely give the tenth unto thee (Gen.28:22).

“And this stone which I have set up as apillar shall be God’s house.”

“Moreover Jacob’s pillar is more than amere landmark, for it is anointed, just asidols were in antiquity, and the pillaritself, not the spot on which it stood, iscalled ‘the house of God,’ as if the deitywere conceived actually to dwell in thestone, or manifest himself therein to hisworshippers” (IV 476).

They truly believed that the spirit of theirGod dwelt in such stone altars, whichwere in reality fetishes.

Images carved in a rude likeness of aman are common in Melanesia.... “ ... Thecanoe-houses, common halls, public-houses ... were full of carvings ... Some ofthese ... are often figures of men, whowould be loosely called ancestors ... Butthese had no sacred character, further thanthat they were memorials of deceasedgreat men, whose ghosts visiting theiraccustomed abodes would be pleased atmarks of memory and affection, andirritated by disrespect” (IV 470).

88:2.4 The earliest images were made topreserve the appearance and memory ofthe illustrious dead; they were reallymonuments.

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The derivation of the word “fetish”indicates ... an idol.... The fetisheshitherto considered have been ... of a sortof primary intention. Nobody set out tomake them fetishes; they became suchartlessly by reason of some associationwith the ghosts or the daimons. There arealso images fashioned by hand into whichspirits are variously and artfully inducted.These art-fetishes are numberless ...(1011).

Idols were a refinement of fetishism.

The very making of an image seemsto exercise a compulsion upon the spirit inquestion to occupy or possess it.... Theremust often take place, however, aceremony of invitation or inductionbefore the image can be anything morethan a material thing (1011).

The primitives believed that a ceremonyof consecration caused the spirit to enterthe image;

Among the Palaungs, until an image ofthe Buddha has been dedicated, it may betreated with scant ceremony, simply as ablock of stone ...; after it has beenconsecrated, it must not touch the groundand no woman should lay her hand on it.“Candles are set in a row in front, then,when all is ready, the monks come fromthe monastery and the chief monk blessesthe image, which is thenceforthconsidered sacred ...” ... In epicHinduism, “all the weapons of the heroesare inspired with and impelled bymantras,” or charms (IV 471).

likewise, when certain objects wereblessed, they became charms.

88:2.5 Moses, in the addition of thesecond commandment to the ancientDalamatian moral code, made an effortto control fetish worship among theHebrews. He carefully directed that theyshould make no sort of image that mightbecome consecrated as a fetish.

Thou shalt not make unto thee any gravenimage, or any likeness of any thing that is inheaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or thatis in the water under the earth: (Exod. 20:4)

He made it plain, “You shall not make agraven image or any likeness of anythingthat is in heaven above, or on the earthbeneath, or in the waters of the earth.”

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The Old Testament, despite the factthat the representation of Jahweh by anyfigure is strictly forbidden, is rich inidolatry—and even though a curse ispronounced on the making of a graven ormolten image by the hands of a craftsman(IV 475).

While this commandment did much toretard art among the Jews, it did lessenfetish worship.

But Moses was too wise to attemptsuddenly to displace the olden fetishes,and he therefore consented to

Like the Aztecs, the Israelites took theirportable temple on their wanderings, andone may conclude that they once carriedthe bodies of their tribal heroes....Presumably the tabernacle was originallya fetish-hut of the dead. The ark was areceptacle for fetishes; the tablets of thelaw were placed in it.... Not only was itthe Ark of the Covenant but also a war-altar and a religious shrine (IV 468).

the putting of certain relics alongside thelaw in the combined war altar andreligious shrine which was the ark.

§252. The “Word.” (1008)

There is magic in words, written orspoken, for fetishes are not limited tomaterial things (IV 469).

88:2.6 Words eventually becamefetishes,

more especially those which wereregarded as God’s words; in this way thesacred books of many religions havebecome fetishistic prisons incarceratingthe spiritual imagination of man.

The authority of the word isindefinitely strengthened by theapotheosis of him who has uttered it. Theword then becomes the scripture and thelaw and a fetish of the first order (1010).

Moses’ very effort against fetishesbecame a supreme fetish;

The Chaldæan theory of animated and propheticstatues was the same as the Egyptian.... Withoutlosing any of its religious significance, the statuelater became an object of art in the sense that oneadmired it not only for its mystic utility but alsofor the way in which the sculptor interpreted hismodel2 (IV 474).

his commandment was later used tostultify art and to retard the enjoymentand adoration of the beautiful.

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What is said by the hero, or by hisfamiliar spirit or “genius,” is inspired andis not open to discussion. It becomes adoctrine, dogma, or “eternal principle”(1009).

88:2.7 In olden times the fetish word ofauthority was a fear-inspiring doctrine,

“Doctrines are the most frightful tyrantsto which men ever are subject,

the most terrible of all tyrants whichenslave men.

because doctrines get inside a man’s ownreason and betray him against himself.Civilized men have done their fiercestfighting for doctrines. The reconquest ofthe Holy Sepulcher, ‘balance of power,’‘no universal dominion,’ ‘trade followsthe flag,’ ‘he who holds the land will holdthe sea,’ ‘the throne and the altar,’ therevolution, the faith—these are the thingsfor which men have given their lives”(1009).

A doctrinal fetish will lead mortal man tobetray himself into the clutches ofbigotry, fanaticism, superstition,intolerance, and the most atrocious ofbarbarous cruelties.

If the reader objects that the reverence paid tothe sayings of extraordinary men seems likefetishism only in case we make a sort ofmetaphorical extension of the term, and that suchreverence simply reveals a “fetish-makingtendency,” we are not disposed to take seriousissue with him (1009).

Modern respect for wisdom and truth isbut the recent escape from thefetish-making tendency up to the higherlevels of thinking and reasoning.

There is an assumption, says Maine, that“sacred or inspired literature being oncebelieved to exist, all knowledge iscontained in it. The Hindu way of puttingit was, and is,

Concerning the accumulated fetishwritings which various religionists hold assacred books,

not simply that the Scripture is true, butthat everything which is true is containedin the Scripture” (1010).

it is not only believed that what is in thebook is true, but also that every truth iscontained in the book.

Consider the reverence accorded to theopinions of Aristotle: his statements,from the thirteenth to the eighteenthcentury were not tested by observationeven of the most familiar objects; no onenoted even the error of assigning eightlegs to a fly instead of six (1008).

If one of these sacred books happens tospeak of the earth as being flat, then, forlong generations, otherwise sane menand women will refuse to accept positiveevidence that the planet is round.

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Throwing the Bible open at random withthe idea of chancing upon a verse whichwould lend supernatural counsel at a crisisof life or fortune is an exhibition offetishism quite comparable to any out ofprimitive life;

88:2.8 The practice of opening one ofthese sacred books to let the eye chanceupon a passage, the following of whichmay determine important life decisions orprojects, is nothing more nor less thanarrant fetishism.

taking oath upon the book by kissing it orotherwise is, as an example of fetishism,quite the counterpart of swearing upon therelics of a martyr or upon a piece of the“True Cross” (1010).

To take an oath on a “holy book” or toswear by some object of supremeveneration is a form of refined fetishism.

[repeated] If the reader objects that thereverence paid to the sayings of extraordinary menseems like fetishism only in case we make a sort ofmetaphorical extension of the term, and that suchreverence simply reveals a “fetish-makingtendency,” we are not disposed to take seriousissue with him. Such cases represent vaguermanifestations of fetishism, shading awaysomewhat from the literalness of definition (1009).

88:2.9 But it does represent realevolutionary progress to advance from thefetish fear of a savage chief’s fingernailtrimmings to the adoration of a superbcollection of

Speaking of the rigid dogmatism formerlybased upon literal readings from Jewishand Christian scripture, White writes:“The most careful inductions fromascertained facts were regarded aswretchedly fallible when compared withany view of nature whatever given oreven hinted at in any poem, chronicle,code, apologue, myth, legend, allegory,letter, or discourse of any sort

letters, laws, legends, allegories, myths,poems, and chronicles

which had happened to be preserved inthe literature which had come to be heldas sacred” (1010).

which, after all, reflect the winnowedmoral wisdom of many centuries, at leastup to the time and event of their beingassembled as a “sacred book.”

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Characteristic possessions of the dead ... have inthem something of the owner’s personality or“virtue”; this is revealed by the taboo on the widowand by the exaggerated worshipfulness accorded tothe “symbol of authority.” Even the “word” of theillustrious dead is regarded as “inspired” and asembodying the spirit of him who uttered it (980).

88:2.10 To become fetishes, words hadto be considered inspired, and theinvocation of supposed divinely inspiredwritings led directly to the establishmentof the authority of the church, while theevolution of civil forms led to the fruitionof the authority of the state.

3. TOTEMISM

88:3.1 Fetishism ran through all theprimitive cults from the earliest belief insacred stones, through idolatry,cannibalism, and nature worship, tototemism.

§260. Totemism: Religious Aspects. (1052)

It may be said preliminarily that[totemism] includes features belonging toanimism, reincarnation, ancestor-worship,the familiar spirit, fetishism, the taboo,and magic.... Further, totemism reveals,along with pronounced religious aspects,also a social bearing which cannot well beconsidered otherwise than in conjunctionwith the religious (1052).

88:3.2 Totemism is a combination ofsocial and religious observances.

Australians and Indians have incommon the taboo on eating or killing thetotem-animal; and both display aconsideration and reverence for it whichgo so far in the case of the Indian that heelaborately excuses himself on occasionswhen he must kill it. The idea in thisappears to be that if the totem-animal isnot irritated or alienated by rude treatmentthere will be plenty of game. Concern forthe food-supply is never very far off fromthe savage mind (1054).

Originally it was thought that respect forthe totem animal of supposed biologicorigin insured the food supply.

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[M]ana ... is interpreted [by Durkheim] asthe totemic force—as the principle or“god” of which the totem is the symbol.But the totem is not only the symbol ofthis mysterious force; it is the symbol ofthe social group as well. “It is its flag; it isthe sign by which each clandistinguishes itself from the others, thevisible mark of its personality, a markborne by everything which is a part of theclan under any title whatsoever, men,beasts, or things. So, if it is at once thesymbol of the god and of the society,

Totems were at one and the same timesymbols of the group and their god.

is that not because the god and the societyare only one? . . . The god of the clan, thetotemic principle, can therefore benothing else than the clan itself,personified and represented to theimagination under the visible form of theanimal or vegetable which serves as thetotem” (IV 556).

Such a god was the clan personified.

Many young Indians acquire a patronanimal-spirit, sometimes called a“manitou,” as a result of a revelationaccorded them while under the trance-inducing discipline of initiation; then thepatron thus acquired by an ancestor ...descends to become the tutelary spirit ofa kin-group. Thus the American totem istypically the familiar or guardian spirit asderived by the individual out of personalexperience. It becomes a sort of crest fora clan ... (1053-54).

Totemism was one phase of the attemptedsocialization of otherwise personalreligion.

The totem eventually evolved into3 theflag, or national symbol, of the variousmodern peoples.

§249. The Exuvial Fetish. (994)

[repeated] Later on ... fetishes weremanufactured. Frequently they were littlepouches containing objects withreputedly magic properties (Browne 36).

88:3.3 A fetish bag, a medicine bag, wasa pouch containing a reputableassortment of ghost-impregnated articles,

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“When the medicine-bag is carried on awar party it is never allowed to touch theground ...” (997).

and the medicine man of old neverallowed his bag, the symbol of his power,to touch the ground.

Civilized peoples in the twentieth centurysee to it that their flags, emblems ofnational consciousness, likewise nevertouch the ground.

The king’s characteristic paraphernalia ...stand for him and possess a certain“virtue” thereby; neither they nor theinsignia of supreme ecclesiastical officeare merely symbols, certainly not if theyhave, in the course of transmission acrossthe generations, been handled by a longline of “God’s anointed” (997).

88:3.4 The insignia of priestly andkingly office were eventually regarded asfetishes,

and the fetish of the state supreme haspassed through many stages ofdevelopment, from clans to tribes, fromsuzerainty to sovereignty, from totems toflags.

§259. “The Great Man” and “The People.”(1047)

Whenever the doctrine has prevailed that“the king can do no wrong”—and itprevails in the face of the errare esthumanum—the king is a fetish-man, has“divine right” and all the other fetish-perquisites (1049).

Fetish kings have ruled by “divineright,”

and many other forms of governmenthave obtained.

In later times the fetish-quality haspassed, with the extension of democracy,to “The People.” Vox populi vox dei.

Men have also made a fetish ofdemocracy, the exaltation and adorationof the common man’s ideas whencollectively called “public opinion.”

The idea seems to be that individually theopinions of common men are foolish, ornegligible, or even contemptible;

One man’s opinion, when taken by itself,is not regarded as worth much,

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but that when they get together to vote orotherwise to express themselves as awhole, they become inspired for theoccasion and are infallible (1051).

but when many men are collectivelyfunctioning as a democracy, this samemediocre judgment is held to be thearbiter of justice and the standard ofrighteousness.

XXXVII: MAGIC (1291) 4. MAGIC

§307. Correction into Science. (1329)

The aleatory element, at least, wasreal; hence it may be said that both thepseudo-sciences and the real sciencesrest, in their course of evolution,eventually upon reality. It is none the lesstrue, though, that this basic reality wasseen in such form as to render thereactions to it largely mistaken in the lightof knowledge. A real thing at the bottom;the adjustments to it erratic (1331).

88:4.1 Civilized man attacks theproblems of a real environment throughhis science; savage man attempted tosolve the real problems of an illusoryghost environment by magic.

§299. Methods of Magic. (1291)

[contd] Magic is the production ofeffects by inexplicable means; it thusinvolves an appeal to supernaturalagencies and belongs under daimonology,the science and art of dealing with suchagencies (1291).

Magic was the technique of manipulatingthe conjectured spirit environment whosemachinations endlessly explained theinexplicable;

The methods and processes of magicrepresent, in the main, an effort to coercespirits to accomplish things desired,through the agency of other spirits and inparticular by means of fetishes.

it was the art of obtaining voluntary spiritco-operation and of coercing involuntaryspirit aid through the use of fetishes orother and more powerful spirits.

It is not asserted that all so-called magicaloperations are coercive ..., but that it istypical of the magician to operate in suchmanner (1291).

§304. Sway of Magic. (1316)

[contd] The object of magic is statedby one writer to be twofold:

88:4.2 The object of magic, sorcery, andnecromancy was twofold:

to secure insight; 1. To secure insight into the future.

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to exert effect on environment. 2. Favorably to influence environment.

It might be noted at once that these are theobjects of science also; men’s aims mustneeds be the same, however diverse themeans employed for their attainment(1316).

88:4.3 The objects of science areidentical with those of magic.

Mankind is progressing from magic toscience,

Much enlightenment ... can be gained bynoting how, entirely automatically, therace has stumbled upon a workinghypothesis, has carried it to the facts oflife, has corrected it gradually andpainfully (by experience, not bymeditation),

not by meditation and reason, but ratherthrough long experience, gradually andpainfully.

and has finally emerged with highlyeffective sciences which provide bothinsight and also power overenvironment—the original objects atwhich magic aimed (1317).


All of human knowledge has come in thisway: first man has seized upon an aspectof a thing suggested to him by theimmediate effect of a phenomenon on hisfeelings, for instance in dreams.... Thenhe began to correct his first apprehension.By constant further correction he backed,as it were, into all he knows; and he isdoing it still.

Man is gradually backing into the truth,

All that men have learned has been won,so to speak, backwards. It began inerror; then error was corrected a bit at atime, for in the place of the old mistakethere was generally put a new error whichwas only a little better.

beginning in error, progressing in error,

and finally attaining the threshold oftruth.

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It is only since modern science came intogeneral authority that the race has beenable to face forwards and to undertakefree and original investigation into truth.One thing we have learned, or shouldhave learned, is that all we hold to be trueis infected by error (1333).

Only with the arrival of the scientificmethod has he faced forward.

[contd] It is not always realized thatprimitive man had to experiment orperish, even though the danger ofexperimentation was always great; indeedit is even yet not frequently at the risk ofhis life that man discovers the laws ofnature (1333).

But primitive man had to experiment orperish.


All the sciences, we shall see over andover again, rose out of what is now calledsuperstition;

88:4.4 The fascination of earlysuperstition was the mother of the laterscientific curiosity.

indeed, they could not have risen had itnot been for the spur to observation,collection, and comparison of facts that alively interest and fear never ceased toply (1317).


It was the conviction that lay in whatwe now call superstition that put theemotional motive behind these[pseudoscientific] studies, labors andrenunciations. Without the fear and thehope, but especially without the fear, theactivity would not have been there; for itis emotion that is dynamic (1332).

There was progressive dynamicemotion—fear plus curiosity—in theseprimitive superstitions;

Fancy ... how engrossing the pseudo-sciences must have been to the initiates.There was an element of enthusiasmabout the study of them that drove mindsto work (1332).

there was progressive driving power inthe olden magic.


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[repeated] [T]he race ... has finally emerged withhighly effective sciences which provide bothinsight and also power over environment—theoriginal objects at which magic aimed (1317).

These superstitions represented theemergence of the human desire to knowand to control planetary environment.

§305. Applications of Magic. (1319)

As has been shown in another connection,“primitive man is unable to conceive theidea of natural death—every death isattributed to sorcery or to some maliciousact” (1319-20).

88:4.5 Magic gained such a strong holdupon the savage because he could notgrasp the concept of natural death.

... Nassau knows of certain exceptionalcases where death was considerednatural; “for it is not unqualifiedly truethat all tribes of Africa regard all deathsas caused by black art. There are somedeaths that are admitted to be by the callof God, and for these there is nowitchcraft investigation” (1321).

The later idea of original sin helped muchto weaken the grip of magic on the race inthat it accounted for natural death.

“Belief in witchcraft is the cause ofmore African deaths than anythingelse....” ... As it is [in Africa], ... ten ormore die for one death,

It was at one time not at all uncommonfor ten innocent persons to be put to deathbecause of supposed responsibility forone natural death.

“and thus, over immense tracts of country,the death rate exceeds the birth rate.”

This is one reason why ancient peoplesdid not increase faster,

This startling expression from a firstrateauthority is backed up by Nassau, himselflong a missionary in West Africa, whosays that “for every natural death at leastone, and often ten or more, have beenexecuted under witchcraft accusation”(1321).

and it is still true of some African tribes.

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Indian villages [on the northwest coast ofNorth America] were bombarded anddestroyed in the effort to compel thenatives to abandon the punishment ofvictims accused of witchcraft; “but thechief stumbling block has been thesurprising admission of guilt which nearlyall the accused Indians make whencharged with charming away life, andthis, too, in the face of the death penalty.Such is their credulity that when accusedthey believe they must be guilty” (1321).

The accused individual usually confessedguilt, even when facing death.


The belief in magic is wholly naturalto the savage; given his premises, it isalso rational and logical.

88:4.6 Magic is natural to a savage.

Says a writer on New Guinea: “While Ihave spoken of this native belief as beliefin ‘magic,’ we must remember that it isreally not magic from the native point ofview. From his point of view it is just asnatural for a person to be killed bytreating his hair after it has been cut off,as it is to kill him by giving him a grain ortwo of strychnine” (1318).

He believes that an enemy can actually bekilled by practicing sorcery on hisshingled hair or fingernail trimmings.

§306. Effectiveness of Magic. (1326)

[contd] The power of magic over thosewho believe in it is attested bytrustworthy observers. The fatalitiesattending the breaking of a taboo shouldbe recalled ...

“There is no doubt whatever that anative will die after the infliction of eventhe most superficial wound if only hebelieves the weapon which inflicted thewound had been sung over and thusendowed with Arungquiltha [magicalpoisonous properties] ...” (1326).

The fatality of snake bites was attributedto the magic of the sorcerer.

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“The extraordinary part of the magicin savage lands is that it always works ...I once was at the death-bed of an old[Maori] chief, who was supposed to bedying of typhoid, but the real cause of hisdeath was fear. In some way he hadoffended another chief, and that man hadcursed him by a Tohunga or priest....

The difficulty in combating magic arisesfrom the fact that fear can kill.

So strong is the superstition regardingthese things that a man who is cursednever dreams of attempting to overcomethe disaster foretold him, he simply goeshome and dies,

Primitive peoples so feared magic that itdid actually kill,

and it is in this way that this particularsuperstition, and others like it live” (1326-27).

and such results were sufficient tosubstantiate this erroneous belief.

[T]he extraordinary thing about magic insavage lands is that ... if it seems to fail inany particular case, that is due simply toneutralization by an opposing magic thatis still more powerful. If the performancedoes not come off, there is always anexcuse which is plausible enough to abeliever.

In case of failure there was always someplausible explanation;

The cure for magic is more magic (1327). the cure for defective magic was moremagic.

5. MAGICAL CHARMS

§300. Exuvial Magic. (1292)

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[contd] That the exuviæ are fetishistic,as containing part of the soul inhabitingthe body from which they come, isevident. One of the stock resources ofmagical practice is some exuvial part ofthe victim (1292-93).

If a Bangala woman runs away, herhusband gets out her nail-parings andhair-cuttings which he has gathered forsuch an emergency, and takes them to amedicine-man, who puts them in a skinand returns them to him. The husbandthen utters [an] imprecation ... (IV 699-700).

88:5.1 Since anything connected withthe body could become a fetish, theearliest magic had to do with hair andnails.

“It is ... believed [by Australianaborigines] that if enemies get possessionof anything that has belonged to a person,they can by its means make him ill; henceevery uncleanness belonging to adults andhalf-grown children is buried at a distancefrom their dwellings. . . .

Secrecy attendant upon body eliminationgrew up out of fear that an enemy mightget possession of something derived fromthe body and employ it in detrimentalmagic; all excreta of the body weretherefore carefully buried.

Children under four or five years of age ...are not required to do so; and theirexcreta are deposited in one spot andcovered with a sheet of bark, and whendry they are burned” (1295).

Public spitting was refrained frombecause of the fear that saliva would beused in deleterious magic;

If [certain Africans] spit, they cover itwith earth (1295).

spittle was always covered.

Such objects, including not alone physicalfragments such as hair but also remnantsof food, clothing, property, and likewisethe name—things assimilated topersonality—are part of their owner in thesense of containing some fraction of hissoul. With such samples of a person, it isthought, much damage can be done ...(1292-93).

Even food remnants, clothing, andornaments could become instruments ofmagic.

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The savage never left any remnants of hismeal on the table.

It is fear of the magic that can be workedby the use of exuviæ, for instance saliva,which has made a good part of men’smanners, as well as their so-calledhygienic and sanitary practice (1293).

And all this was done through fear thatone’s enemies might use these things inmagical rites, not from any appreciationof the hygienic value of such practices.

88:5.2 Magical charms were concoctedfrom a great variety of things:

Perhaps the most potent West Africancharm, stowed in the tusk of a youngelephant, comprises hair from the head ofa white man, a bit of human flesh, alsosaid to be that of a white man, some largesnake-teeth, the point of a leopard’s claw,a fragment of the tooth of a crocodile, afew seeds of the plant from which poisonfor arrows is made, all mixed in a kind ofpaste. To this is added a little gunpowderand a few drops of snake-poison (IV699).

human flesh, tiger claws, crocodile teeth,poison plant seeds, snake venom, andhuman hair.

Bones form another instrument ofmagic common in Central Australia. “Alldiseases are supposed to be caused by thebone of a dead black-fellow beingpointed at the sick person ...” (IV 696).

The bones of the dead were very magical.

“[Among certain tribes in India] ... awitch or sorcerer wishing to harm a mansecures a little dust of his footprints andeffects his mischievous purpose byuttering some magic spell over such dust”(IV 701).

Even the dust from footprints could beused in magic.

The ancients were great believers in lovecharms.

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In East Prussia, “if anyone wants to betruly loved by any else, he must give himsecretly three drops of his blood in somefood and drink.” For love-charms, inGermany of earlier days, magicians usedsundry words, ... nail-parings, a piece ofthe person’s clothing or something elsethat had been in contact with him ...Harlots and others of that ilk made use ofsexual secretions, after-births, milk,perspiration, urine, spittle, hair, navel-strings, and the brains of tadpoles orburbots. “A mixture of such ingredients ...when taken by the coveted person shouldawaken responsive love ...” (IV 703).

Blood and other forms of bodilysecretions were able to insure the magicinfluence of love.

§302. Imitative Magic. (1306)

88:5.3 Images were supposed to beeffective in magic.

Effigy. A special type of imitativemagic consists in making an image orother representation

Effigies were made,

and treating it in a special manner, in thebelief that the person or thing for whom itstands will be affected accordingly (IV721).

and when treated ill or well, the sameeffects were believed to rest upon the realperson.

The Zulu, buying cattle, chews a bitof wood to soften the hard heart of theseller (1310).

When making purchases, superstitiouspersons would chew a bit of hard wood inorder to soften the heart of the seller.

§301. Other Instrumentalities. (1296)

The Singhalese make medicine forsome ills from the milk of a pure blackcow, which animal, like the black cat somuch in evidence here as elsewhere, is afetish (1298).

88:5.4 The milk of a black cow washighly magical; so also were black cats.

The simplest instrument which isperhaps most commonly associated withmagic is the staff or wand (1299). The staff or wand was magical,

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The wand is peculiar to no time or place:a Homeric god or magician wielded one;so does the African sorcerer; and, alongwith the drum, it distinguishes themedicine-man in Indian picture-writing(1299-1300).

along with drums,

Besides the wand and the drum, themagician may use a variety ofimplements, like the bells, or the knot,most of which have, aside from magic, afetishistic quality (1300).

bells, and knots.

Ancient objects are likely to beregarded as fetishes and to be availablefor magic (1301).

All ancient objects were magical charms.

Another set of instrumentalities ofmagic, to the savage mind, are theinexplicable products and processes ofcivilization.

The practices of a new or highercivilization were looked upon withdisfavor because of their supposedly evilmagical nature.

Writing, for example, is to oneunacquainted with it pure magic; and thewritten or printed signs that conveymeaning without a voice have powerful“medicine” in them....

The Hovas of Madagascar believethat paper, written upon, has evil powers,but that such magical instruments mayalso ward off ills.... If a man were to bephotographed, he must have all his bestcharms upon him, in order to offset hisexposure ... (1302).

Writing, printing, and pictures were longso regarded.

§212. The Name. (810)

No one’s name, least of all a god’s, mightbe taken “in vain,” that is, lightly, as if thetrivial utterance of it upon the air couldhave no significance to him (810).

88:5.5 Primitive man believed thatnames must be treated with respect,especially names of the gods.

“The Indian regards his name, not as amere label, but as a distinct part of hispersonality, just as much as are his eyesor his teeth,

The name was regarded as an entity, aninfluence distinct from the physicalpersonality; it was esteemed equally withthe soul and the shadow.

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and believes that injury will result assurely from the malicious handling of hisname as from a wound inflicted on anypart of his physical organism...” (813).

The name was of great interest andsignificance in North America. Namescould be loaned, pawned, or even given orthrown away outright (IV 321).

Names were pawned for loans;

[A]mong the Kwakiutl, if a man’s creditis poor, he may pawn his name for a year,during which time he may not use it. Hehas to pay about twenty-five per cent fora three months’ loan to redeem his name(IV 322).

a man could not use his name until it hadbeen redeemed by payment of the loan.

Nowadays one signs his name to a note.

The name plays an important part inmagic (810).

An individual’s name soon becameimportant in magic.

Hence a savage would have two names, areal one which was never used andanother for common appellation ... (810).

The savage had two names;

[In Babylonia and Assyria, one’s name]belonged to an individual as a part of hisequipment and in many cases wasregarded as too sacred to be used on alloccasions,

the important one was regarded as toosacred to use on ordinary occasions,

so that in addition to his real name anindividual generally had some less solemnsobriquet by which he was known, oftenchosen to emphasize some physicalpeculiarity or distinction and invariablybriefer than the real name used on officialoccasions (IV 324-25).

hence the second or everyday name—anickname.

“You can implore a [Papuan] native to tellyou his name, and even offer him coin topay him for that information, but it has noeffect. He will tell you some name, if youpress him hard enough, but it won’t behis, as you will discover if you try to findhim again” (811).

He never told his real name to strangers.

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[The savage] would change his nameseveral times during life for reasonspresently to appear (810).

Any experience of an unusual naturecaused him to change his name;

Mary Antin cites a ... superstition amongthe Jews of Russia: “My mother nearlydied of cholera once, but she was given anew name, a lucky one, which saved her;and that was when she was a small girl”(IV 325).

sometimes it was in an effort to curedisease

One Rex Glenwood of Cincinnati rescueda man named Edward Strietback fromdrowning. The latter was suffused withgratitude for his rescuer and wanted to dowhat he could for him. WhereuponGlenwood asked that he take his name.The name, it appeared, was hoodooed; butthe bad luck was attached to the nameonly and not the individual. So Strietbackmanfully lived up to his promise, changedhis name to Rex Glenwood, andapparently endured several years ofhardship and misfortune. Eventually thehoodoo wore itself out. The realGlenwood is now convinced that the badluck is over, so he wants his name back;and the substitute Glenwood apparently isglad to get rid of it (IV 325).

or to stop bad luck.

“ ... On announcing his desire for a newname to the chief, and proving that he hasthe means of paying for it, the [NewHebrides] native goes away by himself fora few weeks ... After his seclusion he isknown by his new name, and attends thebig religious feast which he himself hasprovided.

The savage could get a new name bybuying it from the tribal chief;

Other ways are found for changingnames, and certain natives are rewardedfor their bravery and good deeds by beinggiven a new one, in much the same wayas a man is knighted in England” (IV319).

men still invest in titles and degrees.

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There are, it is true, occasional caseswhere the name is lacking; the Bushmanof South Africa has no name peculiar tohimself, and the same is true of theVeddahs (811).

But among the most primitive tribes, suchas the African Bushmen, individual namesdo not exist.

6. THE PRACTICE OF MAGIC


It is not asserted that all so-called magicaloperations are coercive nor yet that all areperformed by use of fetishes, such as the“medicine,” the wand, or theincantation, but that it is typical of themagician to operate in such manner(1291).

88:6.1 Magic was practiced through theuse of wands, “medicine” ritual, andincantations,

The connection of magic withcoercion is illustrated by the fact thatnakedness is often regarded as anessential to the production of magicaleffects.

and it was customary for the practitionerto work unclothed.

In a West African story, women perform magic innight orgies, naked, as in the revels of theWalpurgisnacht ... while among the southern Slavs“the sorcerers and sorceresses are accustomed to beentirely unclad, ‘naked as their mothers bore them,’when they undertake their major magicaloperaitons” (1291).

The following instance illustrates ... the greatersusceptibility of women to possession ... “ ... If itis any woman who is possessed of the devil, and itis women who generally suffer from these things,an expensive and elaborate devil dance . . . has tobe performed... (1292).

… Among some East African tribes only the maleshave magical powers (IV 712).

In the Indian Archipelago women are moreoften witches than men, yet the power may beinherited in the male line (IV 734).

Women outnumbered the men amongprimitive magicians.


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[contd] Beside the exuviæ there is agreat variety of objects, substances,mixtures, and preparations used in makingmagic. Perhaps the best inclusive namefor these is the Indian one, “medicine,”which meant to the Indian what he tookout of the English or French words, thatis, “mystery.” We do not wish at thispoint to consider medicaments used incase of illness—what is ordinarily meantby “medicine”—having reserved all suchcases for a later connection (1296).

In magic, “medicine” means mystery,not treatment.

One should not “doctor” himself, butshould always consult a specialist (IV705).

The savage never doctored himself; henever used medicines except on theadvice of the specialists in magic.

Survivals of African beliefs andpractices may be found among thenegroes of the New World, especially inthe activities of the “voodoo doctor” or“conjur’ man” (IV 706).

And the voodoo doctors of the twentiethcentury are typical of the magicians ofold.

§303. Nature of Magic. (1312)

Lehmann distinguishes betweenofficial and private magic (1314).

88:6.2 There was both a public and aprivate phase to magic.

The former is ... for the benefit of thegroup at large and for any individual whowishes to take advantage of it, butinvolves no danger to others of the in-group. This is “white art” where theprivate type is “black art”; it ismanipulated by the official representative,shaman or priest, and is not far frombeing the group-religion itself (1314).

That performed by the medicine man,shaman, or priest was supposed to be forthe good of the whole tribe.

The latter is employed by the individual,usually a witch or wizard, without thesanction of the group, for his own benefitand generally to the injury of others(1314).

Witches, sorcerers, and wizards dispensedprivate magic, personal and selfish magicwhich was employed as a coercivemethod of bringing evil on one’s enemies.

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Most broadly, next to its coercivequality, magic is a case of dualism, that is,of the enlistment of spirit against spirit.The most familiar instance of dualism isthe eternal opposition of the White andthe Black, the Good and the Evil, Godand Satan; only, on the less sophisticatedstage, the moral quality of the spiritinvoked as resident in the fetish is not amatter of much attention. In fact, it isgenerally supposed that magic deals withthe control of evil influences rather thangood. There is such a thing as “whitemagic,” but the words “sorcery,”“witchcraft,” “black art,” have asuggestion of evil about them (1314).

The concept of dual spiritism, good andbad spirits, gave rise to the later beliefs inwhite and black magic.


[M]agic is generally conceived to beoutside the regular cult, based upon anold and submerged or foreign religion,

And as religion evolved, magic was theterm applied to spirit operations outsideone’s own cult, and it also referred toolder ghost beliefs.

and its forms often represent a parodyupon those of the regular and acceptedfaith (1292).


A final type of magicalinstrumentality is ritual, whether of wordor of action.... [C]ombinations of wordsconstituted formulas and prayers; andwhen actions ... were added, thereappeared a ritual ... in which ... there wasconceived to reside power capable ofsecuring otherwise inexplicable results....In [the spoken spell or incantation]barbaric and obsolete words were thoughtto be especially powerful, the more so theharder it was to give them sense (1303).

88:6.3 Word combinations, the ritual ofchants and incantations, were highlymagical.

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The connection between incantationand prayer has been developed, withillustrations; it is true enough that prayer,though it is primarily part of thepropitiation-ritual, sometimes exercisescoercitive power (1306).

Some early incantations finally evolvedinto prayers.

§302. Imitative Magic. (1306)

Presently, imitative magic was practiced;

It is evident that there is ritual in ...[imitative-magic] performances, togetherwith a strong presumption that they willattain their ends; in some cases andaspects they are plainly coercitive, thoughthe propitiatory element also is likely tobe present. It is possible to regard them asacted prayers (1306). prayers were acted out;

It should be noted in scanning detaileddescriptions that the magical dancealways presents, in some of its aspectsand generally as a whole, the features of adramatic prayer.

magical dances were nothing butdramatic prayers.

It is with the steady development of theregular cult that “prayer and sacrificeassume the leading place in religiousritual; and magic, which once ranked withthem as a legitimate equal, is graduallyrelegated to the background and sinks tothe level of a black art” (1311-12).

Prayer gradually displaced magic as theassociate of sacrifice.

It is not at all fanciful to regard much ofwhat goes under the name of sympatheticmagic as simply the sort of prayer whichthe spirits will be sure to apprehend,appealing as it does to the eye rather thanto, or in addition to, the ear. And perhapsgesture, being older, is more holy thanspeech (1306).

88:6.4 Gesture, being older thanspeech, was the more holy and magical,

[contd] Whatever the ritual, itsmimetic character is what securesmagical results; in it resides a power thatis spiritual in nature and compelling ineffect (1307).

and mimicry was believed to have strongmagical power.

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A typical form is the rehearsal of somedesirable event, with the idea of making itcome off; the “buffalo-dance,” whereinthe chase and taking of the bison areenacted, with certain Indians made up asthe quarry, is perhaps as characteristic anexample of this sort of magic as could befound (1306).

The red men often staged a buffalo dancein which one of their number would playthe part of a buffalo and, in being caught,would insure the success of the impendinghunt.

In the East Indies the natives of somedistricts, believing that rice has a soul andsex-passion, seek to rouse the latter to geta good harvest (1310).

The sex festivities of May Day weresimply imitative magic, a suggestiveappeal to the sex passions of the plantworld.

Among certain California Indians, whena wife is childless, “her sympathizingfriends sometimes make a rude image ofa baby out of grass, and tie it in aminiature baby-basket, according toIndian custom. . . . She takes it up, holdsit to her breast, pretends to nurse it, andsings it lullaby-songs. This is done as asort of conjuration, which it is hoped willhave the effect of causing the barrenwoman to become fertile” (1311).

The Buryat woman, desiring children,will carry a child’s swaddling clothes or aspecially made doll, and pretend to feed itto her breast. Those present ask hersympathetically, “How is your child? Ishe quiet? Have you much trouble withhim?” (IV 722)

The doll was first employed as a magictalisman by the barren wife.


[contd] Out of the magic thatbranched off from the stem of religionsprang an important line of evolutionarydevelopment which, passing throughpseudo-science, culminates in the sciencesof today (1329).

88:6.5 Magic was the branch off theevolutionary religious tree whicheventually bore the fruit of a scientificage.

Suppose ... that the ideas of star-rule hadnever existed; would such efforts havebeen devoted to the charting of theconstellations and the observation ofcelestial movements?

Belief in astrology led to the developmentof astronomy;

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Would men have studied the metals andelements so assiduously and piled upaccumulations of observations for scienceto build upon, if there had been nothing init beyond the satisfaction of intellectualcuriosity?

The chase after the philosopher’sstone must have been exciting andengrossing, granted that men wereconvinced beyond peradventure that therewas one and labored under no limitationsof scepticism or criticism (1332).

belief in a philosopher’s stone led to themastery of metals,

The Jewish Kabbala was constructed onthe basis of numbers and of thepeculiarities of the Hebrew alphabet; the“cabalistic” occultism is found elsewhere(1329).

while belief in magic numbers foundedthe science of mathematics.


The prevalence of belief in magicundoubtedly fathers the conviction that itis the unpredictable whims of thesupernatural that determine humandestiny, thereby both reducing confidencein labor and economy and furnishingsubterfuges to those who shun them(1324).

88:6.6 But a world so filled with charmsdid much to destroy all personal ambitionand initiative.

Here [see immediately below] isexemplified the tendency to call magical,or to ascribe to extra-human power, thatwhich can be attained by sustained andwell-directed effort along lines admittedby everyone to be within the scope ofpowers no more than human (1324).

The fruits of extra labor or of diligencewere looked upon as magical.

There was a popular belief [among theRomans] that grain could be bewitchedover from someone else’s field to one’sown. Once the people lodged such acharge against a freedman.

If a man had more grain in his field thanhis neighbor, he might be haled before thechief and charged with enticing this extragrain from the indolent neighbor’s field.

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The latter appeared for trial accompaniedby his slaves, carts, and well-kept oxen.“Look upon my magical implements,” hesaid; “there is yet lacking only myunceasing labor, which I cannot showyou” (1324).

There was [in the Middle Ages] aconsistent exhibition of the stock attitudeof ignorance: the ascription of sorcery. Itwas not safe to know anything, as manya learned Jew or Arab found out (1324-25).

Indeed, in the days of barbarism it wasdangerous to know very much; there wasalways the chance of being executed as ablack artist.


[repeated] The chase after thephilosopher’s stone must have beenexciting and engrossing.... You might getsomething big at any moment. It was agrand gamble with luck; and the race hasalways been fascinated by playing withchance. Even now, under accepted limitsof what one can expect to get, the study ofnatural science is exciting (1332).

88:6.7 Gradually science is removingthe gambling element from life.


As for the belief in witchcraft, “it islatent and may burst forth anew at anymoment.... If bad times should comeagain upon the civilized world, throughoverpopulation and an unfavorableeconomic conjuncture, populareducation would decline and classeswould be more widely separated. It mustthen be expected that the old demonismwould burst forth again and wouldreproduce the old phenomena” (1319).

But if modern methods of educationshould fail, there would be an almostimmediate reversion to the primitivebeliefs in magic.

These superstitions still linger in theminds of many so-called civilized people.


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That the race has been long andthoroughly steeped in magic is indicatedby the number of terms to be found inmodern languages—terms whose originlies in very real conceptions ofenchantment, bewitchment, charming, andother magic conceptions and operations.

Language contains many fossils whichtestify that the race has long been steepedin magical superstition,

Words such as “spell-bound,” recallingmagic;

such words as spellbound,

“saturnine,” “mercurial,” “ill-starred,” or“disaster,” recalling astrological beliefs;

ill-starred,

“possession” or “inspiration,” recallingfetishism;

possessions, inspiration,

“night-mare,” to “spirit away,”“ingenuity,” “entrancing,” “ecstasy,”“inauspicious,” “abominable,” “thunder-struck,” “astonished,” and a host of otherterms that recall animistic and daimonisticdoctrines—

spirit away, ingenuity, entrancing,thunderstruck, and astonished.

all are embedded fossils or survivals thatwitness to preceding stages of evolutionjust as clearly as silent letters in words,like “phthisis,” betray linguisticgenealogy or as vestigial organs, such asthe appendix in man, indicate animal-ancestry (1325).

[contd] Belief in magic in the strictersense ... has been nearly if not quiteuniversal among all peoples. And ifanyone thinks that belief to be defunct incivilized states, he is unacquainted withthe mode of thought of the ignorant, aswell as with various weaknesses andvagaries of those who ought to knowbetter (1325-26).

And intelligent human beings still believein good luck, the evil eye, and astrology.


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And presently the old theory becomes amaladjustment, whether or not it is seen tobe obsolete, and it fades away. Thecocoon, though indispensable in its time,is no longer needed.

88.6.8 Ancient magic was the cocoon ofmodern science, indispensable in its timebut now no longer useful.

Men now study the stars, even thoughthere is nothing crucial to gain or lose byso doing. The imagination, availing itselfof the poetic and dramatic means ofexpression, breaks new ground for theintellect, and phantasms hold the field,until concepts are ready (1334).

And so the phantasms of ignorantsuperstition agitated the primitive mindsof men until the concepts of sciencecould be born.


And now ... comes the followingconcerning popular credulity in England:

Today, Urantia is in the twilight zone ofthis intellectual evolution.

“At the opposite pole from [a]reinvigorated atheism there has takenplace a most extraordinary recrudescenceof the belief in magic, miracle, and thedirect intervention of the supernatural.”This was under the stress and misery ofwar (1319).

One half the world is grasping eagerly forthe light of truth and the facts of scientificdiscovery, while the other half languishesin the arms of ancient superstition and butthinly disguised magic.

88.6.9 [Presented by a BrilliantEvening Star of Nebadon.]

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1. In JASB, I, 248.

2. Maspero, Hist. Anc., I, 504, 641, 679, 680.

3. [Some incantations evolved into prayers.]

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PAPER 88 — FETISHES, CHARMS, AND MAGIC 1. BELIEF IN FETISHES §254. The Extraordinary. (1017)...

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