all reasonable beings; acting morally is conducting one's self according to those maxims which can be extended without contradiction to all wills. In other words, science and morals imply that the individual is capable of raising himself above his own peculiar point of view and of living an impersonal life. In fact, it cannot be doubted that this is a trait common to all the higher forms of thought and action. What Kant's system does not explain, however, is the origin of this sort of contradiction which is realized in man. Why is he forced to do violence to himself by leaving his individuality, and, inversely, why is the impersonal law obliged to be dissipated by incarnating itself in individuals ? Is it answered that there are two antagonistic worlds in which we participate equally, the world of matter and sense on the one hand, and the world of pure and impersonal reason on the other ? That is merely repeating the
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question in slightly different terms, for what we are trying to find out is why we must lead these two existences at the same time. Why do these two worlds, which seem to contradict each other, not remain outside of each other, and why must they mutually penetrate one another in spite of their antagonism ? The only explanation which has ever been given of this singular necessity is the hypothesis of the Fall, with all the difficulties which it implies, and which need not be repeated here. On the other hand, all mystery disappears the moment that it is recognized that impersonal reason is only another name given to collective thought. For this is possible only through a group of individuals ; it supposes them, and in their turn, they suppose it, for they can continue to exist only by grouping themselves together. The kingdom of ends and impersonal truths can realize itself only by the co-operation of particular wills, and the reasons for which these participate in it are the same as those for which they co-operate. In a word, there is something impersonal in us because there is ' something social in all of us, and since social life embraces at once both representations and practices, this impersonality naturally extends to ideas as well as to acts.
Perhaps some will be surprised to see us connect the most elevated forms of thought with society : the cause appears quite humble, in consideration of the value which we attribute to the effect. Between the world of the senses and appetites on the one hand, and that of reason and morals on the other, the distance is so considerable that the second would seem to have been able to add itself to the first only by a creative act. But attributing to society this preponderating role in the genesis of our nature is not denying this creation ; for society has a creative power which no other observable being can equal. In fact, all creation, if not a mystical operation which escapes science and knowledge, is the product of a synthesis. Now if the synthesis of particular conceptions which take place in each individual consciousness are already and of themselves productive of novelties, how much more efficacious these vast syntheses of complete consciousnesses which make society must be! A society is the most powerful combination of physical and moral forces of which nature offers us an example. Nowhere else is an equal richness of different materials, carried to such a degree of concentration, to be found. Then it is not surprising that a higher life disengages itself which, by reacting upon the elements of which it is the product, raises them to a higher plane of existence and transforms them.
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Thus sociology appears destined to open a new way to the science of man. Up to the present, thinkers were placed before this double alternative: either explain the superior and specific faculties of men by connecting them to the inferior forms of his being, the reason to the senses, or the mind to matter, which is equivalent to denying their uniqueness; or else attach them to some super-experimental reality which was postulated, but whose existence could be established by no observation. What put them in this difficulty was the fact that the individual passed as being the finis natures-the ultimate creation of nature; it seemed that there was nothing beyond him, or at least nothing that science could touch. But from the moment when it is recognized that above the individual there is society, and that this is not a nominal being created by reason, but a system of active forces, a new manner of explaining men becomes possible. To conserve his distinctive traits it is no longer necessary to put them outside experience. At least, before going to this last extremity, it would be well to see if that which surpasses the individual, though it is within him,
does not come from this super-individual reality which we experience in society. To be sure, it cannot be said at present to what point these explanations may be able to reach, and whether or not they are of a nature to resolve all the problems. But it is equally impossible to mark in advance a limit beyond which they cannot go. What must be done is to try the hypothesis and submit it as methodically as possible to the control of facts. This is what we have tried to do. Elementary Forms of Religious Life painful irritation to ecstatic enthusiasm; but, in any case, there is a communion of minds and a mutual comfort resulting from this communion. The fundamental process is always the same ; only circumstances colour it differently. So, at bottom, it is the unity and the diversity of social life which make the simultaneous unity and diversity of sacred beings and things.
This ambiguity, moreover, is not peculiar to the idea of sacred-ness alone ; something of this characteristic has been found in all the rites which we have been studying. Of course it was essential to distinguish them ; to confuse them would have been to misunderstand the multiple aspects of the religious life. But, on the other hand, howsoever different they may be, there is no break of continuity between them. Quite on the contrary, they overlap one another and may even replace each other mutually. We have already shown how the rites of oblation and communion, the imitative rites and the commemorative rites frequently fulfil the same function. One might imagine that the negative cult, at least, would be more sharply separated from the positive cult; yet we have seen that the former may produce positive effects, identical with those produced by the latter. The same results are obtained by fasts, abstinences and self-mutilations as by communions, oblations and commemorations. Inversely, offerings and sacrifices imply privations and renunciations of every sort. The continuity between ascetic and piacular rites is even more apparent: both are made up of sufferings, accepted or undergone, to which an analogous efficacy is attributed. Thus the practices, like the beliefs, are not arranged in two separate classes. Howsoever complex the outward manifestations of the religious life may be, at bottom it is one and simple. It responds everywhere to one and the same need, and is everywhere derived from one and the same mental state. In all its forms, its object is to raise man above himself and to make him lead a life superior to that which he would lead, if he followed only his own individual whims: beliefs express this life in representations ; rites organize it and regulate its working.
INDEX
Alatunja, 327.
Alcheringa, or mythical period, 247.
Ambiguity of sacredness, 409 и. ; explanation of, 412 ff. Animal-worship, totemism not, 94, 139, 170 f.
Animism, as expounded by Tyior and Spencer, 49 ff. ; how it explains the origin of the idea of the soul, 50 f. ; of spirits, 51 f. ; their cult, 52 ; and the nature-cult, 53 f. ; criticism of these theories, 55 fi. ; implies that religions are systems of hallucinations, 68 ; which is its best refutation, 70.
Anthropomorphism, not found among primitives, 67 f. ; denied by Spencer, 53 fi., 65 ; cannot explain totemic view of world, 235, or primitive rites, 406 f.
Apriorism, philosophical, 14 f., 368.
Art, why principal forms of, have been born in religion, 381 ; dramatic, in totemic ceremonies, 373, 380 ; totemic emblems first form of 127 and n. 4.
Aiungqmitha, or magic force, in Australia, 197 f. ; how it enables us to understand totemic principle, 198.
Asceticism, nature of, 39, 311 ; based on negative rites, 311 ; essential element of religious life, 311 f. ; religious function of, 314 ff. ; socio-logical import of, 316 ; implied in the notion of sacredness, 317, its antagonism to the profane, 39 f., 317, and its contagiousness, 318 ; not dependent upon idea of divine personalities, 321 ; positive effects of. 312 ff., 386.
Atonement for faults by rites, 385, 405, 408.
Authority, moral, of society, 207 f., 208 n. 4 ; based on social opinion, 208, 2i3.
Beliefs, how related to rites, 101, 403 ; translate social facts, 431, what they seem destined to become, 429 fi.; all contain an element of truth, 438.
Blood, human, sacredness of, 126, 137, 330 f.
Body, essentially profane, 262 ; explanation of this, 263. Bull-roarers, definition of, 119.
Categories of the understanding, religious origin of, 9 fi. ; social origin of, 10 ff., 439 ; necessity of, explained, 17 ff. ; real function of, 440 ; only social necessity for, 443 ; modelled on social forms, 18 ff., 144 ff., 440.
Causality, law of, 362 fi. ; first stated in imitative rites, 363 ; social origin, 363 367 f., 443; imposed by society, 368; sociological theory of, and classical theories, 368 f., 443 ; varying statements of, 369 and n. I.
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Charms, magic, explanation of, 356. Church, essential to religion, 44 ff.
Chwinga, definition of, 119; eminently sacred character of, 120; due to totemic mark, 122 f. ; as religious force, 198 and n. 4. Civilizing heroes, 283 fi. ; common to whole tribe, 284 ; tribal rites personified, 285 ; moral role of, 285 ; connecting link between spirits and gods, 290 f.
Clan, characteristics of, 102 ; basis of simplest social system known, 96, 167 ; how recruited, 106 f. ; totem as name of, 102 f.; symbolized by totem, 206 ; implied by totemism, 167 ; basis for classification of natural things, 141 ff. Classes, logical, religious origin of, 148 ff. ; in higher religions, 144 ; based on social classifications, 141 fi. ; collective life basis of, 147 ff.,443.
Communion, alimentary, essential to sacrifice, 337 ; found in Australia, 334 f-. 337. 34° ; positive effects of, 337 f.
Concept, society's role in the genesis of, 432 ff. ; not equivalent to general idea, 432 ; distinguished from sensations, 433 ; immutability of, 433 ; universality of, 433 ; essentially social nature of, 435 ; coeval with humanity, 438 ; objective truth of, 437 ff.
Contagiousness of sacredness, 222 ; at basis of ascetic rites, 318 ff. ; not due to associations of ideas, 321, but to the externality of religious forces, 323 f.; at basis of logical classifications, 324 f.
Contradiction, idea of, religious nature of, 38 f. ; social nature of, 12 f. ; based on social life, 146 ; origin of, 234 ff.
Contraries, logical, nature of primitive, 235, 238 f. Corrobbori, 215, n. 2,, 380.
Cosmology of totemism, 141 ff. ; in all religions, 9, 428 ff.
Colt, needed by gods, 345 ff. ; moral reasons for, 63, 346, 417 f. ; social interpretation of, 347 ff. ; real function of, 386 ; periodical nature of, 63; imitative rites first form of, 387 ; aesthetic nature of, 382.
Death, insufficiency of, to make a soul into a spirit, 60 f., 398. or give sacredness, 62. Deity. See Gods, Spiritual Beings.
Dreams, as origin of idea of double or soul, 50 f., 58 f., 264; inadequacy of this theory, 56 f.; as suggesting posthumous life, 268.
Ecstasy, in religion, explained, 226 f. Efficacy, idea of, social origin of, 363 f.
Emblem, totem as, of clan, 206, 219 ff. ; psychological need for, 220, 230 ; creates unity of group, 230 ; and maintains it, 231 ; incarnates collective sentiments, 232 ; why primitives chose theirs in animal or vegetable worlds, 233 f.
Empiricism, philosophical, 13 f., 368. Ertr.atulunga, 120, 247. Eschatology, Australian,
245, 287. Evil spirits, 281 ff., 420. Expiatory rites, 406 ff. [451]
Faith, religious, nature of, 360 f., 430 f. Family group, based on totemism, 106 n. 2. Fear, religion not based on, 223 ff., 406. Fetishism, 175.
Folk-lore, how related to religion, 41, 83 n. I ; related to totemism, 90.
Force, religious, ambiguity of, 222 ; why outside object in which it resides, 229 ; as collective force, 221, 229 ; takes form from society, 336 ; represents how collective consciousness acts on individuals, 223 ; idea of, precedes that of scientific force, 203 f., 363 ; collective force as prototype of physical force, 365. See Sacred, Totemic Principle.
Formalism, religious, explanation of, 35 ; first form of legal, 35 f. Free-will, doctrine of, how explained, 271 f.
Games, born in religion, 381 and n. i.
Gods, religions without, 30 ff. ; in Australia, 285 ff. ; immortal, 286 ; creators, 287 ; benefactors, 287 ; connected with initiation rites. 288; international character of, 288, 294 f., 425 ff.; of indigenous origin, 289 f. ; developed form of civilizing heroes, 290 f., 295; closely connected with totemic system, 191, 291 f. ; first conceived in tribal assemblies, 293 ; expressions of tribal unity, 294, 426.
Hair, human, sacredness of, 64, 137 f. Hazing, sociologies! import of, 313 n. 4.
Ideal, the, in religion, 420 ff. ; formation of, a natural and necessary product of collective life, 422.
Idealism, essential, of social and religious worlds, 228, 345, 347.
Imitative Rites, 351 ff. ; in Australia, 351 ff. ; based on so-called sympathetic magic, 355 if. ; distinguished from charms, 356 ; reasons for, 357 ff. ; material efficacy attributed to, 359 ; explained by moral efficacy of, 359 f.; first expression of law of causality, 363 ; original form of cult, 387.
Immortality of soul, idea of, not established for moral purposes, 267; nor to escape annihilation, 267 ; influence of dreams, 268 ; but this not enough to account for doctrine, 268 ; doctrine of, invented to explain origin of souls, 268 f., and expresses the immortality of society, 268 f. ; moral value of, an after-thought, 269 ; doctrine of future judgment in Australia, 245, 287; influence of mourning upon, 402 f.
Individual totem, 157 ff. ; relations of. to individual, 158 f. ; his alter ego, 159 ; individual, not a species, 160 ; how related to collective totem, 161 ; how acquired, 161 ff.; how related to genius, 279 ; origin of, 280 f., 281 n. i See Totemism, Individual.
Individualism, religious, 157 ff., 172 ff., 179 f. ; importance attributed to, by some, 45 ff., 172 ; how explained, 424 f.
Infinite, conception of, in religion, 74 ; not equivalent to sacred, 85 ; the, not characteristic of religion, 25.
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Initiation into tribe by religious ceremonies, 39, 384 ; no special rites for, 385 n. 2. Interdictions, or taboos, various sorts of, 300 fi. ; forms of, in Australia, 302 и.; of touch, 302 ; of eating, 303 ; of seeing, 304 ; of speech, 305 ; sexual, 304 and n. i ; of all temporal activity on certain days, 306 f., 334 ; ideas at the basis of, 308 ; positive eSects of, 309 ff. ; implied in notion of sacredness, 317. Intichiuma, 326 ff. ; description of among the Australians, 327-336 ; as elementary form of sacrifice, 336 ; materia efficacy expected of, 331, 333 ; alimentary communion in, 334 f., 337 ; imitative elements in, 353 ; commemorative nature of, 371 f. ; used for initiating
young men into tribe, 385 and n. i.
Knowledge, theory of. See A priorism, Empiricism, Sociological.
Language, importance of, for logical thought, 75 ff., 434 ; social character 434
Logic, related to religion and society, 234, 237 ff. ; basis for, furnished by society, 18 ff., 148, 431 ff.
Magic, based on religious ideas, 42 ff., 361 f., 362 n. i ; distinguished from religion, 43 ff. ; hostility of, towards religion, 43 ; sympathetic, 355.
Majesty, essentially religious nature of idea of, 62, cf. 213.
Man, sacred character of, 134, explained, 221 f. ; partakes of nature of totemic animal, 134 ff. ; sacred to varying degrees, 138 ff. ; double nature of, 263 f., 444 ff.
Mana, of the Melanesians, 194 f. See Totemic Principle. Matrimonial classes, definition of, 109. Metempsychosis, not found in Australia, 169, cf. 261 f.
Mourning, 390 ff. ; nature of, determined by etiquette, 391 ; especially severe for women, 391 ff., 400 ff. ; anger as well as sorrow expressed in, 393 ; how related to vendetta, 394 ; not the expression of individual emotions, 397, but a duty imposed by group, 397 ; classic interpretation of, unsustainable, 398 f. ; not connected with ideas of souls or spirits, 398, 401 ; social interpretation of, 399 ff.
Mystery in religion, 25 ; idea of, not primitive, 25 ; absent from many religions, 29. Myths, essential element of religious life, 82 ; distinguished from fables. 83 n. i ; as work
of art, 82, 101 ; interpret rites, 101, 130 ; as a society's representation of man and the world, 375.
Nanji, rock or tree, 250 f.
Naturism, as expounded by Max Muller, 73 ff. ; seeks to establish religion in reality, 73 ; teaches that gods are personifications of natural phenomena, 73 ; distinguishes between religion and mythology, 81 ; but makes religion a fabric of errors, 79 ff. ; cannot account for origin of sacredness, 84 ff.
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Negative rites, nature of, in Australia, 302 ff. ; see also Interdictions ;positive effects of, 309 ff. ; as preparation for positive rites, 310 f. ; basis of asceticism, 311 ; in mourning, 390. Nurlunja, 124 ; as rallying-centre for group, 125.
Oblations, essential to sacrifice, 341 ; this denied by Smith, 340 f. ; found in Australia, 341 f. ; vicious circle implied in, 340 f., explained, 344 ff. ; profound reasons for, 344 f. Orenda, of the Iroquois, 193 f., 198. See Totemic Principle. Origins, definition of, 8 n. i.
Pantheism, totemic, 153 f. Part equal to whole, religious principle that, explained, 229 ; in magic, 229 n. з ; in sacrificial communions, 338. Personality, idea of, double origin of, 270 ; impersonal elements in, 271 ; its alleged autonomy explained, 271 ; importance of social elements in, 272 ; represented by individual totem, 280.
Phratry, definition of, 107 ff. ; predecessor of clan, 108 and n. 9, 109, 145 ; as basis for classifications of natural things, 141 ff., 145. Piacular rites, definition of, 389 ; distinguished from ascetic rites, 396 ; based on same needs as positive rites, 399-403 ; material benefits expected of, 404 f. ; as expiation for ritual faults, 405 f. ; social function of, 407 f. Pitchi, 334. Primitives, definition of, i n. i ; best studied in Australia, 95 ; why especially important for us, 3 ff. Profane, absolute distinction of, from sacred, 38 f.