Elements of Folk Psychology: Outline of a Psychological History of the Development of MankindWundt, Wilhelm Max
Science
Elements of Folk Psychology: Outline of a Psychological History of the Development of Mankind
Wundt, Wilhelm Max
Ethnopsychology
digging-stick into the hoe, a useful implement in tilling the soil.
In this first form of the hoe, the point is turned so as to form an
acute angle with the handle to which it is attached. Hence the soil
is not tilled in the manner of the later hoe-culture proper; nothing
more is done than to draw furrows into which the seeds are scattered.
In many respects, however, this primitive implement represents a great
advance over the method of simply gathering food as practised when the
digging-stick alone was known. It is the man who makes the furrows
with the hoe, since the loosening of the ground requires his greater
strength; he walks ahead, and the woman follows with the seeds, which
she scatters into the furrows. For the first time, thus, we discern a
provision for the future, and also a common tilling of the soil. The
gathering of the fruits generally devolves upon the woman alone. But
even among the Papuans this first step in the direction of agriculture
is found only here and there. The possibility of external influences
therefore remains.
Far superior to the Papuan race is the Micronesian population,
which, as regards its racial traits, is intermediate between the
Melanesians and the Polynesians. Migration and racial fusion here
become increasingly important cultural factors. In their beginnings,
these factors already manifest themselves in the wanderings of the
Papuan and Negrito tribes. One of the most striking discoveries of
modern ethnology is the finding of distinct traces of Papuan-Negritic
culture in regions, such as the west coast of Africa, which are very
remote from the original home of the culture in question. The Papuan
races likewise wandered far across the Indian Ocean. Obviously there
were Papuan migrations, probably in repeated trains, from New Guinea
across the Torres Strait to Northern Australia, where they seem to
have influenced social institutions and customs as well as external
culture. Above the level of the Negrito and Papuan peoples, who, in
their numerous fusions, themselves form several strata, we finally have
the Malayo-Polynesian population. The Malayo-Polynesians are widely
spread over the tropical and sub-tropical regions of the earth. Because
of their significance for the particular stage of totemism now under
discussion, we have called the entire cultural period by their name.
The fragments of the Negrito and Papuan races, which are scattered
here and there over limited sections of the broad territory covered by
the wanderings of these tribes, apparently represent remnants of the
original inhabitants. As the result of long isolation, certain groups
of these peoples have remained on a very primitive plane, as have, for
example, the above-described inland tribes of Malacca, or the peoples
of Ceylon and of other islands of the Indian archipelago. Others have
mingled with the Malays, who have come in from the mainland of India,
and with them have formed the numerous levels and divisions of the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account