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
The establishment of a cult, however, is due not merely to the
foresight which provides for a future harvest by the tilling of the
soil; it is conditioned also by a second factor--namely, _community
labour_. Just as entrance into manhood gives rise to initiation
cults only when it becomes of tribal importance, precisely so is the
development of cults of the soil dependent upon the association of
members of a tribe or a mark in common labour. Moreover, initiation
into manhood early came to be of common concern because of the
community life of age-associates and of the need for military training
created by tribal warfare; the same is true, though at a later stage
and, of course, for essentially different reasons, of the tilling of
the soil. The most important factor in the latter case is the fact that
because the natural conditions are common to all, all are obliged to
select the same time both for the sowing and later for the harvest.
This is of little moment so long as the population is sparse and the
property of one individual is separated from that of the others by
wide stretches of uncultivated land. The more closely the members of
the mark live together, however, the more do they share in common
labour. Whenever a migrating tribe takes possession of a new territory,
moreover, there is a further decisive consideration, namely, the fact
that at the outset the soil is common property. In this case, not
merely the natural conditions, but also the very ground on which the
work of the field is performed, is identical for all the members of a
mark. Added to this objective factor there more and more comes to be
one of a subjective nature. In common labour, the individual determines
his activities by reference to a common end; moreover, he regulates
these activities, as to rhythm, tempo, and the accompanying expressive
movements, so as to conform to the group in which he finds himself.
Since, moreover, the activity of sowing and the subsequent growth of
the crop preserve the magical character acquired in an earlier period,
the work itself comes to be a cult activity. Just as initiation rites
are not merely a declaration of manhood but a cult, designed magically
to equip the novice with manly power and fortitude, so the tilling of
the soil becomes a cult act through whose inherent magical power the
prosperity of the crop is supposed to be secured. There are two factors
which are of prime importance for the beginning of agricultural cults,
and which give to their further development its peculiar stamp. In
the first place, the labour whose performance in common engenders the
cults of the soil is always connected with _hoe-culture_, the initial
stage of agriculture. It is only because they work with the hoe that
the members of the mark come into such close relations that they easily
fuse into a cult community. When the plough, which is drawn by an
animal, comes into use, the individuals are again separated. For the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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