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
Closely connected with the real dwelling of primitive man, the cave,
are two further phenomena that date back to earliest culture. As his
constant companion, primitive man has a single animal, the _dog_,
doubtless the earliest of domestic animals. Of all domestic animals
this is the one that has remained most faithful to man down to the
present time. The inhabitant of the modern city still keeps a dog
if he owns any domestic animal at all, and as early as primitive
times the dog was man's faithful companion. The origin of this first
domestic animal remains obscure. The popular notion would seem to be
that man felt the need of such a companion, and therefore domesticated
the dog. But if one calls to mind the dogs that run wild in the
streets of Constantinople, or the dog's nearest relative, the wolf,
one can scarcely believe that men ever had a strong desire to make
friends of these animals. According to another widely current view,
it was man's need of the dog as a helper in the chase that led to its
domestication. But this also is one of those rationalistic hypotheses
based on the presupposition that man always acts in accordance with a
preconceived plan, and thus knew in advance that the dog would prove a
superior domestic animal, and one especially adapted to assist in the
chase. Since the dog possessed these characteristics only after its
domestication, they could not have been known until this had occurred,
and the hypothesis is clearly untenable. How, then, did the dog and
man come together in the earliest beginnings of society? The answer
to this question, I believe, is to be found in the cave, the original
place of shelter from rain and storm. Not only was the cave a refuge
for man, but it was equally so for animals, and especially for the
dog. Thus it brought its dwellers into companionship. Furthermore, the
kindling of the fire, once man had learned the art, may have attracted
the animal to its warmth. After the dog had thus become the companion
of man, it accompanied him in his activities, including that of the
chase. Here, of course, the nature of the carnivorous animal asserted
itself; as man hunted, so also did the animal. The dog's training,
therefore, did not at all consist in being taught to chase the game.
It did this of itself, as may be observed in the case of dogs that
are not specifically hunting dogs. The training consisted rather in
breaking the dog of the habit of devouring the captured game. This was
accomplished only through a consciously directed effort on the part of
man, an effort to which he was driven by his own needs. Thus, it is
the cave that accounts for the origin of the first domestic animal,
and also, probably, for the first attempt at training an animal. But
there is still another gain for the beginnings of culture that may
probably be attributed to the cave in its capacity of a permanent
habitation. Among primitive peoples, some of whom are already advanced
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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