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
Now, the supposition of moral innocence rests essentially on the
twofold assumption of the identity of primitive man with the Pygmy
and of the legitimacy of holding that what has been observed of _one_
tribe of Pygmies is true of the primitive condition generally. But
this identity of primitive man with the Pygmy cannot be maintained.
The most typical traits of primitive mental culture are doubtless to
be found among the Veddahs of Ceylon. The Veddahs, however, are not
really Pygmies, but are of large stature. Moreover, there are primitive
people who are so far from being Pygmies that they belong rather to
the tall races. We might cite the extinct Tasmanians, whose culture
was probably a stage lower than that of the modern Australians. In
most respects, many of the tribes of Central Australia exhibit traits
of primitive culture, even though their social organization is of a
far more complicated nature. Finally, all the peoples whose remains
have been found in the oldest diluvial deposits of Europe belong to
the tall races. On the other hand, there are peoples of small stature,
the Chinese and the Japanese, who must be counted in the first ranks
of cultured peoples. Thus, mental culture certainly cannot be measured
in terms of physical size but only in terms of itself. Mental values
can never be determined except by mental characteristics. It is true
that W. Schmidt has sought to support his theory regarding the Pygmies
by reference to the reports of E.H. Man, a reliable English observer.
According to these reports, the Andamanese, one of these dwarf peoples,
possess some remarkable legends that are doubtless indicative of
monotheistic ideas. Since the Andamans are a group of islands in the
Sea of Bengal and the inhabitants are therefore separated from other
peoples by an expanse of sea, Schmidt regarded as justifiable the
assumption that these legends were autochthonous; since, moreover, the
legends centre about the belief in a supreme god, he contended that we
here finally had proof of the theory of an original monotheism. The
main outlines of the Andamanese legends as given by E.H. Man are as
follows: The supreme god, Puluga, first created man and subsequently
(though with regard to this there are various versions) he created
woman. She was either created directly, as was man, or man himself
created her out of a piece of wood, possibly a reminiscence of Adam's
rib. Then God gave man laws forbidding theft, murder, adultery,
etc., forbidding him, furthermore, to eat of the fruits of the first
rainy season. But man did not keep the Divine commandments. The Lord
therefore sent a universal flood, in which perished all living things
with the exception of two men and two women who happened to be in
a boat. In this story, much is naturally distorted, confused, and
adapted to the medium into which the legend is transplanted. But that
it points to the Biblical accounts of the Creation, Paradise, and the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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