Introduction to the History of Religions: Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume IVToy, Crawford Howell
HistoryHistory
Introduction to the History of Religions: Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume IV
Toy, Crawford Howell
Mythology; Religion -- History; Religions -- History; Rites and ceremonies
+523+. _Economic conditions._ Of savage and slightly civilized tribes
some live by hunting or fishing, some are pastoral (nomadic or settled),
some practice agriculture. Without undertaking to trace minutely the
history of these economic practices it may be assumed that they are
fixed in general by climatic and topographical conditions. Where food is
plentiful, thought and life are likely to be freer. In general, savage
peoples are constantly on the alert to discover supplies of food, and
they show ingenuity in devising economic methods--when one resource
fails they look for another. Hunters and fishers are dependent on wild
animals for food, and stand in awe of them. The domestication of animals
leads men to regard them simply as material for the maintenance of
life--the mystery that once attached to them vanishes; they are
considered not as man's equals or superiors but as his servants. The
same result follows when they are used as aids in tilling the soil or in
transportation. Agricultural peoples also have generally some knowledge
of the arts of life and a somewhat settled civil and political
organization, and these tend to separate them from the lower animals and
to diminish or destroy their sense of kinship with them.
+524+. We find, in fact, that in many cases totemic regulations are less
strict where the food supply is plentiful and where agriculture is
practiced. The correspondence is not exact--other considerations come
in, such as isolation and the unknown quantity of natural tribal
endowments; but the relation between the economic and totemic conditions
is so widespread that it cannot be considered as accidental.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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