Introduction to the History of Religions: Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume IV — John Shaqi
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
+29+. The soul as an independent personality was supposed to leave the
body at times, and its departure entailed various consequences--in
general the result was the withdrawal of the man's ordinary powers to a
greater or less extent, according to the duration of the soul's absence.
The consequences might be sleep, trance, swoon, coma, death; the precise
nature of the effect was determined by the man's subsequent
condition--he would wake from sleep, or return to his ordinary state
from a trance, or come to himself from a swoon, or lie permanently
motionless in death. When he seemed to be dead there was often doubt as
to his real condition--the escaped soul might seek its old abode (as in
the case of the vampire, for instance), and means were sometimes taken
to prevent its return.[47]
+30+. The obvious difference in serious results between sleep and other
cessations of the ordinary consciousness and activity led among some
tribes to the supposition of a special dream-soul that could leave the
body without injury to the man. It was believed by certain
Greenlanders[48] that a man going on a journey might leave his soul
behind. It was a not uncommon opinion that souls might be taken out for
a while, with friendly intent, to guard them during a period of danger
(so in Celebes when a family moves into a new house). In Greenland,
according to Cranz, a damaged soul might be repaired. Or the soul might
be removed with evil intent by magic art--the result would be sickness
or swoon; it was then incumbent on the sufferer or his friends to
discover the hostile magician and counteract his work by stronger magic,
or force him to restore the soul.[49] On the other hand, the soul of a
dead man might be so recalled that the man would live again, the usual
agency being a god, a magician, or a prophet.
+31+. It has been and is a widespread opinion in low tribes that the
life of a person is bound up with that of an animal or plant, or with
the preservation of something closely connected with the person. This
opinion springs from the conviction of the intimate vital relation
between men and their surroundings. From the combination of these
beliefs with the view referred to above[50] that a man's soul might
dwell in a beast or a plant, the idea of the hidden soul, common in
folk-lore, may have arisen[51]--the idea that one might conceal his soul
in some unsuspected place and then would be free from fear of death so
long as his soul remained undisturbed.[52] These folk-tales are products
of the popular imagination based on materials such as those described
above. From the early point of view there was no reason why the vital
soul, an independent entity, should not lead a locally separate life.
2. ORIGIN OF THE SOUL
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