Religions of Primitive PeoplesBrinton, Daniel G. (Daniel Garrison)
Religion
Religions of Primitive Peoples
Brinton, Daniel G. (Daniel Garrison)
Mythology; Religion; Religions -- History
The identity of the two words is probably no mere coincidence, nor is
the one borrowed from the other. In Quichua _wakan_ expresses the sound
characteristic of any animal, as _allco wakan_, the dog howls, _huallpa
wakan_ the cock crows, and this in turn is derived from the interjection
of surprise or astonishment or admiration, _hua_. It was that which was
employed in the sacred invocations.
Strange as it may seem, the English word “God” is traced by Aryan
scholars through the Gothic _guth_ to the Sanscrit verb _hua_ to
call upon, to invoke (past participle, _hutha_), the same primitive
interjection in verbal form; and the holy name of the Hebrews, _Yahve_,
is now believed to be that of the Chaldean god of the earth, waters, and
fertility, in whose name _Eā_, _Ya_, or _Yah_, we recognize a cognate
interjection or refrain, the same which, shouted in the orgiastic rites,
gave the name, Bacchus or Iachus.[52]
Turning to the island world of the Pacific we find through its countless
groups of sunny isles the impersonal Divine expressed by one general
term, _mana_. The natives believed in the agency of departed souls and
also of spirits of independent origin (_vui_); but the supernatural power
through which both acted on nature or events was this _mana_. If a man
prospered in his affairs and gained influence in the tribe, it was not by
his own efforts, but because he had _mana_; precisely as pious persons
among ourselves attribute their prosperity and that of their worthy
neighbors to the favour of the Lord. The original meaning of _mana_
appears to be “that which is within one,” and, later, the intelligence on
mind, whence power or might, as the expressions of Will applied to the
concept of universal life and motion.[53]
These words, I repeat, do not convey any idea of personality. They are
not evidences of a primitive monotheism, as has often been claimed. They,
and all like them, are vague, indefinite terms for the supernatural, that
which was inexplicable by the limited knowledge of the most ignorant of
our species.[54]
The media of suggestion act primarily through the emotions, and in the
religious suggestion those emotions especially are concerned which give
rise to thoughts concerning the super-sensuous and the manifestation of
power.
But none of these emotions in itself, neither fear, hope, awe, wonder,
nor any other, has the power to evoke the notion of the supernatural. It
arises from those deeper intellectual traits which are peculiarly human.
Yet it is true that such emotions are potent stimuli to those forms of
suggestion which lead up to the religious feelings; they are part of
them, and what arouses and incites those, develops and strengthens these;
and they thus have their place as suggestive accessories.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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