Chapter Viii. Logical Consequences Of Parity : VIII LOGICAL CONSEQUENCES OF PARITY OF BEING MANY and wide-branched are the results that flow from the anthropomorphizing by man of other objects in nature, from the transference to them, in thought, of personality with all its qualities, and from the conception that unseen and intangible, yet...
Preface : PREFACE THE result of recent historical studies, whether on anthropological, sociological, archeological, or religious lines, has brought into ever clearer vision as the substratum of all civilizations that stage of culture from which this book takes its title. One consequence is: general...
Chapter Ii. The Discovery Of The Soul : II THE DISCOVERY OF THE SOUL ON THE hypothesis that the method of man's creation was evolution, that he is the finest product of nature's forces working in continuous upward striving, how are we to explain man's arrival at the realization of soul or spirit, of something which is intelligently...
Chapter Xii. Condition Of The Discarnate Soul : XII CONDITION OF THE DISCARNATE SOUL SINCE evidence of the existence of the belief that the soul lives on is so indubitable, the question arises--what is its condition? In what state does the discarnate spirit find itself after final separation from the body? And first, as to what we may be allowed...
Chapter Xv. Worship : XV WORSHIP HOWEVER worship be defined, little reflection is needed to discern the basis of its beginnings in what has preceded. Worship implies in the worshiper fear, reverence, gratitude, veneration, homage, love, respect, admiration, or a complex of some or all of these; and in the object...
Chapter Xi. Modifications Of The Ide : XI MODIFICATIONS OF THE IDEA OF CONTINUANCE THE continuance of the human soul's life is conditioned in various ways in different regions and stages of culture. Some tribes assign to souls a definite number of Post-mortem lives, which number may, however, have stood for indefinite continuance, being...
Chapter Xvi. Residua Of Animism : XVI RESIDUA OF ANIMISM FINALLY, we may register--no more than that--a few of the beliefs and practices which, enduring through ages, were the direct legacy or proximate product of the animistic stage. First, of course, is the precious discovery of the existence of soul in man, an inheritance whose...
Chapter Iii. The Soul's Nature : III THE SOUL'S NATURE AN important inquiry meets us at this point: How did man think of this second something that usually inhabited his body but sometimes left it for a time and at death left it permanently? For it would soon have been borne in upon him (even though he did not consciously...
Chapter Vii. 'free Spirits' Their Constituti : VII "FREE SPIRITS"--THEIR CONSTITUTION AND ACTIVITIES THE existence and great numbers of spirits which are, so to speak, "free" in the universe have just been shown and discussed. We have noted, too, how readily enters here all that we are accustomed to call miraculous. Only we have constantly...
Chapter Xiii. The Home Of The Soul : XIII THE HOME OF THE SOUL WE have seen that to the discarnate spirit is attributed much of fondness for things to which it had become accustomed in its earthly life. The idea of preference or liking comes out frequently in connection with its "post-mortem" habitat. Of course, it is to be remembered...
Chapter Xiv. Descensus Averni : XIV DESCENSUS AVERNI THE notion of the underworld as a prison place in which the dead are confined has given rise in many different centers to the thought of some daring mortal who breaks the law separating the two worlds, and visits the home of the dead, winning through by power of love, or sheer...
Chapter Ix. Death Not Always Regarded : IX DEATH NOT ALWAYS REGARDED AS INEVITABLE A FACT that has been before us incidentally, though not the subject of specific remark, is the age-long belief in the continued existence of the soul. We have noted that the soul is "the separable factor" in man's duality, "with a life all its own." It...
Chapter Vi. Belief In 'free Spirits : VI BELIEF IN "FREE SPIRITS" IT is not to be supposed that life, soul, spirit, possessing emotional, volitional, and factual potency, was limited in savage man's conception to the tangible and visible. If the soul of man was itself invisible, and if soul were a possession of plants, animals...
Chapter Iv. The External Or Separable Soul : IV THE EXTERNAL OR SEPARABLE SOUL IF what precedes be accepted, it can be taken as; established that primitive man, or at least man in an early stage of culture, determined himself to be a duality, soul and body. But the two constituents did not appear to be inseparably connected. The soul might...
Chapter X. The Continued Existence Of The Soul : X THE CONTINUED EXISTENCE OF THE SOUL WHILE according to the facts adduced in the last chapter it is clear that a belief has existed that man might, were it not for accident or the like, continue to live on as a duality in this present life, the fact of death stared men in the face, and with equal...
Title Page : ANIMISM OR, THOUGHT CURRENTS OF PRIMITIVE PEOPLES, BY GEORGE WILLIAM GILMORE BOSTON MARSHALL JONES COMPANY MDCCCCXIX (1919) Scanned At Www.sacred-texts.com, September, 2000. Reformatted August 2003. J.B. Hare, Redactor. This Text Is In The Public Domain. These Files May Be Used For Any...
Chapter I. The Animistic Stage Of Culture : I THE ANIMISTIC STAGE OF CULTURE--THE CASE STATED THE following narrative, taken from "The Japan Weekly" for March 16, 1916, recounts the story of an event occurring in that land of "advanced civilization" in the winter Of 1915-16, and some of the sequels. DEATH OF THE SUMA SNAKE "The huge snake...
Chaper Xvii. Literature To Which Reference : XVII LITERATURE TO WHICH REFERENCE IS MADE IN THIS VOLUME PERIODICALS AND ABBREVIATIONS USED BW = "Biblical World". FL = "Folk-lore". FR = "Fortnightly Review". GI = "Globus". ERE = Hastings, Selbie, and Gray, "Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics". HR = "Homiletic Review". IA = "Indian Antiquary"...
Chapter V. Parity Of Being : V PARITY OF BEING THIS opens the way to the next branch of the subject. If the human soul could reside in objects, why should not these objects themselves possess spirits? The evident conviction of early and primitive races as to the existence, form, and substance of the human soul has, it is...