Page:American Anthropologist NS vol. 1.djvu/43

 The prismatic colors, as such, are unrecognized; but hues, tints, shades, and even patterns are classified, and there is a tendency to classify them as hues. The scheme of colors, perhaps, differs from tribe to tribe; of this I am not sure, but this I do find among some tribes: blue is the color of the zenith, and things are said to have sky color. It is a very natural mistake for man to reach the conclusion that sky color is made by the sky or that it comes from the sky by the habit of language which already has been set forth. Color is thus reified and assigned to a world. Darkness, or black, seems to primitive man to come from below, and as darkness is reified, it is believed to come from the nadir world. Green is held to belong properly to the midworld, for it is the color of plant bodies and is seen nowhere else.

In tribal society the colors seem to be variously assigned to the cardinal worlds as hues, tints, shades, and patterns. In the cases which I have especially investigated, red belongs to the west, white to the east, yellow to the south, and gray to the north.

When the chains which hold drama to religion are dirempt and they can go forth to lead a free life, both start on new careers. Drama becomes histrionic art indeed, and the stage becomes the mirror in which are reflected the causes and consequences of the deeds of life. Religion soars on wings of aspiration into the empyrean of hope—hope for a purer and better life which bears fruit in purer and better conduct.

The germ of dramatic art is the dance, which in its first stage is religion. Of course religion must be distinguished from theology. Theology is a system of opinions, while religion is a system of worship. Religious motives become the seed of graphic motives and also the seed of musical motives. We see that both musical art and graphic art are founded on religion. We shall proceed to show that the other esthetic arts are based on religion.

The intellectual and emotional elements of drama are pretty evenly balanced in the last histrionic stage; but if we consider