Page:American Anthropologist NS vol. 1.djvu/846

 boas] anthropologic litera ture 775

Chapter xxv of the Report contains a summary of child study in the United States which is also given in the form of brief extracts from the papers in question. Franz Boas.

Die Weltanschauung der Naturvolker. Von L. Frobenius. Weimar : 1898. 8°, 427 pp., ill.

Judging from the author's opinion expressed in the introduction to this book, we have here one of the most important contributions to ethnology that has ever been published. Dr Frobenius informs us that he has solved the whole question of the origin of African culture, and that it will be an easy matter for him to discover the origins of American culture. It seems almost cruel to disturb the serene com- placency of the author and to subject to a critical review his magnifi- cent assertions, which brush aside previous researches of many u good people " with a majestic sweep of the hand ; but it is the painful duty of the reviewer to scrutinize the methods even of Dr Frobenius.

Following the advice of the author, we begin reading his book at the end — like a modern novel. We first find a few remarks regarding the significance of primitive religion which would be quite appropriate in a popular exposition of this subject ; but they hardly convey any new idea to ethnologists — and notwithstanding Dr Frobenius' argument, I vent- ure to continue to use the term " primitive religion " as signifying the whole range of transcendental ideas and practices of primitive man. He then asserts that what he calls " animalism," i. e., animal anthropo- morphism, is the lowest form of mythology. Ancestor worship, which he calls "manism," is another but later form of primitive religion. The mythology of the heavenly bodies develops from the latter, the setting of moon or sun being the symbols of death. All creation myths are of later origin, being inversions of the myth of death. An inversion is found in the ideas that man after death goes to the sun, and that man descended from the sun ; that the body is buried in a box, and that the sun in the beginning came out of a box (page 396^".). Another law is formulated by Frobenius as the law of " the transfor- mation of motives." Ideas and objects which serve one purpose in one area will assume a new significance when transplanted to a new region. His third law is that of " interpolation " — by which he means that when two ideas in the course of their development become similar in name or in form, one of them tends to be assimilated by the other. This phenomenon has been called by others convergent evolution. Finally, the author enlarges upon the method that he has pursued and wishes to see pursued in researches bearing upon primitive religions.

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