Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 20, 1909.djvu/277

 Reviews. 237

Mr. Marett's own admission, the stage which he calls non- animistic is at any rate " in the loose sense of some writers " animistic. If he then proceeds to argue that it is not scientific to say that animism consists merely in attributing personality and will to an object, the question is at once raised, who has authority, ex cathedra, to say what is animism and what is not ?, and the dispute becomes a mere logomachy. Then, is there anything more substantial than a mere term in dispute? What are the things which are alleged to be so different that the same term cannot properly be applied to both ? The one seems to be the attribution of mere personality and will ; and the other to be the attribution not merely of personality and will, but also of soul or spirit. For my own part I see, as yet, no such difference between the two as to warrant us in distinguishing them, or even to enable us, without further explanation, to draw a distinction between them.

I am, however, apprehensive, lest I may have unintentionally seized upon an unguarded expression, which Mr. Marett may have used nine years ago, and may quite justifiably now be pre- pared to reconsider. I refer to the passage in which he says that " a simple straightforward act of personification " is not a piece of animism. I do not know in the least whether Mr. Marett would be for one moment prepared to abandon this expression. But I should like to consider what would follow if the expression were abandoned. If it were, then the position would be that simple straightforward personification is included in the strictly scientific connotation of animism ; and consequently a non-animistic or perhaps pre-animistic stage of religion would be one in which worship was addressed to or Awe was felt for something not soul or spirit, and not having the attributes of personality and will. Such an object of Awe and worship could be brought within the scope of the words Mr Marett uses when he says : " Religious Awe is towards Powers, and these are not necessarily spirits or ghosts, though they tend to become so." We have only to understand that these powers, at this stage, are not supposed to have personality or will, and we shall have the conception of a non-animistic or pre-animistic stage of religion ; and we have only to prove that early man imagined and stood in awe of