10.

THE INTERPRETATIONS OF CULTURE

Ever since the time when the study of human cultures
was recognized as a problem, attempts have been made tointerpret it as a unit phenomenon even before anything
like a fair amount of material had been collected. Society
was considered as an organism, and its various functions
were explained in the same way as the organs of the body.
Under the influences of Darwinism its changing forms wereviewed as the evolution of an organism, the driving force ofits development being rational thought. The mental activities of primitive man have been compared to those ofchildren and vice versa, so that the development of thechild's mind has been looked at as a recapitulation of thedevelopment of the mind of mankind. The child's mind,
it is believed, can thus explain to us the primitive mind.
In recent times primitive mind is being compared with theminds of mentally unsound, as though the mental activities of perfectly normal people of foreign cultures could

be explained by the mentally affected of our own culture.
Rather recent are attempts to understand primitive
culture as a phenomenon that requires painstaking analysis before a generally valid theory is accepted.

Only a few of the points of view just referred to are relevant to our problem. Suggested analogy with an organism
will not help us to clear up the behavior of primitive man.
The analogy with the mental life of the child is difficult toapply because the culture of child life in Europe and thelife of the adult in primitive society are not comparable.

We ought at least to compare the adult primitive with the175

THE MIND OF PRIMITIVE MAN

176

child in his own culture. Children of all races undoubtedly

exhibit analogies of development dependent upon thedevelopment of the body, and differences according to thedemands made by their gradual initiation into the culture
The only question could be whether

in which they live.

one culture tends to develop qualities which another one
neglects.

The comparison of forms of psychoses and primitive life
seems still more unfortunate. The manifestation of mental
disturbances must necessarily depend upon the culture inwhich people live and it must be of great value to thepsychiatrist to study the expression of forms of psychoses
in different cultures, but an attempt to parallel forms ofhealthy primitive life and those of disturbances in our
civilization is not based on any tangible analogy.
Themegalomaniac boasting and acting of the Northwest Coast

Indians does not make them act like a megalomaniac insane, but their culture probably gives a particular form tothat type of insanity. Particularly Freud's (2) comparisonof primitive culture and the psychoanalytic interpretations of European behavior seem to lack a scientific back-ground. They appear to me as fancies in which neither the
aspect of primitive life nor that of civilized life is sustainedby tangible evidence. The attempt to conceive every menor performance as determined by discoverable causes confuses the concepts of causality and pre-

tal

state

Of course, every event has a cause, but thecauses do not hang together so that they represent a single
dictability.

Innumerable accidental causes intervene whichcannot be predicted and which also can not be reconthread.

structed as determining the course of the past.

We must pay more detailed attention to the attempts
to see culturallife

developing from primitive forms tomodern civilization, either as a single evolutional line orTHE INTERPRETATIONS OF CULTURE

177

in a small number of separate lines. The question may be
asked whether without regard to race, time and space,

we may recognize a series of stages of culture which represent for the whole of humanity an historical sequence, sothat certain ones may be identified as types belonging toan early period, others as recent.

The investigations of Tylor, Bachofen, Morgan andSpencer fixed the attention upon the data of anthropology
as illustrating the gradual development and rise of civilization. The development of this side of anthropology wasstimulated by the work of Darwin and his successors, andthe underlying ideas can be understood only as an application to mental phenomena of the theory of biological
The conception that the manifestations ofevolution.
ethnic life represent a time series, which from simple be-ginnings has progressed in a single line to the complex
type of modern civilization, has been the underlying

thought of this aspect of anthropological science.
The arguments in support of this theory are based on
the similarities of types of culture found in distinct races
the world over, and on the occurrence of peculiar customs
in our own civilization, which can be understood only as
survivals of older customs that had a deeper significance at

an earlier time, and which are still found in full vigor

among primitive people.

1

An excellent example of the general theory of evolutionof civilization is found in the theory of the development ofagriculture and of the domestication of animals as outJ McGee and Eduard Hahn
lined by Otis T. Mason,W(1, 2).

They point out how, in the earliest beginnings oflife, animals, plants and man lived together in acommon environment and how the conditions of lifesocialbrought1

itabout that certain plants multiplied in the

Tylor, I, p. 16.

'178

THE MIND OF PRIMITIVE MAN

neighborhood of the human camp to the exclusion ofothers, and certain animals were suffered as camp follow-

Through this condition of mutual sufferance andpromotion of mutual interests, if I may use this term, acloser association between plants, animals, and man developed, which ultimately led to the beginnings of agriculture and to the actual domestication of animals.
The development of art has been reconstructed by simers.

methods. Since the earliest traces of art represent
animals and other objects and geometric forms follow, it
has been inferred that all geometrical motives have deilar

veloped from representative designs.
In a similar way religion has been inferred to be the result of speculation in regard to nature.

The essential method has been to bring the observed
phenomena into order according to imputed principles andto interpret this as a chronological order.

We must try to understand more clearly what the theory of a unilinear cultural development implies. It meansthat different groups of mankind started at a very earlytime from a general condition of lack of culture; and, owing to the unity of the human mind and the consequent
similar response to outer and inner stimuli, developed

everywhere approximately along the same lines, making
and developing similar customs andbeliefs.
It also involves a correlation between industrial

similar inventions

and social development, and therefore a definite sequenceandof inventions as well as of forms of organization
belief.

In the absence of historical data in regard to the earliest
history of primitive man the world over, we have only
three sources of historical proof for this assumption theevidence contained in the earliest history of the civilized
people of the Old World, survivals in modern civilization

THE INTERPRETATIONS OF CULTURE

179

and archaeology. The last-named is the only method bymeans of which we can approach the problem in regard topeople that have no history.

While it is certainly true that analogues can be foundbetween the types of culture represented by primitive
people and those conditions which prevailed among theancestors of the present civilized peoples at the dawn ofhistory,

and that these analogues are supported by theevidence furnished by survivals, the evidence of archaeol-

ogy does not support the complete generalization. The
theory of parallel development, if it is to have any significance, would require that among all branches of mankind
the steps of invention should have followed, at least approximately, in the same order, and that no important
gaps should be found. The facts, so far as known at thepresent time, are entirely contrary to this view.
The example of the development of agriculture andherding will illustrate some of the objections that may beraised against the general theory. Under the simple conditions of primitive life the food supply of the family is

procured by both sexes. The women collect plants andanimals that are stationary or that cannot move about
rapidly such as larvae and worms. This must be due tothe hindrance imposed upon them by childbearing and thecare of young children. The men obtain the fleet game,birds and fish.

They hunt and fish. The attempt to sys-

tematize the life forms of primitive people induces us toplace those who gather food and hunt at the beginning of
the scale. Next will be placed others who are farther ad-vanced in the technical means of obtaining a livelihood,or who have attained a closer connection with the vegetable world by developing property rights in regard toplants growing near their place of abode. These relations
all center around the life of women and her occupation

THE MIND OF PRIMITIVE MAN

180

with plants and we reach, without any serious gap, thecondition of earliest agriculture.

The psychological rea-son for accepting this arrangement as having a chronological value, lies in the conviction of the continuity oftechnical advance and on the other important fact that weare dealing right along with the occupations of the same

part of the population, namely, the women. The chronological interpretation is supported by the observation thatthe beginnings of agriculture are generally supported by
the gathering of wild plants; that while gathering of plants
occurs without agriculture, the opposite condition is un-

known.

The activities of men related primarily to animals. The
transition from hunting to herding cannot be shown aseasily as that from the gathering of plants to agriculture.
Still it is at least plausible that the domestication of ani-mals which are almost exclusively gregarious animals
is based on the relation of the hunter to the wild herd. As
soon as the hunter began to obtain his food supply fromthe same herd and prevented its being scattered by killingthe animals that pursued it, conditions developed similar
to those found among the Chukchee andberia.

Koryak in Si-

Since in this case also the same part of the popula-tion, namely the men, were concerned in the relation be-

tween

man and

animal a continued development

ispossible.

These considerations are supported by archaeologicalevidence.

If our views are correct,

the cultivated plants

must have originated from the wild plants with which man
was familiar. This transition has been shown for native
European plants. According to our theory we should expect frequent crossings between wild and domesticatedforms. This has been made plausible for early European
forms.

In domesticated animals similar conditions may

THE INTERPRETATIONS OF CULTURE
still be181

observed in the reindeer of Siberia and the dog of

the Eskimo.

With this we are led to a question of fundamental importance for the theory of a unilinear evolution: What isthe chronological relation between agriculture and herding?

When we approach this question from a psycholog-

viewpoint the difficulty arises that we are no longer
dealing with one single type of occupation carried on by
the same group, but that we have two occupations, dis-ical

tinct in technique and carried on by distinct groups.

The

activities leading to the domestication of animals havenothing in common with those leading to the cultivationof plants.

There is no bond that makes plausible a con-nection between the chronological development of these
two occupations. It is missing because the persons in-volved are not the same and because the occupations arequite distinct. From a psychological point of view there isnothing that would help us to establish a time sequence for
agriculture and herding.
I think this example illustrates one of the principal
doubts that must be raised against a systematic, allembracing application of a theory of evolution of culture.

The steps of development must relate to an aspect of culture in which the same group of people are involved and inwhich the same kind of activity persists. A constant relation between loosely connected or entirely disconnected
aspects of culture is improbable when the differences between the activities are great and different groups of individuals participate in the activities involved. In all thesecases chronological data must be based on other sources.
Safe conclusions can be based only on archaeologicalevidence.

Besides this, certain conditions among prim-

may serve as guides. If it can be shown that certain
industries occur exclusively in connection with other sim-

itives

182

THE MIND OF PRIMITIVE MAN

pier ones and the latter alone, the former never without

the simpler ones, it seems likely that the simple type ofwork is the earlier.

If this should not occur with absolute

regularity, still with sufficient frequency, we might speakof recognizable tendencies of development.

Geographical distribution may also serve as a help, forwherever there is a continuous distribution of industry it
is possible, although not necessary, that the one mostwidely spread is the oldest. It is doubtful whether this argu-

ment can be applied outside of the domain of technique.
The more distinct the various phenomena the less they
are correlated, so that finally notwithstanding the tend-ency to historical development in single phases of culture
no harmonious scheme for the whole of culture that would
be valid everywhere is found (Thomas).
Thus it does not seem to be certain that every people inan advanced stage of civilization must have passed throughall the stages of development, which we may gather by aninvestigation of all the types of culture which occur allover the world.
Similar objections may be raised against the generalvalidity of the theory of the development of the family.

has been claimed that the organization of the family
began with irregular and shifting relations between thesexes, that later on mother and children formed the family
unit which remained attached to that of the mother's
Itand sisters and that only much laterin
which the father was the head of theaformdeveloped
parents, brothersfamily which was attached to his parents, brothers andIf the evolution of culture had proceeded in asisters.
single line the simplest forms of the family would be associated with the simplest types of culture. This is not thecase, for a comparative study discloses the most irregular

distribution.

Some very primitive tribes, like the Eskimo

THE INTERPRETATIONS OF CULTURE

183

and the Indian tribes of the northwest plateaus of North
America, count relationship bilaterally, through father
and mother; other tribes with highly developed culture
recognize the maternal line alone, while still others whose

economic and industrial life is of a simpler type, recognize
The data are contradictoryand do not permit us to conclude that economic life andthe paternal line (Swanton).

family organization are intimately related in regard totheir inner form.
Theoretical considerations suggest that customs do notby any means necessarily develop in one way only. The
relation between incest and totemism may serve as an
example.

Incest groups vary according to the prevalentsystem of relationship and associated ideas.

Frequently

the incest group is believed to stand in intimate relation
to some animal, plant or other object, its totem. In othercases there is no such relation. In anthropological theory

totemism has been described as an early stage of society
from which later forms have been developed. The concept of incest is so universal that it must either havebelonged to man before his dispersion or it must have developed independently in a very early period. Whereveran incest group exists a development is possible in two di-

The group while increasing in number may remain a whole, or it may break up in a number of separate
groups. A conceptual unity of the group must exist, other-rections.

wise subgroups will lose consciousness of their earlier relationship when they are separated from other subgroups.
The conceptualization may be brought about by naming
the whole group, by common, recognizable customs orfunctions, or by a terminology of relationship which will
differentiate members from non-members. Such a termi-

nology may include very large numbers of individuals,
because by reference to some known intermediary even

184

THE MIND OF PRIMITIVE MAN

distant members may be identified.

It follows from thisthat when no conceptualization of unity exists totemismof the whole group cannot develop.

The only form that isfavorable to it is the one in which a group is characterized

by a name or by common customs.
If, as is illustrated by this example, different customs
may develop from a single source we have not the right toassume that every people that has reached a high stage ofdevelopment must have passed through all the stages
found among tribes of primitive culture.
A still more serious objection is based on another ob-

The validity of the general sameness of theevolution of mankind is based on the assumption that theservation.

same cultural features must always have developed fromthe same, single causes, and that a logical or psychological1

sequence of steps represents also a chronological sequence.
We have pointed out that in special fields, when the identical social groups carry on certain occupations uninterruptedly there may be a reason for upholding this theory.
Not so when these conditions are not given. Thus theinference that maternal institutions precede paternal ones,
to which I referred before, is based on the generalizationthat because in a number of cases paternal families havedeveloped from maternal ones, therefore all paternal famThere is no proof
ilies have developed in the same way.
showing that the history of family organization is controlled by a single set of specific conditions, that the man'sor the woman's family or any other group exerted a controlling influence, nor that there is any inherent reason
that one type must have preceded the other one. We may,therefore, just as well conclude that paternal families havein some cases arisen from maternal institutions, in othercases in other ways.
1

See pp. 174, 178.

THE INTERPRETATIONS OF CULTURE

185

In the same way it is inferred that because many conceptions of the future life have evidently developed fromdreams and hallucinations, all notions of this character have
had the same origin. This is true only if it can be shownthat no other causes could possibly lead to the same ideas.
To give another example. It has been claimed thatamong the Indians of Arizona, pottery developed frombasketry, and it has been inferred that all pottery must
therefore be later in the cultural development of mankind
than basketry. Evidently this conclusion cannot be de-fended, for pottery may develop in other ways.
As a matter of fact, quite a number of cases can be given

which convergent evolution, beginning from distinct
beginnings, has led to the same results. I have referred
before to the instance of primitive art, and have mentioned
the theory that geometrical form develops from realistic
representations, which lead through symbolic convention-

inalism to purely aesthetic motives. If this were true a great
diversity of objects might in this way have given rise to
the same decorative motives, so that the surviving motive

would not have had the same realistic origin; but more important than this, geometrical motives of the same typehave developed from the tendency of the artist to playwith his technique as the virtuoso plays on his instrument;that the expert basket-weaver, by varying the arrange-

ment of her weave, was led to the development of geometrical designs of the same form as those that were developed in other places from realistic representations. We
may even go a step farther and recognize that geometricalforms developed from the technique suggested animal
forms, and were modified so as to assume realistic forms;
so that in the case of decorative art the same forms may
just as well stand at the beginning of a series of development as at the end (Boas 13).

186

THE MIND OF PRIMITIVE MAN

A

serious objection to the reasoning of those who try
to establish lines of evolution of cultures lies in the fre-quent lack of comparability of the data with which we are
dealing. Attention is directed essentially to the similarityof ethnic phenomena, while the individual variations are

disregarded. As soon as we turn our attention to these we
notice that the sameness of ethnic phenomena is more superficial than essential, more apparent than real.

The un-expected similarities have attracted our attention to suchan extent that we have disregarded differences.

In thestudy of the physical traits of distinct social groups, thereverse mental attitude manifests itself.

The similarity ofthe main features of the human form being self-evident, ourattention is directed to the minute differences of structure.

Instances of such lack of comparability can easily be

When we speak of life after death as one of the ideas
which develop in human society as a psychological necessity, we are dealing with a most complex group of data.
given.

One people believes that the soul continues to exist in theform that the person had at the time of death, without any
possibility of change; another one that the soul will be
reborn at a later time as a child of the same family;a third one that the souls will enter the bodies of animals; and still others that the shadows continue ourhuman pursuits, waiting to be led back to our world in a
distant future. The emotional and rationalistic elements
which enter into these various concepts are entirely distinct; and we perceive that the various forms of the ideaof a future life have come into existence by psychologicalprocesses that are not at all comparable. In one case thesimilarities between children and their deceased relatives,in other cases the memory of the deceased as he lived during the last days of his life, in still other cases the longing
and again the fear offor the beloved child or parent,THE INTERPRETATIONS OF CULTURE
death

187

may all have contributed to the development of

the idea of life after death, the one here, the other there.

Another instance will corroborate this point of view.
the form of asociety in which certain social groups consider themselves

We have already referred to "totemism"

as related in some way to a certain species of animals or toa class of objects. This is the generally accepted definition"of totemism"; but I am convinced that in this form thephenomenon is not a single problem, but embraces themost diverse psychological elements. In some cases thepeople believe themselves to be descendants of the animal
whose protection they enjoy. In others an animal or someother object has appeared to an ancestor of the socialgroup and promised to become his protector, and thefriendship between the animal and the ancestor was thentransmitted to his descendants. In still other cases a certain social group in a tribe is believed to have the power of

securing by magical means and with great ease a certain
kind of animal or of increasing its numbers, and a super-natural relation is established in this way. It will be recognized that here again the anthropological phenomena
which are in outward appearances alike are, psycholog-

and that consequently
themcannot be deduced
of
all
laws
covering
psychological

ically speaking, entirely distinct,

from them (Goldenweiser).
Another example may not be amiss. In a general review
of moral standards we observe that with increasing civilization a gradual change in the valuation of actions takes

place.

Among primitive man, human life has little value,

and is sacrificed on the slightest provocation. The socialgroup among whose members altruistic obligations arebinding is small; and outside of the group any action that

may result in personal gain is not only permitted, but
approved.

From this starting-point on we find an ever-188

THE MIND OF PRIMITIVE MAN

increasing valuation of human life and an extension of thesize of the group among whose members altruistic obliga-

tions are binding.

The modern relations of nations showthat this evolution has not yet reached its final stage.

Itmight seem, therefore, that a study of the social conscience
in relation to crimes like murder might be of psychologicalvalue, and lead to important results, clearing up the origin of ethical values. From an ethnological point of view

murder cannot be considered as a single phenomenon.
Unity is established by introducing our juridical concept ofmurder. As an act murder must be considered as theresult of a situation in which the usual respect for human
It can be conlife is superseded by stronger motives.
sidered as a unit only in regard to the reaction of society
to murder which is expressed in the permission of revenge,

the payment of compensation or punishment. The person
who slays an enemy in revenge for wrongs done, a youth
who kills his father before he gets decrepit in order toenable him to continue a vigorous life in the world to come,a father who kills his child as a sacrifice for the welfare ofhis people, act from such entirely different motives, thatpsychologically a comparison of their actions does notseem permissible. It would seem much more proper tocompare the murder of an enemy in revenge with destruction of his property for the same purpose; or to compare
the sacrifice of a child on behalf of the tribe with any otheraction performed on account of strong altruistic motives,
than to base our comparison on the common concept ofmurder (Westermarck).
These few data may suffice to show that the same ethnic
phenomenon may develop from different sources; and we
may infer that the simpler the observed fact, the more
likely it is that it may have developed from one source
here, from another thero.

THE INTERPRETATIONS OF CULTURE

189

When we base our study on these observations, it appears that serious objections may be made against theassumption of the occurrence of a general sequence of
cultural stages among all the races of man; that rather we

recognize both a tendency of diverse customs and beliefs
to converge towards similar forms, and a development ofcustoms in divergent directions. In order to interpret correctly these similarities in form, it is necessary to investigate their historical development; and only when thehistorical development in different areas is the same, will
it be admissible to consider thephenomena in question as

From this point of view the facts of culturalcontact assume a new importance (see p. 169).

equivalent.

Culture has also been interpreted in other ways. Geographers try to explain forms of culture as a necessary result of geographical environment.
It is not difficult to illustrate the important influence ofgeographical environment.

The whole economic life of

man is limited by the resources of the country in which
he lives.

The location of villages and their size depends

upon the available food-supply; communication upon
available trails or waterways.

Environmental influences

are evident in the territorial limits of tribes and peoples;

seasonal changes of food-supply may condition seasonal
migrations. The variety of habitations used by tribes ofdifferent areas demonstrate its influence.

The snow houseof the Eskimo, the bark wigwam of the Indian, the cavedwelling of the tribes of the desert, may serve as illustrations of the way in which in accordance with the available
materials protection against exposure is attained. Scarcity
of food may condition a nomadic life, and the necessity ofcarrying household goods on the back favors the use ofskin receptacles and baskets as substitutes for pottery.

190

THE MIND OF PRIMITIVE MAN

The special forms of utensils may be modified by geographic conditions. Thus the complex bow of the Eskimo
which is related to Asiatic forms takes a peculiar form

owing to the lack of long, elastic material for bow staves.
Even in the more complex forms of the mental life, theinfluence of environment may be found; as in naturemyths explaining the activity of volcanoes or the presenceof curious land forms, or in beliefs and customs relating
to the local characterization of the seasons.

However, geographical conditions have only the power
to modify culture.

By themselves they are not creative.

This is clearest wherever the nature of the country limits
A tribe, living without foreign
trade in a given environment is limited to the resourcesof his home country. The Eskimo has no vegetable foodsupplies to speak of; the Polynesian who lives on an atoll
has no stone and no skins of large mammals; the people ofthe desert have no rivers furnishing fish or offering means
the development of culture.

of travel. These self-eyident limitations are often of great

importance.
It is another question whether external conditions are
the immediate cause of new inventions. We can under-

stand that a fertile soil will induce an agricultural people

whose numbers are increasing rapidly to improve its
technique of agriculture, but not, how it could be thecause of the invention of agriculture.

However rich in ore

a country may be, it does not create techniques of handlingmetals; however rich in animals that might be domesticated, it will not lead to the development of herding if thepeople are entirely unfamiliar with the uses of domesticated animals.
If we should claim that geographical environment is thesole determinant that acts upon the mind assumed to be

the same in all races of mankind, we should be necessarily

THE INTERPRETATIONS OF CULTURE

191

led to the conclusion that the same environment will pro-

duce the same cultural results everywhere.
This is obviously not true, for often the forms of cultures of peoples living in the same kind of environment
show marked differences. I do not need to illustrate thisby comparing the American settler with the North American Indian, or the successive races of people that havesettled in England, and have developed from the Stone
Age to the modern English. It may, however, be desirable

show that among primitive tribes, geographical en-

tovironment alone does not by any means determine thetype of culture. Proof of this may be found in the modeof life of the hunting and fishing Eskimo and the reindeer-

breeding Chukchee (Bogoras, Boas 3); the African pastoral Hottentot and the hunting Bushmen in their older,wider distribution (Schultze) the Negrito and the Malayof southeastern Asia (Martin).
Environment always acts upon a preexisting culture,
not on an hypothetical cultureless group. Therefore it is;important only insofar as it limits or favors activities. It
may even be shown that ancient customs, that may havebeen in harmony with a certain type of environment, tend
to survive under new conditions, where they are of disadvantage rather than of advantage to the people. An
example of this kind, taken from our own civilization, is
our failure to utilize unfamiliar kinds of food that may befound in newly settled countries. Another example is presented by the reindeer-breeding Chukchee, who carryabout in their nomadic life a tent of most complicatedstructure, which corresponds in its type to the older per-manent house of the coast dwellers, and contrasts in themost marked way with the simplicity and light weight of
the Eskimo tent. 1 Even among the Eskimo, who have so
1

Bogoras, pp. 177 et seq.; Boas 3: p. 551.

192

THE MIND OF PRIMITIVE MAN

marvelously well succeeded in adapting themselves totheir geographical environment, customs like the taboo on
the promiscuous use of caribou and seal prevent thefullest use of the opportunities offered by the country.

Thus it would seem that environment has an important
upon the customs and beliefs of man, but only

eifectinsofar as it helps to determine the special forms of cus-

toms and beliefs. These are, however, based primarily on
cultural conditions, which in themselves are due to othercauses.

At this point the students of anthropo-geography who
attempt to explain the whole cultural development on thebasis of geographical environmental conditions are wontonearlier conditions, in which they have originated under
to claim that these causes themselves are founded

the stress of environment.

This claim is inadmissible be-cause the investigation of every single cultural featuredemonstrates that the influence of environment brings

about a certain degree of adjustment between environ-ment and social life, but that a complete explanation of
the prevailing conditions, based on the action of environ-ment alone, is never possible. We must remember, that,no matter how great an influence we may ascribe to environment, that influence can become active only by beingexerted upon the mind; so that the characteristics of themind must enter into the resultant forms of social activity.
It is just as little conceivable that mental life can be ex-plained satisfactorily by environment alone, as that environment can be explained by the influence of the people

upon nature, which, as we all know, has brought aboutchanges of watercourses, the destruction of forests andchanges of fauna.

In other words, it seems entirely arbi-

trary to disregard the part that psychical or social elements play in determining the forms of activities andTHE INTERPRETATIONS OF CULTURE
beliefs

which occur with great frequency

all

193

over theworld.

The theory of economic determinism of culture is no
more adequate than that of geographic determinism. It is
more attractive because economic life is an integral partof culture and intimately connected with all its
phases,while geographical conditions always remain an external
element. Still, there is no reason to call all other phases ofculture a superstructure on an economic basis, for economic conditions always act on a preexisting culture andare themselves dependent upon other aspects of culture.

no more justifiable to say that social structure isdetermined by economic forms than to claim the reverse,
It isfor a preexisting social structure will influence economic

conditions and vice versa, and no people has ever been
observed that has no social structure and that is not subThe claim that economic
ject to economic conditions.
stresses preceded every other manifestation of culturaland exerted their influences on a group without any

life

cultural traits cannot be maintained.

Cultural life is al-ways economically conditioned and economics are always
culturally conditioned.

The similarity of cultural elements regardless of race,environment and economic conditions may also be explained as a result of parallel development based on thesimilarity of the psychic structure of man the world over.
Bastian 1 recognizes the great importance of geographical environment in modifying the analogous ethnic
phenomena, but does not ascribe to them creative power. To
him the sameness of the forms of thought found in regions
wide apart suggested the existence of certain definite
types of thought, no matter in what surroundings man
1

See Achelis, pp. 189 et seq.

THE MIND OF PRIMITIVE MAN

194

may live, and what may be his social relations. Thesefundamental forms of thought, "that develop with ironnecessity wherever man lives," were called by him "elementary ideas."

He denies that it is possible to discover

the ultimate sources of inventions, ideas, customs andbeliefs, which are of universal occurrence. They may havearisen from a variety of sources, they may be indigenous,

they may be imported, but they are there. The humanmind is so formed that it evolves them spontaneously, or
accepts them whenever they are offered to it. The number

In primitive thought asof elementary ideas is limited.

well as in the speculations of philosophers the same ideas

appear again and again in the special form given to themby the environment in which they find expression as
* '

' '

folk-ideas(

Volkergedanken).

The elementary ideas appear to him as metaphysicalNo further thought can possibly unravel their
becausewe ourselves are compelled to think in theorigin,forms of these same elementary ideas.
In many cases a clear enunciation of the elementaryidea gives us the psychological reason for its existence. To
entities.

exemplify: The mere statement that primitive man considers the animals as gifted with all the qualities of man

shows that the analogy between many of the qualities ofanimals and human qualities has led to the view that all
the qualities of animals are human. The fact that theland of shadows is so often placed in the west suggests its
localization at the place where the sun and the stars
vanish.

In other cases the causes are not so self-evident;

for example, in the widespread customs of restrictions ofmarriage which have puzzled many investigators. The
difficulty of this problem is proved by the multitude ofhypotheses that have been invented to explain it in all its
varied phases.

THE INTERPRETATIONS OF CULTURE

195

no reason why we should accept Bastian's
The dynamic forces that mould social life
are the same now as those that moulded life thousands ofyears ago. We can follow the intellectual and emotional
drives that actuate man at present and that shape his
actions and thoughts. The application of these principles
There

is

renunciation.

will clear up many of our problems.

Our previous considerations enable us also to evaluate
the claim that the biological character of a race determines
Let us admit for the moment that the genetic
make-up of an individual determines his behavior. The
actions of his glands, his basal metabolism and so on are
elements that find expression in his personality. Personality in this sense means the biologically determined emoits culture.

tional,volitional

andintellectual characteristics

which

determine the way in which an individual reacts to theculture in which he lives. The biological constitution does
not make the culture. It influences the reactions of the in-

As little as geographical environment or economic conditions create a culture, just as little

dividual to the culture.

does the biological character of a race create a culture ofa definite type. Experience has shown that members ofmost races placed in a certain culture can participate in it.
In America men like Juarez, President of Mexico, or thehighly educated Indians in North and South America are
examples. In Asia the modern history of Japan and China;
in America the successes of educated Negroes as scientists,
physicians, lawyers, economists are ample proof showingthat the racial position of an individual does not hinder
his participation in modern civilization.

Culture is rather

the result of innumerable interacting factors and there isno evidence that the differences between human races,
particularly not between the members of the White race

THE MIND OF PRIMITIVE MAN

196

have any directive influence upon the course of develop-

ment of culture. Individual types, ever since the glacial
period, have always foundthey reacted.

an existing culture to which

The range of individual differences that occur within arace has never been investigated in a satisfactory manner.

We

have shown that the variability of bodily form of individuals composing each race is great.
cannot yetWegive exact data regarding the variability of fundamental
physiological traits, much less of more intangible features
such as physiologically determined personality, but evenqualitative observation shows that the variability in each
racial unit is great.

culty

lies

The almost insurmountable diffi-

in the fact that physiological and psychologi-

cal processes and particularly personality cannot be reduced to an absolute standard that is free of environmental

elements. It is, therefore, gratuitous to claim that a race
has a definite personality. We have seen that on accountof the variability of individuals composing a race, differ-ences between larger groups of slightly varying humantypes are much smaller than the differences between theindividuals composing each group, so that any considerable
influence of the biologically determined distribution of
personalities upon the form of culture seems very unlikely.

No proof has ever been given that a sufficiently large seriesof normal individuals of an identical social environment
but representing different European types, perhaps the
one group, blond, tall, longheaded, with large nose; theother darker, shorter, roundheaded, with smaller noses
will behave differently. The opposite, that people of thesame type like the Germans in Bohemia and the Czechs
behave quite differently is much more easily given. Thechange of personality of the proud Indian of pre- White
times to bis degenerate offspring is another glaring example.