Primitive Culture; Researches Into the Development of Mythology, Philosophy, Religion, Language, Art and Custom Volume 2

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1874 edition. Excerpt: ... RITES AND CEREMONIES. Religious Rites: their purpose practical or symbolic--Praycr: its continuity from low to high levels of Culture; its lower phases Unethical; its higher phases Ethical--Sacrifice: its original Gift-theory passes into the Homagetheory and the Abnegation-theory--Manner of reception of Sacrifice by Deity--Material Transfer to elements, fetish-animals, priests; consumption of substance by deity or idol; offering of blood; transmission by fire; incense--Essential Transfer: consumption of essence, savour, etc.--Spiritual Transfer: consumption or transmission of soul of offering--Motive of Sacrificer--Transition from Gift-theory to Homage-theory: insignificant and formal offerings; sacrificial banquets--Abnegation theory; sacrifice of children, etc.--Sacrifice of Substitutes; part given for whole; inferior life for superior; effigies--Modern survival of Sacrifice in folklore and religion--Fasting, as a means of producing ecstatic vision; its course from lower to higher Culture--Drugs used to produce ecstasySwoons and fits induced for religious purposes--Orientation: its relation to Sun-myth and Sun-Worship; rules of East and West as to burial of dead, position of worship, and structure of temple--Lustration by Water and Fire: its transition from material to symbolic purification; its connexion with special events of life; its appearance among the lower races--Lustration of new-born children; of women: of those polluted by bloodshed or the dead--Lustratiou continued at higher levels of Culture--Conclusion. Eeligious rites fall theoretically into two divisions, though these blend in practice. In part, they are expressive and symbolic performances, the dramatic utterance of religious thought, the gesture-language of theology....