PRIMITIVE RITUALISTIC CEREMONIES 203 



method by instruction. There is no reason to believe that it arose pri- 

 marily as a ceremonial act, but that it must have been the result of 

 homely experiment. 



If we take the widest sort of view of the world there appears no 

 good reason why primitive men should not be considered as great mate- 

 rialists as we fancy ourselves to be. Our anthropological museums are 

 filled with the debris of primitive man's endless experimentation with 

 stone, bone, shell, clay, pigment and metal. In all this one can often 

 trace more or less clearly the successive triumphs of great inventors. 

 Out of this boundless striving, step by step, doubtless hesitatingly and 

 slowly, was built up the world's present store of real knowledge. For 

 ages and ages and even yet, much of it was carried and perpetuated as a 

 mere matter of memory. To distinguish between the essential and the 

 inessential in a procedure is rarely easy, the great human way being to 

 " follow the leader " in every detail, thus naively doing the necessary 

 along with the irrelevant. Thus we are able to form a satisfactory 

 theory of ritualism. It is based primarily upon empirical data, for the 

 universal human method has always been " to try it." The experience of 

 all mankind is, that wonders can be worked only by proceeding in cer- 

 tain precise ways, the real reasons for which are often utterly baffling. 

 The person who knows the way can bring the result by merely going 

 through with the formula. It is true even now that many who see the 

 curious workings of these formula 1 generalize and conceive of a universal 

 method which is essentially the application of a formula. When such a 

 conception becomes a part of folk-thought, we may expect individuals 

 to experiment and try more or less at random formula of their own de- 

 vising or, what is more likely, borrowed from another. Thus it comes 

 to pass that many misfit formula in use everywhere. 



The survival of true misfits in the more material affairs of life is un- 

 likely, but when formula are applied to psychological and physiological 

 phenomena, it is very difficult to decide as to their efficacy. A strong 

 corrective influence works in one case in contrast to a weak one in the 

 other. One scarcely need be reminded that our own scientific method 

 developed first in strictly material problems and is but gradually ex- 

 tending its methods to the outlying phases of organic phenomena; and 

 doubtless, here too many naive and over-generalizing individuals mis- 

 apply the mere empty methods of material science to the deception of 

 themselves and others. 



In short, a ritualistic ceremony in primitive life, and perhaps every- 

 where, is based upon a methodological ideal of accuracy in procedure or 

 experiment and is an expression of a specific series of procedures so 

 dressed and arranged as to hold the interest, emotions and retentive 

 activities of men. Its primary function is to perpetuate exact knowledge 

 and to secure precision in its application. 



