CHAPTER XII 



A PRIMITIVE VIEW OF THE ORIGIN OF 

 SPECIES 



IF anyone should ask you how a particular bird came 

 to be blue or red or streaked, or how it happened 

 that birds in general differ in colors and other fea- 

 tures, "each after its kind," in other words how specific 

 distinctions came about, you, a liberal-minded and well- 

 read person, would undoubtedly answer that each and all 

 "developed" these specific characteristics. You might go 

 on to explain that they resulted from the combined influ- 

 ences of natural and sexual selection, to the latter of 

 which birds are supposed to be especially susceptible, and 

 thereby show yourself a good Darwinist. 



But primitive thinkers, like children, are not evolution- 

 ists but creationists. They believe that things were made 

 as they are: if so, somebody made them. They are con- 

 vinced that no person like themselves or any of their ac- 

 quaintances could do it, so they attribute the feat to some 

 being with superhuman powers. This being is almost al- 

 ways the mythical ancestor, pristine instructor or "cul- 

 ture-hero," of the nation, tribe or clan to which the 

 thinker belongs ; and it is perfectly natural and a matter 

 of course to assume that he had magical functions and 

 supernatural powers. Next, some genius invents a story 

 to fit the case, and as anything is possible to such a being 

 as the hero it is adopted and passed into the tribal history 

 that the elders recount by the evening fire, and that every- 



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