History of Religious Evolution 709 



the proenvironal responses of ancestro-natiiralism, that for a 

 period became the satisfied state of those accepting such. The 

 duration period, ahke for ancestrahsm and for naturahsm, 

 has varied doubtless as has that for plant or animal variations. 

 Thus the primitive ancestrahsm of primitive man evidently 

 persists almost unchanged amongst many Australians, the 

 Hottentots, the Central South American Indians of the Pal- 

 mar, etc., while others exhibit this along with higher natur- 

 alism. 



In review then we would define naturalism as "a rever- 

 ential and reciprocal religious outlook, shown by individuals 

 or groups of individuals, on the natural forces or phenomena 

 of the earth that immediately environ them and that unite 

 them to it. This outlook, having its origin in ancestrahsm, 

 causes them to view such phenomena with affection or fear, 

 according as they consider such phenomena to be connected 

 with a family or a tribal friend or enemy." 



A third stage of advance is animism, that in some regions 

 of the world seems to have developed as a higher constituent 

 of, and advance on, naturalism, in other parts as a somewhat 

 sudden or mutational advance from ancestrahsm. In the 

 former case man seems to have associated more and more 

 closely the thought of spirit — or invisible energy-power — with 

 most of the natural objects around him, while still recognizing 

 the material basis that linked him with them. In the latter 

 the dominant idea was the moving, spiritic, energizing action 

 that each material organic body harbored while alive, or that 

 the inorganic bodies like running water, echoing rocks, rushing 

 winds, earthquake-shocked strata strongly suggested the exist- 

 ence of. Flitting night bats, twittering leaves, nocturnal birds, 

 prowling carnivores, stealthy enemies, and other agencies, all 

 increased the sense of fear, wonder, and reverence. 



Thus, as many writers and travelers have stated, spirits 

 or unseen personalities came to people the trees and even 

 lowher plants, the animals, the streams, the wind, the ringing 

 rocks. These spirits were regarded as the loving shades of 

 tribal friends, or as the hateful shades of tribal enemies who 



