264 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 



ing a cure. The Tonga ranka medicine-man, when about 

 to practise his art, sits down on the windward side of his 

 patient, and his power is supposed to pass to the sick 

 person "like smoke." The medicine-man then sucks the 

 affected part, and withdraws his power out of him, and 

 also at the same time the pain, usually in the form of a 

 quartz crystal. ^^ Magical ceremonies are performed 

 with the object of treating the soul of the crop in order 

 that the yield may be abundant. Harvest ceremonials 

 are survivals of the primitive practice of treating the 

 soul of the crop. 



The primitive man's belief in "mana" magic and in 

 spirits is directly related to his religion. There is no 

 support for the statement that there exist tribes which 

 have no religion. Such statements are based upon the 

 idea that organized systems of theology alone constitute 

 religion. Hence, any recognition of the universality of 

 religion depends somewhat upon the definition of religion 

 which we have in mind when we affirm or deny that a cer- 

 tain tribe has a religion. The definition of religion most 

 generally accepted among anthropologists was advanced 

 by Professor E. B. Tylor in his work, "Primitive Cul- 

 ture," as "the belief in spiritual beings. "°" Under the 

 name of Animism, Tylor investigated the various forms 

 of this belief in spiritual beings. Animism divides into 

 two great dogmas, forming parts of one consistent doc- 

 trine : first, concerning souls of individual creatures, 

 capable of continued existence after death or destruction 

 of the body; second, concerning other spirits, upward to 

 the rank of powerful deities. 



There were two problems which deeply impressed the 



la Howitt, op. cit., pp. 355-39G. 



5" Tylor, E. B. — Primitive Culture, 1891, vol. i, pp. 417-431. 



