904 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IV. No. 103. 



forms have developed. Out of designs 

 representing diverse objects grew in course 

 of time frets, meanders, crosses and the 

 like. Therefore the frequent occurrence of 

 these forms proves neither common origin 

 nor that they have always developed accord- 

 ing to the same psychical laws. On the 

 contrary, the identical result may have 

 been reached on four different lines of de- 

 velopment and from an infinite number of 

 starting points. 



Another example may not be amiss: The 

 use of masks is found among a great num- 

 ber of peoples. The origin of the custom 

 of wearing masks is by no means clear in 

 all cases, but a few typical forms of their 

 use may easily be distinguished. They are 

 used for deceiving spirits as to the identity 

 of the wearer. The spirit of a disease who 

 intends to attack the person does not recog- 

 nize him when he wears a mask, and the 

 mask serves in this manner as a protection. 

 In other cases the mask represents a spirit 

 which is personified by the wearer, who in 

 this shape frightens away other hostile 

 spirits. Still other masks are commemora- 

 tive. The wearer personifies a deceased 

 person whose memory is to be recalled. 

 Masks are also used in theatrical perform- 

 ances illustrating mythological incidents.* 



These few data suffice to show that the 

 same ethnical phenomenon may develop 

 from different sources. The simpler the 

 observed fact, the more likely it is that it 

 may have developed from one source here, 

 from another there. 



Thus we recognize that the fundamental 

 assumption which is so often made by mod- 

 ern anthropologists cannot be accepted as 

 true in all cases. "We cannot say that the 

 occurrence of the same phenomenon is 

 always due to the same causes, and that 

 thus it is proved that the human mind 

 obeys the same laws everywhere. We must 



* See Eichard Andree. Ethnographische Parallelen 

 und Vergleiche. Neue Folge, 1889, pp. 107 ff. 



demand that the causes from which it de- 

 veloped be investigated and that compari- 

 sons be restricted to those phenomena which 

 have been proved to be effects, of the same 

 causes. We must insist that this investi- 

 gation be made a preliminary to all ex- 

 tended comparative studies. In researches 

 on tribal societies those which have devel- 

 oped through association must be treated 

 separately from those that have developed 

 through disintegration. Geometrical de- 

 signs which have arisen from convention- 

 alized representations of natural objects must 

 be treated separately from those that have 

 arisen from technical motives. In short, 

 before extended comparisons are made, the 

 comparability of the material must be 

 proved. 



The comparative studies of which I am 

 speaking here attempt to explain customs 

 and ideas of remarkable similarity which 

 are found here and there. But they pur- 

 sue also the more ambitious scheme of dis- 

 covering the laws and the history of the 

 evolution of human society. The fact that 

 many fundamental features of culture are 

 universal, or at least occur in many iso- 

 lated places, interpreted by the assumption 

 that the same features must always have 

 developed from the same causes, leads to 

 the conclusion that there is one grand sys- 

 tem according to which mankind has de- 

 veloped everywhere ; that all the occurring 

 variations are no more than minor details 

 in this grand uniform evolution. It is clear 

 that this theory has for its logical basis the 

 assumption that the same phenomena are 

 always due to the same causes. To give an 

 instance : We find many types of structure 

 of family. It can be proved that paternal 

 families have often developed from mater- 

 nal ones. Therefore, it is said, all paternal 

 families have developed from maternal ones. 

 If we do not make the assumption that the 

 same phenomena have everywhere devel- 

 oped from the same causes, then we may 



