36 Science Religion and Reality 



only on water, but while making the canoe he must have the 

 principles in his mind. He instructs his helpers in them. He 

 gives them the traditional rules, and in a crude and simple manner, 

 using his hands, pieces of wood, and a limited technical vocabulary, 

 he explains some general laws of hydrodynamics and equilibrium. 

 Science is not detached from the craft, that is certainly true, it is 

 only a means to an end, it is crude, rudimentary, and inchoate, but 

 with all that it is the matrix from which the higher developments 

 must have sprung. 



If we applied another criterion yet, that of the really scientific 

 attitude, the disinterested search for knowledge and for the under- 

 standing of causes and reasons, the answer would certainly not be 

 in a direct negative. There is, of course, no widespread thirst for 

 knowledge in a savage community, new things such as European 

 topics bore them frankly and their whole interest is largely encom- 

 passed by the traditional world of their culture. But within this 

 there is both the antiquarian mind passionately interested in myths, 

 stories, details of customs, pedigrees, and ancient happenings, and 

 there is also to be found the naturalist, patient and painstaking in 

 his observations, capable of generalisation and of connecting long 

 chains of events in the life of animals, and in the marine world 

 or in the jungle. It is enough to realise how much European 

 naturalists have often learned from their savage colleagues to appre- 

 ciate this interest found in the native for nature. There is finally 

 among the primitives, as every field-worker well knows, the 

 sociologist, the ideal informant capable with marvellous accuracy 

 and insight to give the raison d'etre, the function, and the organisa- 

 tion of many a simpler institution in his tribe. 



Science, of course, does not exist in any uncivilised community 

 as a driving power, criticising,, renewing, constructing. Science is 

 never consciously made. But on this criterion, neither is there 

 law, nor religion, nor government among savages. 



The question, however, whether we should call it science 

 or only empirical and rational knowledge is not of primary import- 

 ance in this context. We have tried to gain a clear idea as to 

 whether the savage has only one domain of reality or two, and we 

 found that he has his profane world of practical activities and 

 rational outlook besides the sacred region of cult and belief. We 

 have been able to map out the two domains and to give a more 

 detailed description of the one. We must now pass to the second. 



