M-agic Science and Religion 41 



we can see the function of such acts in society in that they create 

 mental habits and social usages of inestimable value to the group 

 and its civilisation. 



Another type of religious ceremony, the rite of marriage, is 

 also an end in itself in that it creates a supernaturally sanctioned 

 bond, superadded to the primarily biological fact : the union of 

 man and woman for lifelong partnership in affection, economic 

 community, the procreation and rearing of children. This union, 

 monogamous marriage, has always existed in human societies — 

 so modern anthropology teaches in the face of the older fantastic 

 hypotheses of " promiscuity " and " group marriage." By 

 giving monogamous marriage an imprint of value and sanctity, 

 religion offers another gift to human culture. And that brings us 

 to the consideration of the two great human needs of propagation 

 and nutrition. 



2. Providence in Primitive Life 



Propagation and nutrition stand first and foremost among the 

 vital concerns of man. Their relation to religious belief and 

 practice has been often recognised and even over-emphasised. 

 Especially sex has been, from some older writers up to the psycho- 

 analytic school, frequently regarded as the main source of religion. 

 In fact, however, it plays an astonishingly insignificant part in 

 religion, considering its force and insidiousness in human life in 

 general. Besides love magic and the use of sex in certain magical 

 performances — phenomena not belonging to the domain of religion 

 — there remain to be mentioned here only acts of licence at harvest 

 festivities or other public gatherings, the facts of temple prostitution 

 and, at the level of barbarism and lower civilisation, the worship 

 of phallic divinities. Contrary to what one would expect, in 

 savagery sexual cults play an insignificant role. It must also be 

 remembered that acts of ceremonial licence are not mere indulgence, 

 but that they express a reverent attitude towards the forces of 

 generation and fertility in pian and nature, forces on which the 

 very existence of society and culture depends. Religion, the 

 permanent source of moral control, which changes its incidence 

 but remains eternally vigilant, has to turn its attention to these 

 forces, at first drawing them merely into its sphere, later on 

 submitting them to repression, finally establishing the ideal of 

 chastity and the sanctification of askesis. 



