THE TUSAYAN RITUAL: A STUDY OF THE INFLUENCE 

 OF ENVIRONMENT ON ABORIGINAL CULTS. 1 



By J. Walter Fewkes. 



The science called ethnology claims as its field of research the study 

 of all racial characteristics of man. It deals not only with his phys- 

 ical features, social grouping, and geographical distribution, but also 

 with the products of his hand and mind, his thoughts and feelings. 

 No race or individual is so low in the scale of being as to be utterly 

 devoid of some idea of the supernatural, and as this is a universal 

 human characteristic it is naturally one of the subjects which presents 

 itself for study by the ethnologist. The study of the evolution of 

 supernatural ideas, like that of all other human characters, ought not 

 to be limited to a few favored races, nor should the term "religion," in 

 its scientific use, be restricted to any group or race of man. It must be 

 broad enough to embrace the supernatural conceptions of all men, low 

 and high in the scale. No poor or insignificant grouping of men and 

 women should be regarded too wretched to be studied, and the scien- 

 tific man can not overlook any if he is loyal to scientific methods. A 

 generalization which is built on limited knowledge of the religious 

 characteristics of a few men or those of gifted races will as surely 

 fail as a general law of linguistics based on the language of any one 

 of the great races to the neglect of others. There was a time when 

 naturalists overlooked the lowest animals in their studies of the evolu- 

 tion of organic life, but now it is universally recognized by biologists 

 that we must look to the most inferior animals for a solution of many 

 problems connected with the highest. In studies of the development 

 of the supernatural in the mind of man the same thing is true. The 

 laws of the evolution of religious thought can not be scientifically 

 studied if the culture of primitive man is neglected. Unless I am 

 greatly mistaken, the roots of some of the purest spiritual conceptions 

 reach far down into savage and barbarous stages of culture. 



We are accustomed to designate the crude supernatural ideas of 

 savage and barbarous peoples as cults, and every cult will be found 

 on examination to be composed of two complemental parts, known as 



1 Saturday lecture in the Assembly Hall of the United States National Museum, 

 May 16, 1896. 



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