SUB-HUMAN CULTURE BEGINNINGS 



339 



again demolition pleasure; or, more ge- 

 nerically, the satisfaction of producing an 

 effect; and this, at an early stage of de- 

 velopment, is more readily accomplished 

 by destruction than by construction. 

 We tend unjustly to read the child as an 

 adult. It is doubtful whether small 

 children ever try to represent except as 

 the result of cultural influence. In fact, 

 we do not know that a human being be- 

 come adult without impingement of 

 cultural influences would try to represent 

 anything. So too, when a child makes 

 something like a decorative pattern, his 

 principal satisfaction perhaps lies at first 

 in the rhythmic motion. We, thinking 

 primarily of the effect, are likely to con- 

 strue into the child an impulse to decora- 

 tive rhythm and regularity, which it 

 probably does not appreciate until later 

 in life. To understand art, it seems 

 necessary to recognize that there is always 

 a motor impulse involved; that in incipient 

 stages the motor element probably pre- 

 dominates; and that recognition of aes- 

 thetic qualities as such is, historically, 

 likely to be an overlay. 



ANTICIPATIONS OF RELIGION 



Religion is difficult to conceive without 

 formulated ideas and thus without speech. 

 Even its rudiments could therefore hardly 

 be looked for among the apes. Yet there 

 may be some sub-cultural anticipations. 

 Koehler made a rude rag animal with 

 shoe-button eyes which vaguely suggested 

 a miniature donkey. It was altogether 

 too crude to be mistaken for a live animal, 

 yet had sufficient resemblance to one to 

 set it off from ordinary inanimate natural 

 objects, or from artifacts such as boxes or 

 chairs. The apes responded instantly 

 with manifestations of fear. It was not 

 terror as great as an ox or a camel inspired, 

 but can perhaps best be characterized as 

 similar in its expression to what human 



beings would call awe. There was not a 

 trace of either the indifference or the 

 curiosity which a lifeless object provoked; 

 interest there was, but also respectful 

 staying at a distance for a long time. 

 Even food placed in proximity to the 

 image was shunned, and only at last 

 cautiously snatched with a precipitate 

 retreat ensuing. Koehler observed a dog 

 manifest the same degree of interest in 

 the figure, except that, being a carnivorous 

 and therefore aggressive organism, his 

 interest took the form of hostility. He 

 convinced himself however, as soon as 

 he dared, of the inanimateness of the 

 image; and from then on was completely 

 indifferent to it. The chimpanzee, like 

 ourselves, is less practical, evidently as 

 the result of possessing more imagination. 

 Occasionally however, one of the lower 

 animals will react more like a man or an 

 ape. I- have seen a young dog for weeks 

 manifest panic whenever an imitation 

 animal toy was brought into his presence. 

 The relation to religion of the chim- 

 panzee's reaction lies in his manifesting 

 something like the awe which is regarded 

 as an important or essential ingredient of 

 what we call the religious (ecling: the 

 religious thrill. It is generally recog- 

 nized that religion could not well 

 originate without the presence of emo- 

 tions of which awe may be taken as the 

 type; and that these emotions tend to 

 persist, or to be re-awakened in religion, 

 no matter how culturally crystallized this 

 becomes. Also, the kind of object that 

 arouses the awe-like feeling in chimpan- 

 zees has a certain quality of resemblance 

 to the basic concepts of religion. Souls, 

 ghosts, spirits, like stuffed rag donkeys, 

 do not occur in ordinary experience; like 

 them, also, they are thought to be at once 

 similar to living bodies and different from 

 them. A dummy donkey with button 

 eyes evidently is literally supernatural to 



QUAS. EEV. BIOL., VOL. Ill, NO. 3 



