PRIMITIVE MAGIC

Taranaki Daily News, 1 May 1937, Page 8

PRIMITIVE MAGIC

ANTHROPOLIGISrS INTEREST. SIR JAMES FRAZER'S WORK. Sir James Frazer, who recently published "Aftcrmath," the thirteenth volume of his great work "The Golden Bough," is now, at the age of- eightythree, engaged on an addendum to his volume on "Totemism and Exogamy,. says the Manchester Guardian. Professor Malinowski, who is also a great anthropologist and .^ho was the speaker recently at a dinner given by Madame Maria Levinskaya in houor of Sir James and Lady Frazer, which Sir James was, - however, unable to attend, said that Sir James had already discarded, one after another, three theories of totemism because he had discovered a flaw in each. Very few people woula have done that, but one of Sir James greatest distinctions was his passionate fidelity to truth. . . Frazer was the greatest anthropologist and one of the greatest men of our time. His books were the foundation on which our present knowledge of primitive man was ' founded and many modern schools of anthropology were based on his wotk. The whole sociological school in France had drawn . their inspiration from it.

Sir James was the first man to pui the importance of magic on the scientific map. With his keen observation of the realities of human life he saw that magic was a practice - concerned with immediate issues -which ' called forth a response from man. kA South Seas magician who wanted tio produce rain painted himself black- to represent clouds, poured : out watcri arid recited. many incantations in which words like "splashing" occurred. - ;. Professor Malinowski, investigating primitive' customs in Melanesja, had been told by a magician why certain methods of magic were used. Sweet- . scented herbs were used fjr love magic because the love-lorn youth saw his girl as beautiful, sweet-scented, and bright. "We must use words and things like what we want to produce," the - magician said. "In war we have to .use dangerous . things, so in. war magic we use sharp-pointed tliings and herbs with a pungent scent, and we malce speeches about death." "If the approval of . any , person ; would . have moved. and glsiddened the -heart • of Sir James Frazer," said the Professor, "it would have been that ,of this man, expert in primitive magic.'-, Without having read 'The Golden ' Bough' he was speaking Frazer. -The ' real effect of magic is psychological. It gives inspiration, hope, and confidence. Working along this line the modern psychologist has discovered the enormous v^lue . of Sir James' work, and - how it can be developed."

Pi-ofessor Malinowski suggested that Europe to-day wqs experiencing the working of niagic based on exactly Ihe same psychological pj-inciples as those he had mentioned, but working in a more barbarous and dangerous way. There was commercial magic. in advertisements, magic in beauty culture, which provided not beauty but the belief that one was beautiful. The most dangerous magic waS political propaganda. There was the propaganda which consisted of creating a collective sentiment the belief that , "my nation" was the only one worth fighting for. Psychologists should study this danger.