NOTES AND ABSTRACTS.
Observations on Taboo. A taboo is an interdiction, and a tabooed object is anjinterdicted object ; but, while this is true, it is to be carefully noted that the converse of the propositions do not hold good. A taboo differs from an interdiction in several very important respects : (a) In its pure and primitive form no explanation is ever given of the action of taboo ; such explanations grow up at a later date, but origii.ally they do not exist. We have a saying: "Speak softly in the death-chamber, for to do otherwise is to seem lacking in respect for the dead." The primitive form of observing this taboo consisted not only in speaking softly, or not at all, in the presence of the dead, but in precipitate flight from such presence. No reason was sought or given ; to speak in the presence of the dead was to invite death, and the presence of the dead was actively avoided, and no questions were asked, (b} The punishment for violation of taboo always follows as the direct effect of the transgression without the intervention of a third party. The commandment given to Adam not to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge is a true taboo in this respect. No third party is to intervene to inflict the punishment ; the statement runs simply : " If you eat you die." (c ) In the case of the taboo the nature of the danger is unknown, and the object of the prohibi- tion is to protect from this unknown danger. When the ark of the covenant was shaken by the stumbling of the oxen, and Uzzah, putting forth his hand to stay it, was stricken dead, there was no hint given of the nature of the force by which he was killed. Jehovah was wroth, and he was killed.
The tabooed object is always leagued with a reservoir of mysterious and awful power, and the slightest infraction of the taboo brings down upon the offender all its destructive force. Only in case the offender is himself leagued with an opposite and equivalent power may he break the prohibition with impunity. Taboo has represented the element of authority in the growth of civilization ; without this element civilization would have been impossible, for it has always required that certain things be considered, for the time at least, inviolable. Modified by reason and with its field greatly restricted, taboo exists among us today and performs an important function ; let him who doubts examine the practical workings of certain types of religion and of family government. SALOMON REINACH, "Quelques observations sur le Tabou," in L * Anthropologie, Tome XI, No. 4. R. G. K.
The Sociological Work of Guyau. In reviewing the progress of sociology in France during the nineteenth century Guyau must be conceded an eminent place. At a time when such service was essential to its further development he secured for the new science the respectful attention of the learned world in France. His thorough familiarity with the work of the masters of sociological thought in other countries made him easily their most brilliant and influential expositor in his own land. Aside from this, his keen critical abilities, coupled with the inventive and philosophic nature of his mind, raised him above the rank of a mere disciple and placed him among the masters of his chosen field. Into general philosophy he introduced a movement which was well-nigh revolutionary. "For the individual," said he, "the achievement of a greatening life through and by means of his social environment is the one true end of all living. By this is to be measured the value of all activity, and upon it must rest the enduring principles of all education, morals, art, and religion." To the various social implications of this fundamental thesis Guyau devoted the major portion of his life and work. For a pedagogy conceived from this point of view the child is no longer the personification of a sullen heredity fettering the form of a living present in the mummy-cloths of a dead past. On the contrary, the personality of the child is to be regarded as that particular phase of reality wherein the fixed and rigid factors of the past become once more yielding and flexible and capable, under the powerful
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