MYSTICAL AND CEREMONIAL AVOIDANCE OF CONTACT WITH INANIMATE OBJECTS.^
Read before the Anthropological Section of the British Association Edinburgh, September, 192 1.
BY F. VV. H. MIGEOD.
In many primitive tribes there exists the idea that contact of the human body with an inanimate object, and especially with the ground, must be avoided on certain occasions for either a ceremonial or a mystical reason. The thought seems to be that there is a loss of power or virtue should such contact take place. There must, therefore, be inter- posed some other material body, which in practice is usually something of special value ; and the most valuable and efficacious of all is another human body. There are, it is true, other reasons than a loss of power or virtue to be assigned to such practices ; but they are less common, and will be noted as they come up in the course of this paper. A great many and very varied examples of avoidance of contact are to b£ found in Africa, where I have principally enquired into this subject. They are not, however, confined to Africa alone. Many other semi-civilised or totally uncivilised countries furnish examples also. Among them are Australia, in connection with the aboriginal inhabitants of course, the South Sea Islands, Borneo and India, and their comparison with each other is useful towards finding a clue to the underlying principle which is often the same
^ [Attention may be drawn to the discussion of this question by Sir James Frazer {The Golden Bough, "Balder the Beautiful," vol. i. chap, i.) with which the writer seems not to have been acquainted. — Ed.]
