126 REPORTS
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same tendencies as the tales of punishment cited by the previous speaker: the game of the great Mogul (French) in which the revolt of the children against someone in authority (father) is expressed by laughter, while their remorse is shown in a taboo of this character. The punishment is ambivalent, the laughing child be- comes the ridiculed and tabooed father (great Mogul) or, as in other versions, is attacked by the whole group of playmates, tickled 5
and pinched, etc., all this being perhaps the refinement of the original murderous attack on the leader of the horde. The heap of stones mentioned by the speaker as the origin of the tomb and the tombstone occurs in the game, being represented by the children who throw themselves in a heap on the leader. The psychological relation of these games to the totemistic rites is proved by the existence of a totem, called 'laughing boy' {I'komme qui rit, Durkheim, Vie religieuse) the impersonator of which tries to persuade the participants in the rite to laugh by making funny gestures, just as the great Mogul does in the game.
Dr. S. Ferenczi draws attention to the fact that the most t.
valuable discoveries of ethnology (cf. totem -~ ancestor, father) |
again and again corroborate the naive expressions of savages; this is also the case in the research concerning the meaning of the stone monuments of primitive peoples. The 'punishments' of the Indonesians — turning to stone and drowning — permit (according to talion law) a symbolic interpretation; possibly they also contain reminiscences of geological changes of the earth's surface. Finally he reminds his hearers of certain difficulties of mediod in the use of the heterogeneous materials supplied by ethnology, and expresses the opinion that, however valuable it may be for us to have psycho- analytically trained ethnologists make the investigations, the con- vincing force of facts gathered by unprejudiced observers should be estimated at its full value. The reconciliation of the doctrines of primitive thought and of social organization in this open-minded presentation by Rbheim is of great theoretical importance.
Dr. S. Rado; The supposition of the speaker that the fraternal horde killed the father by stoning him is an important contribution to the hypothesis of the primal struggle as Freud has developed it. The speaker has derived this conclusion from the examination of an abundance of ethnological material by excellent methods; however he has not adduced sufficient evidence when he represents as the unique motive for the choice of stoning as a method of
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