American Anthropologist (Volume 23)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1912 Excerpt: ... is done to a tooth once belonging to a person will happen to the person himself. A variation of this form of magic is seen in the custom of rubbing oneself with a part of a powerful and courageous animal in order to acquire these traits, (c) The objects have been in the relation of cause and effect: cooling the arrow which has inflicted a wound will prevent inflammation of the wound. In this class of magic an attraction or a telepathic influence is exerted between objects. 3. Principle of Efficiency of Will-Effort. Other systems of classification are of course possible. A classification according to the nature of the Power involved in the magical operation and the relation of this Power to the magician appears to me to have considerable merit, so I add it here. Class I.--Practices in which there is no idea of a Power belonging to the operator or his instrument, and passing thence to the object of the magical art. To this class belong many instances of so-called Sympathetic Magic,1 many of the taboo customs; most modern superstitions, --those, for instance, regarding Friday, the number thirteen, horseshoes, planting when the tide is coming in. In these instances the effect is thought to follow upon the cause without the mediation of a force passing, let us say, from the magician to the wooden fish placed in the stream and thence to the living fish. An illustration of this class of magic has already been given in the old lady's belief that good luck would come to a household as the result of sparrows having fallen down the chimney. The gambler who believes in his luck does not usually conceive of it as a Power in any true sense of the word. Several facts drawn from child life, which point to this same conclusion, will be noted presently. 1 Hang a ...