A Friday Night Reading: “Magic, Science and Religion” by Bronislaw Malinowski

 

The first page of “Magic, Science and Religion” by Bronislaw Malinowski.

Religion Is A Strange Word

       Warning, this is NOT an all-ages post. This essay covers adult themes or themes that may not be considered to be digestible for younger audiences. Magic, Science and Religion by Bronislaw Malinowski, originally published by The Free Press in 1948, is an essay that discusses the evolution of belief systems and compares them to the evolution and findings of modern science. Or at least science as modern as 1948. Which, in about twenty-two years will be one hundred years old. However, no matter what the publishing date, this essay provides insights about how our beliefs evolve and change over time, making for quite the fascinating read. This post will be reviewing and commenting on this essay, paragraph by paragraph and will not censor the author of the essay that this post will discuss. However, before we begin, parents or legal guardians may want to review this post for content and decide whether or not it can be shared with a younger reader. 

       Warnings out of the way, the reason this section was titled Religion Is A Strange Word is partly because the spelling of the word “religion” appears to be French and partly because it encompasses a wide array of belief systems from many different cultures, continents and countries over time. “Religion” can be used to refer to a system where people believe in one unified deity, a pantheon of deities presiding over many different topics such as harvests or fertility and even to systems where the people believe in the forces of nature in ways that are almost akin to deifying them. If the reader is not already aware, to deify something is to assign the subject a supernatural title or power and venerate or honor with offerings or prayers. Similarly, a deity is a supernatural entity which is believed, in one culture or another, to preside over natural occurrences such as childbirth or the supply of edible resources from the earth (harvesting) or the ocean (fishing). To reiterate, the spelling of the term religion is quite unique with its vernacular origins but it is also strange because so much that is covered within its definition in our world can be so conflicting and controversial from one person to another. This post will not seek to discuss why there is so much controversy because that could possibly be a post on its own. Instead, author and reader will simply keep the focus on Magic, Science and Religion by Bronislaw Malinowski to keep things a bit more simple for now. Paragraph by paragraph, this post will attempt to break down and comment on this essay, with the ultimate goal of hopefully introducing information and ideas to the reader.

I. Primitive Man And His Religion

       There are no peoples however primitive without religion and magic. Nor are there, it must be added at once, any savage races lacking either in the scientific attitude or in science, though this lack has been frequently attributed to them. In every primitive community, studied by trustworthy and competent observers, there have been found two clearly distinguishable domains, the Sacred and the Profane; in other words, the domain of Magic and Religion and that of Science.

       Though the terms “savage races” and “primitive community” are unnervingly antiquated and politically incorrect in our modern times, it appears that the author is at least attempting some level of dissuasion toward the target audience in regards to stereotyping others based on background or color. Removing the outdated phrasing, the core message of this opening paragraph is this: Everyone comes from a background or culture that shares three common elements throughout their separate histories- Magic, Religion and Science.

On the one hand there are the traditional acts and observances, regarded by the natives as sacred, carried out with reverence and awe, hedged around with prohibitions and special rules of behavior. Such acts and observances are always associated with beliefs in supernatural forces, especially those of magic, or with ideas about beings, spirits, ghosts, dead ancestors, or gods. On the other hand, a moment’s reflection is sufficient to show that no art or craft however primitive could have been invented or maintained, no organized form of hunting, fishing, tilling, or search for food could be carried out without the careful observation of natural process and a firm belief in its regularity, without the power of reasoning and without confidence in the power of reason; that is, without the rudiments of science.

       Observation, the act of watching or studying something and taking note of whatever information can be learned and shared from whatever has been observed, is a foundational element in both religion and science, as has been mentioned here. To put it bluntly, imagine for example, the growth and production of a stalk of corn. Two people observe the corn’s growth and each comes to their own conclusion to explain how the process must have happened for themselves. Person A recalls the small seed that the plant originally was and chooses to take a similar seed and see what occurs if the seed is denied water or sun exposure, then records their findings and realizes that natural sources such as sun and water help the corn grow and produce. Person A has found a type of science that explains the corn’s growth to them. Meanwhile, person B recalls a prayer being said over the seed that grew and that a seed that was not prayed over did not grow. Person B arrives at the conclusion that a deity must be prayed to or appeased to ensure the growth of the corn. Person B has discovered religion. Both people observed the same stalk of corn’s growth and behavior and arrived at differing explanations for the occurrence which were impacted by their personal experiences. Science and religion. 

       The credit of having laid the foundations of an anthropological study of religion belongs to Edward B. Tylor. In his well-known theory he maintains that the essence of primitive religion is animism, the belief in spiritual beings, and he shows how this belief has originated in a mistaken but consistent interpretation of dreams, visions, hallucinations, cataleptic states, and similar phenomena. Reflecting on these, the savage philosopher or theologian was led to distinguish the human soul from the body. Now the soul obviously continues to lead an existence after death, for it appears in dreams, haunts the survivors in memories and in visions and apparently influences human destinies. Thus originated the belief in ghosts and the spirits of the dead, in immortality and in a nether world. But man in general, and primitive man in particular, has a tendency to imagine the outer world in his own image. And since animals, plants and objects move, act, behave, help man or hinder him, they must also be endowed with souls or spirits. Thus animism, the philosophy and the religion of primitive man, has been built up from observations and by inferences, mistaken but comprehensible in a crude and untutored mind. 

       This section brings to mind a lyric line from Disney’s Pocahontas (1995), “I know every rock and tree and creature has a life, has a spirit, has a name”. The song, Colors of The Wind was written by Alan Menken and Stephen Laurence Schwartz and sung for the film by Judy Kuhn. The message of the track is intended to convey equality among humans and the wider range of all creatures on earth but it is also a very simplified introduction to the concept of animism. Anyone who has ever wept at a funeral and subsequently seen their dog or cat for example laying beside a spot where another much loved animal once relaxed would recognize similar behaviors between themself and their pet, then assume that their pet is feeling sad or is grieving, perhaps both at once. Animals can and do go through similar feelings but assuming that they are exactly the same as ours is known as anthropomorphizing. Once something is anthropomorphized, people often have made a subsequent assumption that the supposed similarity to humans must mean that the object or creature in question must also have a spiritual energy. Especially if the subject has made a post-mortem appearance, such as in a dream state during sleep. Additionally, anyone or anything which can make similar types of appearances is often assumed to somehow persist even after ceasing to exist in life and this is the core of animism.

       Tylor’s view of primitive religion, important as it was, was based on too narrow a range of facts, and it made early man too contemplative and rational. Recent field work, done by specialists, shows us the savage interested rather in his fishing and gardens, in tribal events and festivities than brooding over dreams and visions, or explaining “doubles” and cataleptic fits and it reveals also a great many aspects of early religion which cannot be possibly placed in Tylor’s scheme of animism.

       Initially, the author was a little confused by this next statement— it seems the author here has as much to learn from this text as the reader might. It appears that though there are basic elements of animism in most every religion, many religions do, in fact, exhibit behaviors which are not included in the rudimentary definition of animism. In this text on animism written by Katherine Swancutt, there is evidence to suggest that some societies assign one unified soul to everything, while others assign multiple souls and even hierarchies to objects and animals. Swancutt also ventures to claim that animism may even no longer fit the definition of being a true religion, as it does not include a god or a pantheon of gods. More likely, animism seems to behave more as a component of religion rather than a religion in and of itself. So animism is not the essence of religion, it is instead more likely to be a symptom.

       The extended and deepened outlook of modern anthropology finds its most adequate expression in the learned and inspiring writings of Sir James Frazer. In these he has set forth the three main problems of primitive religion with which present-day anthropology is busy: magic and its relation to religion and science; totemism and the sociological aspect of early faith; the cults of fertility and vegetation. It will be best to discuss these subjects in turn.

       Oh, Frazer. One of the originators of the assumption that African people are generationally or genetically closer to early man which has garnered much debate over its veracity, especially in recent years. Speaking from a logical standpoint, this is more than likely to be untrue and could possibly be interpreted as a racist view. However, whatever his views on cultures or colors were, Frazer did help to provide religious and scientific academics with an applicable timeline for observing connections between magic, science and religion in cultures across the globe, as well as a broadened definition of magic that even today could possibly include advances in science. In fact, he was one of the first scholars to find a link between the fields of magic, religion and science, revolutionizing studies of religious history and science history.

       Frazer’s ‘Golden Bough’, the great codex of primitive magic, shows clearly that animism is not the only, nor even the dominating belief in primitive culture. Early man seeks above all to control the course of nature for practical ends, and he does it directly, by rite and spell, compelling wind and weather, animals and crops to obey his will. Only much later, finding the limitations of his magical might, does he in fear or hope, in supplication or defiance, appeal to higher beings; that is, to… ancestor spirits or gods. It is in this distinction between direct control on the one hand and propitiation of superior powers on the other that Sir James Frazer sees the difference between religion and magic. Magic, based on man’s confidence that he can dominate nature directly, if only he knows the laws which govern it magically, is in this akin to science. Religion, the confession of human impotence in certain matters, lifts man above the magical level, and later on maintains its independence side by side with science, to which magic has to succumb. 

       Herein is the timeline which was laid out so plainly by Sir James Frazer— magic begets religion and simultaneously evolves, eventually into science. An example of magic may possibly be superstition. Because many superstitions are likely based on the same principles of observation as are magic, science and religion. Someone did something and then what they wanted actually happened for them. For example, walking widdershins or counter-clockwise around a field after harvest time with a lit torch while chanting, willing a bountiful harvest the following year. Someone somewhere did as such, had a better harvest the next year and came to the conclusion that they had hit upon laws of nature that would guarantee better crop growth. Not science, nor is it religion but it is still based on observation and might therefore be considered magic. Someone else though likely found no luck with simply chanting and instead tried prayer, then saw a surplus the next year, leading that person to assume religion was the way to go. Yet another, still wanting to rely on their own abilities, did neither and instead experimented with ways to improve their next crop and after discovering an improved crop yield, possibly realized that magic now seemed pointless. 

       This theory of magic and religion has been the starting point of most modern studies of the twin subjects. Professor Preuss in Germany, Dr. Marett in England, and MM. Hubert and Mauss in France have independently set forth certain views, partly in criticism of Frazer, partly following up the lines of his inquiry. These writers point out that similar as they appear, science and magic differ yet radically. Science is born of experience, magic made by tradition. Science is guided by reason and corrected by observation, magic, impervious to both, lives in an atmosphere of mysticism. Science is open to all, a common good of the whole community, magic is occult, taught through mysterious initiations, handed on in a hereditary or at least in very exclusive filiation. While science is based on the conception of natural forces, magic springs from the idea of a certain mystic, impersonal power, which is believed in by most primitive peoples. This power, called ‘mana’ by some Melanesians, ‘arungquiltha’ by certain Australian tribes, ‘wakan’, ‘orenda’, ‘manitu’ by various American Indians, and nameless elsewhere, is stated to be a well-nigh universal idea found wherever magic flourishes. According to the writers just mentioned we can find among the most primitive peoples and throughout the lower savagery a belief in a supernatural, impersonal force, moving all those agencies which are relevant to the savage and causing all the really important events in the domain of the sacred. Thus ‘mana’, not animism, is the essence of ‘pre-animistic religion’, and it is also the essence of magic, which is thus radically different from science.

       In this portion of the essay, Malinowski is pointing out that the concept of impersonal power, power from a higher source, is the essence not only of magic but also of religion itself.