THE
SUMMIT TIMES
With this issue we begin a series of articles concerning the origin
and nature of religious beliefs. This series is a part of a book in preparation.
ENQUIRY INTO THE ESSENCE OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHT
Part 1
NATURE AND SPIRIT
The religious experience of the possibility of a communication of the human
and the divine nature in man constitutes theantropy, which can be
described as a perpetual striving of man for unity with God, Who is encountered
as the ultimate ground of human existence. Theantropy so understood is
the ultimate foundation of religious beliefs through which man hopes to
realize divinity in his life.1
Now, it is proven fact beyond any doubt, that all of the primitive peoples
also believe in the existence of a Supreme Being, though not necessarily
understood in a form of Personal Entity.2 Anthropological and ethnological
studies show that this belief was found both in the most ancient times
and that it has continued to the present day as well. Moreover, the belief
in the existence of some divine reality in human nature is one of the constant
ingredients and universal constituent elements of human consciousness,
and it is experienced by man, without any doubt, as the most intimate and
essential part of human life. On the innateness of experiencing divinity
in the human consciousness, Marcus Tullius Cicero writes:
Belief in gods is universal among people; it seems to be innate and,
as it were, engraved on the human soul. Men may entertain different notions
as to their nature, but no one denies their existence.3
Now this universal belief in a transcendent reality, and at the same
time most immanent part of human nature, can-according to Tertullian-be
known both from nature and from revelation:
From things which are worthy of God will be proved the existence of
God. We maintain that God must first be known from nature, and afterwards
be authenticated by instruction: from nature by His works; by instruction,
through His revealed announcements.4 However, since the divine reality
is innate in human nature, and since man is experiencing this divine reality
both in nature itself and through some specific revelation, then the theantropic
"self-communication" of human consciousness must be double. Contemporary
studies in ethnology and anthropology show that primitive man experiences
his human reality as being double. Analyzing the way of reasoning
by primitive men, Estaban Puig describes "the ancient mentality of the
Andean people" as objectively dual and subjectively global:
The "visual" mentality of Andean man does not conceive of isolated
formalities but embraces, contains living and complex
realities.
He does not mentally establish only one aspect of the object, but includes
the entire object. He includes realities, not isolated
formalities.
He will focus on an object from different points of view; but in reality,
he will speak of the same object though differently focused. Because
of this, his world view is externally complex, incoherent and vague;
but this external reality he describes as existing apart from his internal
world, which comprises all of this reality. If his objective, external
world appears divided dually in conceptions of opposition and conflict,
his difficulty lies in understanding or comprehending that duality subjectively,
within. What we call understanding in
all, is understanding as a
dual mentality. By dual mentality we want to express his way of typical
thinking, typical of a mentality distinct from the one we are used to (analysis,
division and synthesis). His mentality or inner world is global, understanding,
enveloping, unitary. When intending to express it in external forms, he
finds the physical impossibility to express it-he does not know how. We
can affirm in summary, that this mentality is an objectively and
externally
"dual complex," and subjectively and internally
"global-understanding."5
1
In his consciousness, a primitive man experiences his reality by both
his natural environment, composed of the variety of living and non-living
things with which he coexists in a particular place and time, and his human
existential conditions which compel him to actualize himself in a unique
way. In other words, in his self-reflection a primitive man experiences
his beingness as double, i.e., as an entity existing in unity with
the remaining visible reality which is by the same token his natural habitat,
and as an incarnated being which enforces him to actualize his distinctive
nature among the plurality of other fellow human beings.
To resolve the tension between the natural environment and the human
existential conditions as an incarnated being, primitive man strives to
minimize his doubleness by gaining the dominance over all nature,
and to establish more suitable conditions for his life by transforming
the natural environment into a human one, thus guaranteeing for himself
a feeling of safety and security. In this way, in his attempt to dominate
nature, primitive man undergoes both a unification and a diversification
of his spiritual life.
However, the question arises: what is meant by the doubleness of
human existence, and how is it experienced by the indigenous people? In
order to answer this question, we have first to give a short account of
the nature of human mentality as such.
In his consciousness man experiences the existential fragility of his
beingness, and realizes that his human reality is contingent in nature
and finite in character. The ontological condition of contingency and finitude
of human existence invokes in man's consciousness a desire for permanency
of his intrinsic and natural disposition (diathesis) toward
the enduring of his 'to-be' over/against his 'not-to-be.' Now this consciousness
of the possibility of 'to-be' or 'not-to-be' is the primordial fact of
human existence, and as such the very origin and the main source for man's
concern expressed in religious beliefs and metaphysical reflections.
The Hindu scriptures of The Rigveda describe the mystery of creation
of the whole reality, as an ontic polarization between being and
non-being,
a polarization out of which "for the first time there arose desire, which
was the primal germ of mind, within it. And sages, searching in their hearts,
discovered in nothing the connecting bond of Being."6 For Taoism, this
connecting bond of Reality, is Tao, but in two senses, namely, as
'invariable Being' and as 'invariable Non-Being;' in the former Tao
being
constituted of yin and yang is a principle of changeability,
but in the latter Tao conceived in itself is a principle of unchangeability:
"Tao as a thing is impalpable, incommensurable. Incommensurable,
impalpable, yet latent in it are forms. Impalpable, incommensurable, yet
within it are entities. Shadowy it is and dim, yet within it there is an
essence. This essence is extremely pure, but nonetheless efficacious."7
Searching "in nothing the connecting bond of Being" and the essence
of Tao in its purity, man discovers either its presence or its absence;
in the former man uncovers a creative disposition for 'self-realization,'
and in the latter a destructive disposition for 'self-negation.' In view
of this twofold possibility of his existence, man can experience either
a desire for 'self-completion' by rebuilding his own beingness or falling
into an abyss of his nothingness. In other words, in his existential 'self-disposition,'
man experiences either an ecstatic vision of Being upwards or of falling
into an abyss of his human nothingness downwards.
Now, applying the onto-cognitive disparity of our human nature, the
fundamental and basic feature of human mentality is based in its diathetical
character, i.e., disposition of the human mind to relate one object or
event to another. But, in view of the aforementioned onto-cognitive ambiguity
in establishing an underlying principle of coherency of natural things
in both their identity and diversity, the diathetical reasoning can be
twofold, i.e., linear which gives the priority of being over becoming,
and multilateral which emphasizes the primacy of becoming over being.
2
The unusually severe and extremely hard conditions of the natural habitat
of primitive peoples shape their consciousness according to the local conditions
of the surrounding environment, and create in their minds a distinct way
of understanding the existing reality, both from within and from without.
As a matter of fact, the primitive environment develops in the mentality
of the indigenous people a specific mentality which is metaphoric in nature.
In general, the metaphoric mentality consists in giving a symbolic account
in explanation of natural things by pointing to their affinities and opposites,
similarities and differences, i.e., diathetically codifying reality by
pointing to various forms of events and objects. For the Cali?a Caribs
of Guayana, the word 'father' expresses the life cycle which connects one
generation with another.8
Now, the description of reality by pointing to various forms of events
and objects is not, in the mentality of the primitive people, based on
logical reasoning alone. As a matter of fact, although primitive people
are not-according to Bronislaw Malinowski9-deprived entirely of scientific
knowledge of reality, nevertheless their understanding of nature is derived
neither from strictly understood inductive nor deductive reasoning. In
other words, the reasoning of the mind of primitive people is non-referential,
and it is based mainly on observations of natural phenomena.
The non-referential mode of reasoning is also evident from the linguistic
point of view, as has been pointed out in a study by Dorothy Lee, and which
she calls nonlineal.10 The nonlineal manifestation of diathetical understanding
of reality does not mean, however, that the mentality of the primitive
people comprehends natural things as being relative, but it is differently
experienced in various cultures. Summarizing the linguistic structure of
the primitive mentality, Dorothy Lee writes:
Events and objects are self-contained points in another respect; there
is a series of beings, but not becomings. There is no temporal connection
between objects Neither is there a temporal connection made or, according
to our own premises, perceived, between events; in fact, temporality is
meaningless. There are no tenses, no linguistic distinctions between past
and present.11
In the mentality of the primitive people, then, any linguistic expression
is nonlineal, because it refers to the form of the objects or the events
alone, and by the same token to beings without the process of their becoming.
As a matter of fact, in the words of Dorothy Lee: "The term to be
does not occur; it is used neither attributively nor existentially, since
existence itself is contained; it is an ingredient of being."12 Consequently,
in the mentality of the primitive peoples reality appears as a chain of
beings existentially experienced.
However, in nonlineal reasoning, the form of the objects or events manifest
the subjective rather than objective reality, thus reflecting the mentality
of a given cultural group by various ways of codification and segmentation
of the same reality according to a given situation. In other words, the
nonlineal reasoning in the mentality of the primitive people does not aim
at the very essence of reality, but to its significance for the life of
a given society.
But, what is the specific diathetical character of the non referential
reasoning of the mind of the primitive people? How does this non-referential
metaphoric mentality of the primitive people experience and verbalize their
existential life situation(s)?
In the view of Bronislaw Malinowski, in the mentality of the Trobriand
Islanders there is no continuity in their reasoning, and they express their
thoughts in a "context of situation."13 In this way the primitive people
punctuate various aspects of things or events without paying too much attention
to the connections of things and logical consistency of human acting. Moreover,
not paying attention to the connections and consistency in expressing their
activity, they do not feel the necessity to prove or argue verbally about
something they are doing. But this does not mean that they do not see the
preordained pattern of things or causal nexus. For example, although
the primitive people realize that intercourse is a necessary condition
to conception, the arrival of the spirit of some ancestor-as some believe-into
the womb is an act of a different kind of pattern of activity, represented
on different levels. In other words, the preordained reality of natural
things overshadows the logical and causal interconnections of reasoning
in the mentality of the primitive people. Referring to the social nature
of human being, Malinowski points to the participative function of language
among the primitive people, for which he introduces a new term-"phatic
communion."14
3
The primitive people evaluate all existing things as doubles by
the non referential diathetical reasoning with its participative function
of linguistic expressions of their metaphorical mentality. Referring to
"a sphere of mythical thought," Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff in his book Amazonian
Cosmos writes: "Sun and Moon form a double representation, diurnal
and nocturnal, of the Creator, but they are not relatives of this Creator."15
The same author, in another book The Shaman and the Jaguar, describing
one of the categories of spirit-beings, i.e., veari-mahsa, gives the following
cosmic account of the doubleness
of all the created beings:
According to the Creation Myth, when the "germinator" (pamurí-mahse)
was ascending the rivers in his Anaconda-Canoe, his passengers consisted
not only of a representative of each major group-Tukano, Arawak, Makú,
and so on-and of each exogamic unit, but also of the exact double of each
individual person. These doubles are called veari-mahsa and, in
some myths, are designated as the people whom pamuri-mahse "had
in excess." During the slow ascent and the peopling of the riverbanks these
veari-mahsa
made themselves obnoxious by constantly opposing the germinator's orders;
they always criticized and contradicted, causing confusion and discontent,
until pamurí-mahsë decided to kill them all. But the Sun Father took pity
on them and banished the doubles to the hills, where they continue to have
their dwelling places together with the Master of Game Animals and the
other spirits or spirit-animals that are said to exist inside these dark
places.16
This "double representation" of all the natural things is universal, and
their doubleness is, in the metaphoric mentality of the primitive
peoples, understood on several levels of reality, i.e., divine and cosmic,
non-organic and organic forms of life, personal and communal, etc.
In the belief of the ancient Egyptians, the ka-which is the double
of man's personality-helps him both during life and after death.17 The
Zulus believe that each person has his darker 'other-self' which constantly
is following him, and no one should, for instance, look into a dark pool,
because he can be arrested by the in-dwelling spirit. The Chinese should
be careful at the funeral ceremonies when gazing into the coffin in order
not to be locked by it. The Persians are convinced that each person is
accompanied during his whole life by good and evil spirits, and which are
controlling his thoughts and feelings. The ancient Greek daemonology enumerates
many and various daemons, and it is a dangerous
omen to look into
the reflection of the water, as it is a forewarning of the tragic fate
told in the legend of Narcissus. Some description of the phenomenon can
also be found in the Bible, e.g., Daniel (8:2): "I was in Suasa the capital,
which is in the province of Elam; and I saw in the vision, and I was at
the river Ulai."18
In the non-referential diathetical reasoning of their metaphoric mentality,
the primitive peoples are experiencing the "double representation" of reality
as a contrast between the natural and the supernatural worlds. Quoting
the Caribs, who say that "if there were no spirits to cause everything
to be as it is, there would be nothing," Penard and de Goeje formulate
the Cali?a world view as based on a principle that:
The world is spirit in substance. The essence of every material object
lies in its psychic being. Every animal is the materialization of a passion,
an instinct; and man unites all these passions within himself. We believe
that the aula (word, speech) of every wala (species) has
existed from the very beginning, and that it created the physical aspect.
Every wala in the visible world is the physical counterpart of a
flowing wala (melody) which gives it life. The sound which a creature makes
is the expression of its vital principle. All creatures which emit the
same sound are embodiments of the same vital principle.19
The question arises: what is the "vital principle" through which the primitive
peoples are accepting the existence of a double representation of reality?
In general, the "vital principle" consists in a living communication between
man and nature on the one hand, and in a mutual relationship between the
natural and the supernatural world on the other hand. On this double representation
of the reality in the mentality of the primitive people, Harold Turner
writes:
There is a profound sense in many primal societies that man is a kin
to nature, a child of Mother Earth and brother to the plants and animals
which have their own spiritual existence and place in the universe. This
is seen not only in the way plants and animals, and indeed almost any object
in the natural environment, may enter into a totemic spiritual relationship
with a man or become a tutelary and guardian spirit, but in the way the
environment is used realistically and unsentimentally, with profound respect
and resemblance and without exploitation.20
___________________________________________________________
1. Cf., Andrew N. Woznicki, Metaphysical Animal: Divine and Human in
Man. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 1996.
2. On monotheism, cf. Paul Radin, Primitive Man as Philosopher.
New York: Dover Publications, 1957, ch. 18.
3. De natura deorum, II, 4. Cf., also Marcus Aurelius Seneca,
Epist.
117: "Belief in gods is innate in the human soul, and there are no people
so devoid of respect for law and morals not to admit the existence of some
divinity." Plutarch, Adversus Coleten, c. 31: "If you go around
the world, you may find towns without walls, without laws, without houses,
without wealth, without money; in which there are neither gymnasiums nor
theatres; but no one has ever seen a town without temples and divine worship;
where no recourse is had to oaths and oracles; where no sacrifice is offered
for the common weal; where no attempt is made to ward off evils by means
of sacrifices." Tertullian, Against Marcion, I, 10: "From the beginning
knowledge of God is the dowry of the soul, one and the same for Egyptians,
Syrians, and the tribes of Pontus. For their souls call the God of the
Jews their God."
4. Ibidem.
5. "Introduction a la historia antiqua del Peru" (Piura, 1987, unpublished
manuscript), p. 221f. Here I would like to express my gratitude to Professor
Estaban Puig for his generosity in sharing with me the results of his studies
on the religiosity of the Peruvian Indians, and for granting me permission
to use them in this work.
6. X, 129 (Kaegi edition, p. 90).
7. Arthur Waley (trans.), The Way and its Power (London: Allen &
Unwin, 1934), ch. 21; quoted after Fung Yu-Lan, A History of Chinese
Philosophy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1952), I, p. 179.
8. C.H. de Goeje, "Philosophy, Initiation and Myths of the Indians of Guiana
and Adjacent Countries," Internationaler Archiv für Ethnographie,
vol. XLIV, Leiden, 1943.
9. Cf., "Magic, Science and Religion," in: Science, Religion and Reality,
ed. by Joseph A. Needham (New York: George Braziller, Inc., 1955), pp.
31-40.
10. Freedom and Culture (Prentice-Hall, inc.: A Spectrum Book, 1959),
p. 105: "The people of the Trobriand Islands codify, and probably apprehend
reality, nonlineally in contrast to our own lineal phrasing."
11. Ibidem, p. 109. Stressing the ontic-oriented mentality of the primitive
peoples, the author writes: "The Trobrianders are concerned with being,
and being alone. Change and becoming are foreign to their thinking. An
object or event is grasped and evaluated in terms of itself alone, that
is, irrespective of other beings" (p. 89). Referring to the self-containment
of being, the author observes: "In the face of this apprehension of being,
concepts such as causation and purpose appear irrelevant This [sc. lacking
of terms of such conceptions] does not mean that the Trobrianders are incapable
of explaining a sequence in terms of cause and effect, but rather that
this relationship is of no significance" (p. 94f.).
12. Ibidem, p. 116.
13. "The Problem of Meaning in Primitive languages," in The Meaning
of Meaning, ed. by C.K. Ogden & I.A. Richards (San Diego-New York-London:
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1989), pp. 306ff. Cf., also Claude Levi-Strauss,
The
Savage Mind (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1966), p. 135.
14. Ibidem, p. 315: "There can be no doubt that we have here a new type
of linguistic use - phatic communion I am tempted to call it, actuated
by the demon of terminological invention-a type of speech in which ties
of union are created by a mere exchange of words."
15. Amazonian Cosmos: The Sexual and Religious Symbolism of the Tukano
Indians (Chicago & London: The University of Chicago Press, 1971),
p. 71.
16. The Shaman and the Jaguar: A Study of Narcotic Drugs Among the Indians
of Colombia (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1975), p. 191.
17. "The Deceased's Journey to the Sky," Adolf Erman, The Ancient Egyptians:
A Sourcebook of their Writings (New York: Harper & Row, 1966),
p. 2, reads: "He that flieth flieth! He flieth away from you, ye men. He
is no longer on earth, he is in the sky. /Thou his city-god, his ka is
at thy sky(?)" Cf ., Alexander Le Roy, The Religion of the Primitives
(New York: The Macmillan Company, 1922), p. 94: "The double (ka)
airy projection of the body is repeatedly found in the tombs; a more completely
separated substance (Bi or Bai) which they considered as the essence
of human nature, flies towards the 'other-land,' like a bird, and is able
at pleasure to leave the tomb or re-enter it. Another luminous principle
(khou) abandons the world and joins the processions of the gods;
there is also the heart that is manifested as conscience during
life and a witness after death."
18. Cf "Double," in Man, Myth and Magic (New York-London-Toronto:
Marshall Cavendish, 1983), vol. III, p. 672ff.
19. Quoted after Otto Zerries, "Primitive South America and the West Indies,"
in Precolumbian American Religions (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson,
1968), p. 267.
20. "New Religious Movements in Primal Societies," in Australian Essays
in World Religions, ed. by Victor C. Hayes (AASR, 1977), p. 30. Cf.,
also E.E.H. Stanner, "Some Aspects of Aboriginal Religions,
Colloquium
(1976),
p. 21.
_____________________________________________________________________
Andrew Woznicki is Professor of Philosophy at the University
of San Francisco.
TST, Vol. 2, No.
7/1994
The
Summit Times
Salski@dnai.com
© Copyright 1996
by Andrzej M. Salski