(eBook PDF) The Study of Law: A Critical

Thinking Approach (Aspen College) 4th Edition

install download

https://ebookluna.com/product/ebook-pdf-the-study-of-law-a-
critical-thinking-approach-aspen-college-4th-edition/

Download more ebook instantly today - Get yours now at ebookluna.com

 We believe these products will be a great fit for you. Click
the link to download now, or visit ebookluna.com
to discover even more!

(eBook PDF) Research Methods and Statistics: A Critical Thinking Approach

4th Edition

https://ebookluna.com/product/ebook-pdf-research-methods-and-statistics-a-
critical-thinking-approach-4th-edition/

(eBook PDF) Organizational Behavior: A Critical-Thinking Approach

https://ebookluna.com/product/ebook-pdf-organizational-behavior-a-critical-
thinking-approach/

(Original PDF) The Power of Critical Thinking 4th Canadian Edition

https://ebookluna.com/product/original-pdf-the-power-of-critical-
thinking-4th-canadian-edition/

Progress in Heterocyclic Chemistry Volume 29 1st Edition - eBook PDF

https://ebookluna.com/download/progress-in-heterocyclic-chemistry-ebook-
pdf/
(eBook PDF) Translational Medicine in CNS Drug Development, Volume 29

https://ebookluna.com/product/ebook-pdf-translational-medicine-in-cns-drug-
development-volume-29/

(eBook PDF) Critical Thinking A Concise Guide 4th Edition

https://ebookluna.com/product/ebook-pdf-critical-thinking-a-concise-
guide-4th-edition/

Cardiology-An Integrated Approach (Human Organ Systems) (Dec 29,

2017)_(007179154X)_(McGraw-Hill) 1st Edition Elmoselhi - eBook PDF

https://ebookluna.com/download/cardiology-an-integrated-approach-human-
organ-systems-dec-29-2017_007179154x_mcgraw-hill-ebook-pdf/

Netter Atlas of Human Anatomy-Classic Regional Approach, 8e (Mar 29,

2022)_(0323793738)_(Elsevier) NOT TRUE PDF 8th Edition - eBook PDF

https://ebookluna.com/download/netter-atlas-of-human-anatomy-classic-
regional-approach-8e-mar-29-2022_0323793738_elsevier-not-true-pdf-ebook-
pdf/

(eBook PDF) Research Methods and Statistics: A Critical Thinking Approach

5th Edition

https://ebookluna.com/product/ebook-pdf-research-methods-and-statistics-a-
critical-thinking-approach-5th-edition/
The Study of Law:
A Critical Thinking Approach
Copyright © 2016 Katherine A. Currier and Thomas E. Eimermann.
Published by Wolters Kluwer in New York.
Wolters Kluwer serves customers worldwide with CCH, Aspen Publishers, and Kluwer Law
International products. (www.wolterskluwerlb.com)
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or utilized by any information storage
or retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. For information about
permissions or to request permissions online, visit us at www.wolterskluwerlb.com, or a written
request may be faxed to our permissions department at 212-771-0803.
To contact Customer Service, e-mail [email protected], call 1-800-234-1660,
fax 1-800-901-9075, or mail correspondence to:

Wolters Kluwer
Attn: Order Department
PO Box 990
Frederick, MD 21705
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Currier, Katherine A., 1949- author.

The study of law : a critical thinking approach / Katherine A. Currier, Professor, Department of
Criminal Justice and Legal Studies, Elms College, Thomas E. Eimermann, Emeritus Professor of
Politics and Government, Illinois State University. — Fourth edition.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
eISBN: 978-1-4548-6145-4
1. Law — Study and teaching — United States. I. Eimermann, Thomas E., author. II. Title.
KF386.C88 2015
349.73 — dc23

2015024060
About Wolters Kluwer Law &
Business
Wolters Kluwer Law & Business is a leading global provider of
intelligent information and digital solutions for legal and business
professionals in key specialty areas, and respected educational resources
for professors and law students. Wolters Kluwer Law & Business
connects legal and business professionals as well as those in the
education market with timely, specialized authoritative content and
information-enabled solutions to support success through productivity,
accuracy and mobility.
Serving customers worldwide, Wolters Kluwer Law & Business products
include those under the Aspen Publishers, CCH, Kluwer Law
International, Loislaw, ftwilliam.com and MediRegs family of products.
CCH products have been a trusted resource since 1913, and are highly
regarded resources for legal, securities, antitrust and trade regulation,
government contracting, banking, pension, payroll, employment and
labor, and healthcare reimbursement and compliance professionals.
Aspen Publishers products provide essential information to attorneys,
business professionals and law students. Written by preeminent
authorities, the product line offers analytical and practical information in
a range of specialty practice areas from securities law and intellectual
property to mergers and acquisitions and pension/benefits. Aspen's
trusted legal education resources provide professors and students with
high-quality, up-to-date and effective resources for successful instruction
and study in all areas of the law.
Kluwer Law International products provide the global business
community with reliable international legal information in English.
Legal practitioners, corporate counsel and business executives around
the world rely on Kluwer Law journals, looseleafs, books, and electronic
products for comprehensive information in many areas of international
legal practice.
Loislaw is a comprehensive online legal research product providing
legal content to law firm practitioners of various specializations. Loislaw
provides attorneys with the ability to quickly and efficiently find the
necessary legal information they need, when and where they need it, by
facilitating access to primary law as well as state-specific law, records,
forms and treatises.
ftwilliam.com offers employee benefits professionals the highest quality
plan documents (retirement, welfare and non-qualified) and government
forms (5500/PBGC, 1099 and IRS) software at highly competitive
prices.
MediRegs products provide integrated health care compliance content
and software solutions for professionals in healthcare, higher education
and life sciences, including professionals in accounting, law and
consulting.
Wolters Kluwer Law & Business, a division of Wolters Kluwer, is
headquartered in New York. Wolters Kluwer is a market-leading global
information services company focused on professionals.
 About the Authors
Katherine A. Currier, J.D., served as the Elms College Paralegal and
Legal Studies program director for many years. Currently, she
coordinates the Department of Criminal Justice and Legal Studies. She
has developed and taught many law-related courses, including Legal
Reasoning, Research, and Writing; Introduction to Legal Studies I and II;
Law Office Computer Literacy; Law Office Applications; Interviewing,
Counseling, and Negotiating; and Law and Literature. In addition to the
three texts she has coauthored with Professor Eimermann, Professor
Currier has publications in the areas of legal ethics as applied to
paralegals and law office computing.
Professor Currier is actively involved in the development of
undergraduate legal education at both the regional and the national
levels, particularly through her work with the American Association for
Paralegal Education (AAfPE) and the American Bar Association
Approval Commission on Paralegals. Professor Currier has served on the
national board of AAfPE, first as its parliamentarian and then later as the
elected representative of four-year paralegal programs. She served many
years as the AAfPE publications chair, charged with the final
responsibility for overseeing the Journal of Paralegal Education and
Practice and The Educator. Professor Currier frequently speaks at both
the AAfPE Northeast regional meetings and the annual AAfPE
conferences on topics as diverse as the use of computer shareware,
paralegals and the unauthorized practice of law, creative teaching
techniques, and conducting legal research on the Internet. Professor
Currier also chaired the American Bar Association Approval
Commission on Paralegals, the body charged with conducting site visits
of paralegal programs that are seeking their initial ABA approval or
reapproval. Currently, she has also served on the Board of Directors of
the International Assembly for Collegiate Business Education (IACBE),
an organization dedicated to promoting excellence in business education.
Prior to teaching at Elms College, Professor Currier taught at
Suffolk Law School and Western New England College School of Law.
She graduated magna cum laude with her B.A. in Political Science from
Carelton College, with her M.A. in Political Philosophy from the
University of California, Berkeley, and with her J.D. from Northeastern
University Law School.

Thomas E. Eimermann is Emeritus Professor of Political Science and a

former Director of the Legal Studies Program at Illinois State University.
Dr. Eimermann helped establish the paralegal program there in 1976 and
served as director until 2005. He has taught Introduction to Paralegal
Studies, Legal Research and Writing, and Constitutional Law courses.
Professor Eimermann was a member of the American Association
for Paralegal Education's Board of Directors from 1986 to 1993 and
served as president of that organization in 1991-1992. He has also served
on the Certification Board and Specialty Task Force of the National
Association of Legal Assistants, as a member of the Illinois State Bar
Association Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services, and as a
member of the Inquiry Board, the Hearing Board, and the Oversight
Committee of the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary
Commission. As a consultant for the Illinois Department of Corrections,
he designed its Uniform Law Clerk Training Program, to train selected
inmates to assist other inmates doing legal research for appeals or
challenging the conditions of their incarceration.
In addition to the three paralegal texts he has coauthored with
Professor Currier, Professor Eimermann's publications include
Fundamentals of Paralegalism, Fundamentals of Criminal Practice:
Law and Procedure (co-authored with Thomas McClure), and journal
articles on paralegals, jury behavior, and free speech issues. He earned
his B.A. in Political Science at North Central College and an M.A. and a
Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Illinois-
Urbana/Champaign campus.
Katherine Currier and Thomas Eimermann have also coauthored
Introduction to Law for Paralegals: A Critical Thinking Approach and
Introduction to Paralegal Studies: A Critical Thinking Approach.
 To our spouses and children
For their understanding and support
 Summary of Contents
Contents
List of Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgments

PART 1 The American Legal System

Chapter 1 Introduction to the Study of Law
Chapter 2 Functions and Sources of Law
Chapter 3 Classification of the Law
Chapter 4 The Court System and the Role of Judges
Chapter 5 Civil Litigation and Its Alternatives

PART 2 Substantive Law and Ethical Issues

Chapter 6 Constitutional Law: Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
Chapter 7 Torts
Chapter 8 Contract Law
Chapter 9 Property and Estate Law
Chapter 10 Laws Affecting Business
Chapter 11 Family Law
Chapter 12 Criminal Law
Chapter 13 Criminal Procedure
Chapter 14 Ethical Dilemmas Facing Attorneys

Appendix A The Constitution of the United States

Appendix B NetNotes

Glossary
Table of Cases
Index
Contents
List of Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgments

PART 1 The American Legal System

Chapter 1 Introduction to the Study of Law
Chapter Objectives
Introduction
Case 1: The Distressed Grandfather
Case 2: The Harassed Student
A. Why Study Law?
B. Legal Analysis
1. Identifying the Relevant Facts
2. Reading and Understanding the Appropriate
Legal Rules
a. Understanding Enacted Law:
Constitutions, Statutes, and Regulations
b. Understanding Court Opinions
(1) How to read a court opinion
(2) Sample case: Dillon v. Legg
(3) Briefing court opinions
(a) Reasons for briefing cases
(b) Format of a case brief
(4) Sample brief for Dillon v. Legg
3. Applying the Legal Rules to the Facts
Discussion Questions 1-2
Chapter Summary
Critical Thinking Exercises
 Web Exercises
Review Questions
Chapter 2 Functions and Sources of Law
Chapter Objectives
Introduction
Case 3: The Pregnant Waitress
A. Functions and Theories of Law
1. Definition of Law
2. Functions of Law
3. Theories of Jurisprudence
Discussion Questions 1-6
B. Sources of Law
1. Constitutional Law
a. Organization of Government
b. Protection of Individual Rights
c. Power of Judicial Review
Discussion Question 7
d. State Constitutions
York v. Wahkiaakum School District No. 200
Case Discussion Questions
2. Statutory Law
3. Administrative Law
Bob Jones University v. United States
Case Discussion Questions
4. Judicial Interpretation and the Common Law
Discussion Question 8
5. The Hierarchy of Laws
Chapter Summary
Critical Thinking Exercises
Web Exercises
Review Questions
Chapter 3 Classification of the Law
Chapter Objectives
Introduction
Case 4: The Boston Marathon Bombings
A. Federal versus State Law
1. Federal Law
Gonzales v. Raich
Case Discussion Questions
2. State Law
3. Preemption
Arizona v. United States
Case Discussion Questions
4. Summary
Discussion Questions 1-5
B. Criminal versus Civil Law
1. A Comparison of Criminal and Civil Law
a. Type of Harm
b. Names of the Parties and the ''Prosecutor''
of the Claim
c. Standard of Proof
Discussion Question 6
In re D.T.
Case Discussion Questions
d. Judgment
e. Sanctions/Remedies
f. Sources of Law
g. Summary
2. Criminal Law
a. Types of Crimes
b. Establishing a Prima Facie Case
c. Defenses
3. Civil Law
 a. Establishing a Prima Facie Case
b. Defenses
c. Damages
d. Areas of Civil Law
(1) Contracts
(2) Property
(3) Torts
Case 5: Mr. Whipple
Discussion Question 7
C. Substantive versus Procedural Law
Chapter Summary
Critical Thinking Exercises
Web Exercises
Review Questions
Chapter 4 The Court System and the Role of Judges
Chapter Objectives
Introduction
Case 6: Alibi to a Murder
A. Trial versus Appellate Courts
1. Trial Courts
2. Appellate Courts
a. Questions of Fact and Questions of Law
b. Reversible Errors
c. The Structure of Appellate Decisions
3. Summary
Discussion Questions 1-2
B. Federal and State Court Systems
1. The Federal System
a. U.S. District Courts
b. U.S. Courts of Appeals (Circuit Courts)
c. U.S. Supreme Court
 Discussion Question 3
d. Other Federal Courts
2. State Court Systems
Discussion Questions 4-5
3. Choice of State or Federal Court
Ceglia v. Zuckerberg
Case Discussion Questions
Discussion Question 6
C. The Role of Judges in Interpreting and Applying
the Law
1. Doctrine of Stare Decisis
2. Legislative Dominance
3. Approaches to Statutory and
Constitutional Interpretation
4. Politics and Judicial Decision Making
Discussion Question 7
Chapter Summary
Critical Thinking Exercises
Web Exercises
Review Questions
Chapter 5 Civil Litigation and Its Alternatives
Chapter Objectives
Introduction
Case 1: The Distressed Grandfather
Case 3: The Pregnant Waitress
A. Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)
1. Arbitration
2. Mediation
3. Summary Jury Trials
4. Evaluation of ADR Techniques
Discussion Questions 1-3
B. Litigation
 1. The Pretrial Stage
a. Preliminary Matters
(1) Legal grounds for the suit
Discussion Question 4
(2) Parties to the suit
(a) Standing
Finstuen v. Crutcher
Case Discussion Questions
(b) Legal competence
(c) Class action lawsuits
Discussion Questions 5-6
(d) Selecting the appropriate
defendants
(3) Selection of the court
(a) Subject matter jurisdiction
(b) Personal jurisdiction
Dailey v. Popma
Case Discussion Questions
(4) Statutes of limitations
(5) Exhaustion of administrative
remedies
b. Pleadings
(1) The complaint
(2) The summons
(3) The answer
c. Pretrial Motions to End Part or All of the
Litigation
(1) Rule 12 motions to dismiss
(2) Rule 56 motions for summary
judgment
(3) Appealing a summary judgment or
motion to dismiss
 d. Discovery
(1) Interrogatories
(2) Depositions
(3) Requests for admissions
(4) Requests for documents and physical
examinations
(5) Electronic discovery
(6) Enforcing discovery rights
Discussion Questions 7-9
e. Settlement or Pretrial Conference
2. The Trial
a. The Right to a Jury Trial
b. Jury Selection
Discussion Questions 10-11
c. Opening Statements
d. Presentation of Evidence
Discussion Questions 12-13
e. Closing Arguments
f. Jury Instructions
g. Jury Deliberations, Verdict, and Judgment
h. Post-Trial Motions
3. The Appeal
a. The Timing and Filing of the Appeal
b. The Scope of the Review
c. Oral Arguments
d. The Decision and Its Publication
e. Further Appeals
Chapter Summary
Critical Thinking Exercises
Web Exercises
Review Questions
PART 2 Substantive Law and Ethical Issues
Chapter 6 Constitutional Law: Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
Chapter Objectives
Introduction
Case 7: The Constitutionally Challenged School
District
A. The Recognition of Individual Rights
Discussion Question 1
B. Freedom of Expression
1. Use of Balancing Tests
Snyder v. Phelps
Case Discussion Questions
Discussion Question 2
2. Types of Expression
a. Pure Speech and Symbolic Speech
Texas v. Johnson
Case Discussion Questions
b. Campaign Activities and Political
Contributions
Discussion Question 3
c. Commercial speech
d. Speech Not Protected By the First
Amendment
(1) Pornography, obscenity, and indecent
speech
(2) Fighting words, threats, and hate
speech
Discussion Questions 4-7
3. Time and Place Restrictions
4. Content Neutrality
5. The Chilling Effect of Overbreadth and
Vagueness
C. Freedom of Religion and the Establishment
Clause
Discussion Question 8
1. The Free Exercise Clause
Wisconsin v. Yoder
Case Discussion Questions
Discussion Questions 9-10
2. The Establishment Clause
Van Orden v. Perry
Case Discussion Questions
3. Overlap and Potential Conflict between the
Religion Clauses
D. Due Process
1. Procedural Due Process
2. Substantive Due Process
E. Equal Protection
1. Standards/Test Applied
a. Standard Scrutiny (or the Rational Basis
Test)
b. Strict Scrutiny (or the Compelling
Interest Test)
c. Intermediate (or Heightened Scrutiny)
Standard
2. Choosing the Proper Standard
San Antonio Independent School Dist. v.
Rodriguez
Case Discussion Questions
3. Types of Discrimination
a. Race Discrimination
b. Sex Discrimination
United States v. Virginia
Case Discussion Questions
 c. Sexual Orientation Discrimination
Discussion Question 11
d. Age Discrimination
e. Economic Discrimination
Chapter Summary
Critical Thinking Exercises
Web Exercises
Review Questions
Chapter 7 Torts
Chapter Objectives
Introduction
Case 8: The Mishit Softball Game
A. Intentional Torts
Case 9: The Abused Spouse
1. Harm to a Person's Body, Reputation, or
Emotional Well-Being
a. Assault and Battery
(1) The elements of assault and battery
Knight v. Jewett
Case Discussion Questions
(2) The defenses to assault and battery
Katko v. Briney
Case Discussion Questions
b. False Imprisonment
(1) The elements of false imprisonment
(2) Defenses to false imprisonment
Discussion Question 1
c. Defamation
(1) The elements of defamation
(2) Constitutional issues in defamation:
The special case of public officials
and public figures
 (3) Defenses to defamation
Discussion Questions 2-3
d. Invasion of Privacy
e. Intentional Infliction of Emotional
Distress
Cabaness v. Thomas
Case Discussion Questions
Discussion Questions 4-6
2. Harm to a Person's Property
a. Trespass to Land
b. Trespass to Personal Property and
Conversion
c. Defenses to Torts against Property
3. Other Intentional Torts
B. Negligence
1. The Elements of Negligence
Ewans v. Wells Fargo Bank
Case Discussion Questions
a. Duty
Discussion Question 7
Woods v. Lancet
Case Discussion Questions
b. Breach
Discussion Questions 8-9
Sauer v. Hebrew Institute of Long Island, Inc.
Case Discussion Questions
c. Cause
(1) Palsgraf v. Long Island Railroad
Company
Palsgraf v. Long Island Railroad Company
Case Discussion Questions
(2) Intervening cause
 Anglin v. State Department of Transportation
Case Discussion Questions
(3) Duty of care to third parties
d. Harm
Discussion Question 10
2. Defenses to Negligence
a. Contributory Negligence
b. Comparative Negligence
c. Assumption of the Risk
d. Immunities
Irwin v. Town of Ware
Case Discussion Questions
3. Reckless Behavior
Knight v. Jewett
Case Discussion Questions
C. Strict Liability
1. Ultrahazardous Activities
2. Products Liability
Patch v. Hillerich & Bradsby Co.
Case Discussion Questions
Doe v. Miles Lab. Inc.
Case Discussion Questions
3. Defenses to Strict Liability Torts
D. New Torts
1. Wrongful Life or Wrongful Birth
2. Battered Spouse Syndrome
3. Drug Dealer Liability Act
Discussion Questions 11-13
E. Remedies
Aleo v. SLB Toys USA, Inc.
Case Discussion Questions
 Estate of McCall v. United States
Case Discussion Questions
Discussion Questions 14-15
Chapter Summary
Critical Thinking Exercises
Web Exercises
Review Questions
Chapter 8 Contract Law
Chapter Objectives
Introduction
Case 10: Who Owns the Watch?
A. The Uniform Commercial Code (UCC)
B. Types of Contracts
Discussion Question 1
C. The Elements of a Binding Contract
1. Offer and Acceptance
a. Offer
(1) Statements of intent and preliminary
negotiations
(2) Terms definite
Lefkowitz v. Great Minneapolis Surplus Store,
Inc.
Case Discussion Questions
(3) Termination of an offer
b. Acceptance
Ehlen v. Melvin
Case Discussion Questions
c. Quasi-Contract
Ameripro Search, Inc. v. Fleming Steel Co.
Case Discussion Questions
Discussion Question 2
2. Consideration
 a. Detriment to Promisee or Benefit to
Promisor
Hamer v. Sidway
Case Discussion Questions
b. Problems with Consideration
c. Promissory Estoppel
D. Contract Interpretation
E. Defenses to a Valid Contract
1. Lack of Contractual Capacity
a. Minors
Quality Motors, Inc. v. Hays
Case Discussion Questions
b. Intoxication
Lucy v. Zehmer
Case Discussion Questions
c. Mental Incompetence
2. Illegal Contracts and Those That Violate
Public Policy
3. Lack of Genuineness of Assent
a. Fraud
Vokes v. Arthur Murray, Inc.
Case Discussion Questions
b. Mistake
c. Undue Influence
d. Duress
4. Breach of Warranty
Discussion Question 3
Webster v. Blue Ship Tea Room, Inc.
Case Discussion Questions
5. Lack of Proper Format—Writing
F. Termination of Contractual Duties
 1. By Performance
Jacob & Youngs, Inc. v. Kent
Case Discussion Questions
2. By Agreement
3. When Performance Is Impossible
4. Due to Commercial Impracticability
G. Third-Party Rights
1. Assignment
2. Delegation
3. Third-Party Beneficiaries
a. Intended Beneficiaries
b. Incidental Beneficiaries
H. Damages
Sargon Enterprises, Inc. v. Univ. Of Southern
California
Case Discussion Questions
Chapter Summary
Critical Thinking Exercises
Web Exercises
Review Questions
Chapter 9 Property and Estate Law
Chapter Objectives
Introduction
Case 11: Bill and Maria
A. Real Property
1. Rental of Real Property
a. Criteria for Renters
b. The Lease
c. Security Deposits
d. Living Conditions in Rental Units
e. Eviction
2. Buying and Selling Real Estate
Another Random Scribd Document
with Unrelated Content
disengaging a sensation of comfort which compensates the original
loss. Since they weep together, they hold to one another and the
group is not weakened, in spite of the blow which has fallen upon it.
Of course they have only sad emotions in common, but
communicating in sorrow is still communicating, and every
communion of mind, in whatever form it may be made, raises the
social vitality. The exceptional violence
 402 Elementary Forms of Religious Life of the
manifestations by which the common pain is necessarily and
obligatorily expressed even testifies to the fact that at this moment,
the society is more alive and active than ever. In fact, whenever the
social sentiment is painfully wounded, it reacts with greater force
than ordinarily : one never holds so closely to his family as when it
has just suffered. This surplus energy effaces the more completely
the effects of the interruption which was felt at first, and thus
dissipates the feeling of coldness which death always brings with it.
The group feels its strength gradually returning to it ; it begins to
hope and to live again. Presently one stops mourning, and he does
so owing to the mourning itself. But as the idea formed of the soul
reflects the moral state of the society, this idea should change as
this state changes. When one is in the period of dejection and
agony, he represents the soul with the traits of an evil being, whose
sole occupation is to persecute men. But when he feels himself
confident and secure once more, he must admit that it has retaken
its former nature and its former sentiments of tenderness and
solidarity. Thus we explain the very different ways in which it is
conceived at different moments of its existence.^ Not only do the
rites of mourning determine certain of the secondary characteristics
attributed to the soul, but perhaps they are not foreign to the idea
that it survives the body. If he is to understand the practices to
which he submits on the death of a parent, a man is obliged to
believe that these are not ajx indifferent matter for the deceased.
The shedding of blood which is practised so freely during mourning
is a veritable sacrifice offered to the dead man.^ So something of
the dead man must survive, and as this is not the body, which is
manifestly immobile and decomposed, it can only be the soul. Of
course it is impossible to say with any exactness what part these
considerations have had in the origin of the idea of immortality. But
it is probable that here the influence of the cult is the same as it is
elsewhere. Rites are more easily explicable when one imagines that
they are addressed to personal beings ; ^ It may be asked why
repeated ceremonies are necessary to produce the relief which
follows upon mourning. The funeral ceremonies are frequently very
long ; they include many operations which take place at intervals
during many months. Thus they prolong and support the moral
disturbance brought about by the death (cf. Hertz, La Representation
collective de la mort, in Année Social., _X, pp. 48 ff.). In a general
way, a death marks a grave change of condition which has extended
and enduring effects upon the group. It takes a long time to
neutralize these effects. * In a case reported by Grey from the
observations of Bussel, the rite has all the aspects of a sacrifice : the
blood is sprinkled over the body itself (Grey, II. P- 33")- I" other
cases, there is something like an offering of the beard : men in
mourning cut off a part of their beards, which they throw on to the
corpse {ibid., P- 335) 
 Piacular Rites 403 so men have been induced to extend the
influence of the mythical personalities in the religious life. In order to
account for mourning, they have prolonged the existence of the soul
beyond the tomb. This is one more example of the way in which
rites react upon beliefs. Ill But death is not the only event which may
disturb a community. Men have many other occasions for being sorry
and lamenting, so we might foresee that even the Australians would
know and practise other piacular rites besides mourning. However, it
is a remarkable fact that only a small number of examples are to be
found in the accounts of the observers. One rite of this sort greatly
resembles those which have just been studied. It will be
remembered that among the Arunta, each local group attributes
exceptionally important virtues to its collection of churinga : this is
this collective palladium, upon whose fate the fate of the community
itself is believed to depend. So when enemies or white men succeed
in stealing one of these religious treasures, this loss is considered a
public calamity. This misfortune is the occasion of a rite having all
the characteristics of mourning : men smear their bodies with white
pipe-clay and remain in camp, weeping and lamenting, during a
period of two weeks. ^ This is a new proof that mourning is
determined, not by the way in which the soul of the dead is
conceived, but by impersonal causes, by the moral state of the
group. In fact, we have here a rite which, in its structure, is
indistinguishable from the real mourning, but which is, nevertheless,
independent of every notion of spirits or evil-working demons. 2
Another circumstance which gives occasion for ceremonies of the
same nature is the distress in which the society finds itself after an
insufficient harvest. " The natives who live in the vicinity of Lake
Eyre," says Eylmann, " also seek to prevent an insufficiency of food
by means of secret ceremonies. But many of the ritual practices
observed in this region are to be distinguished from those which
have been mentioned already : it is not by symbolic dances, by
imitative movements nor dazzling decorations that they try to act
upon the religious powers or the forces of nature, but by means of
the suffering which individuals inflict upon themselves. In the
northern territories, * Nat. Tr., pp. 135-136. * Of course each
churinga is believed to be connected with an ancestor. But it is not
to appease the spirits of the ancestors that they mourn for the lost
churinga. We have shown elsewhere (p. 123) that the idea of the
ancestor only entered into the conception of the churinga
secondarily and late.
 404 Elementary Forms of Religious Life it is by means of
tortures, such as prolonged fasts, vigils, dances persisted up to the
exhaustion of the dancers, and physical pains of every sort, that
they attempt to appease the powers which are ill-disposed towards
men." ^ The torments to which the natives submit themselves for
this purpose sometimes leave them in such a state of exhaustion
that they are unable to follow the hunt for some days to come.^
These practices are employed especially for fighting against drought.
This is because a scarcity of water results in a general want. To
remedy this evil, they have recourse to violent methods. One which
is frequently used is the extraction of a tooth. Among the Kaitish, for
example, they pull out an incisor from one man, and hang it on a
tree.^ Among the Dieri, the idea of rain is closely associated with
that of bloody incisions made in the skin of the chest and arms.'*
Among this same people, whenever the drought is very great, the
great council assembles and summons the whole tribe. It is really a
tribal event. Women are sent in every direction to notify men to
assemble at a given place and time. After they have assembled, they
groan and cry in a piercing voice about the miserable state of the
land, and they beg the Mura-mura (the mythical ancestors) to give
them the power of making an abundant rain fall.^ In the cases,
which, by the way, are very rare, when there has been an excessive
rainfall, an analogous ceremony takes place to stop it. Old men then
enter into a veritable frenzy,^ while the cries uttered by the crowd
are really painful to hear.' Spencer and Gillen describe, under the
name of Intichiuma, a ceremony which may well have the same
object and the same origin as the preceding ones : a physical torture
is applied to make an animal species multiply. Among the Urabunna,
there is one clan whose totem is a variety of snake called
wadnu7igadni. This is how the chief of the clan proceeds, to make
sure that these snakes may never be lacking. After having been
decorated, he kneels down on the ground, holding his arms straight
out. An assistant pinches the skin of his right arm between his
fingers, and the olïlciant forces a pointed bone five inches long
through the fold thus formed. This self-mutilation is believed to
produce the desired result.^ An analogous rite is used among the
Dieri to make the wild-hens lay : the operators pierce their
scrotums.^ * op. cit., p. 207 ; cf. p. 116. * Eylmann, p. 208. ^ Ibid.,
p. 211. « Howitt, The Dieri, in J.A.I. , XX {1891), p. 93. ^ Howitt,
Nat. Tr., p. 394. * Howitt, ibid., p. 396. ' Communication of Gason in
J.A.I. . XXIV (1895), p. 175. » Nor. Tr., p. 286. » Gason. The Dieri
Tribe, in Curr, II. p. 68.
 Piacîilar Rites 405 In certain of the Lake Eyre tribes, men
pierce their ears to make yams reproduce.* But these partial or total
famines are not the only plagues which may fall upon a tribe. Other
events happen more or less periodically which menace, or seem to
menace, the existence of the group. This is the case, for example,
with the southern lights. The Kurnai believe that this is a fire lighted
in the heavens by the great god Mungan-ngaua ; therefore,
whenever they see it, the}'' are afraid that it may spread to the
earth and devour them, so a great effervescence results in the
camp. They shake a withered hand, to which the Kurnai attribute
various virtues, and utter such cries as " Send it away ; do not let us
be burned." At the same time, the old men order an exchange of
wives, which always indicates a great excitement. ^ The same
sexual licence is mentioned among the Wiimbaio whenever a plague
appears imminent, and especially in times of an epidemic.^ Under
the influence of these ideas, mutilations and the shedding of blood
are sometimes considered an efficient means of curing maladies. If
an accident happens to a child among the Dieri, his relations beat
themselves on the head with clubs or boomerangs until the blood
flows down over their faces. They believe that by this process, they
relieve the child of the suffering.^ Elsewhere, they imagine that they
can obtain the same end by means of a supplementary totemic
ceremony.^ We may connect with these the example already given
of a ceremony celebrated specially to efface the effects of a ritual
fault. ^ Of course there are neither wounds nor blows nor physical
suffering of any sort in these two latter cases, yet the rite does not
differ in nature from the others : the end sought is always the
turning aside of an evil or the expiation of a fault by means of an
extraordinary ritual prestation. Outside of mourning, such are the
only cases of piacular rites which we have succeeded in finding in
Australia. To be sure, it is probable that some have escaped us,
while we may presume equally well that others have remained
unperceived by the observers. But if those discovered up to the
present are few in number, it is probably because they do not hold a
* Gason, The Dieri Tribe: Eylmann, p. 208. * Howitt, Nat. Tr., pp.
277 and 430. * Ibid., p. 195. * Gason, The Dieri Tribe, in Curr, II, p.
6g. The same process is used to expiate a ridiculous act. Whenever
anybody, by his awkwardness or otherwise, has caused the laughter
of others, he asks one of them to beat him on the head until blood
flows. Then things are all right again, and the one who was laughed
at joins in the general gaiety (ibid., p. 70). " Eylmann, pp. 212 and
447. • See above, p. 385.
 4o6 Elementary Forms of Religious Life large place in the
cult. We see how far primitive religions are from being the daughters
of agony and fear from the fact that the rites translating these
painful emotions are relatively rare. Of course this is because the
Australian, while leading a miserable existence as compared with
other more civilized peoples, demands so little of life that he is easily
contented. All that he asks is that nature follow its normal course,
that the seasons succeed one another regularly, that the rain fall, at
the ordinary time, in abundance and without excess. Now great
disturbances in the cosmic order are always exceptional ; thus it is
noticeable that the majority of the regular piacular rites, examples of
which we have given above, have been observed in the tribes of the
centre, where droughts are frequent and constitute veritable
disasters. It is still surprising, it is true, that piacular rites specially
destined to expiate sins, seem to be completely lacking. However,
the Australian, like every other man, must commit ritual faults, which
he has an interest in redeeming ; so we may ask if the silence of the
texts on this point may not be due to insufficient observation. But
howsoever few the facts which we have been able to gather may be,
they are, nevertheless, instructive. When we study piacular rites in
the more advanced religions, where the religious forces are
individualized, they appear to be closely bound up with
anthropomorphic conceptions. When the believer imposes privations
upon himself and submits himself to austerities, it is in order to
disarm the malevolence attributed by him to certain of the sacred
beings upon whom he thinks that he is dependent. To appease their
hatred or anger, he complies with their exigencies ; he beats himself
in order that he may not be beaten by them. So it seems as though
these practices could not arise until after gods and spirits were
conceived as moral persons, capable of passions analogous to those
of men. For this reason, Robertson Smith thought it possible to
assign a relatively late date to expiatory sacrifices, just as to
sacrificial oblations. According to him, the shedding of blood which
characterizes these rites was at first a simple process of communion
: men poured forth their blood upon the altar in order to strengthen
the bonds uniting them to their god. The rite acquired a piacular and
penal character only when its original significance was forgotten and
when the new idea which was formed of sacred beings allowed men
to attribute another function to it.^ But as piacular rites are met
with even in the Australian societies, it is impossible to assign them
so late an origin. * The Religion of the Semites, lect. XI.
 Piacular Rites 407 Moreover, all that we have observed,
with one single exception,^ are independent of all anthropomorphic
conceptions : there is no question of either spirits or gods.
Abstinences and effusions of blood stop famines and cure sicknesses
directly and by themselves. No spiritual being introduces his action
between the rite and the effect it is believed to produce. So mythical
personalities intervened only at a late date. After the mechanism of
the ritual had once been established, they served to make it more
easily representable in the mind, but they are not conditions of its
existence. It is for other reasons that it was founded ; it is to
another cause that it owes its efficacy. It acts through the collective
forces which it puts into play. Does a misfortune which menaces the
group appear imminent ? Then the group unites, as in the case of
mourning, and it is naturally an impression of uneasiness and
perplexity which dominates the assembled body. Now, as always, the
pooling of these sentiments results in intensifying them. By affirming
themselves, they exalt and impassion themselves and attain a
degree of violence which is translated by the corresponding violence
of the gestures which express them. Just as at the death of a
relative, they utter terrible cries, fly into a passion and feel that they
must tear and destroy ; it is to satisfy this need that they beat
themselves, wound themselves, and make their blood flow. When
emotions have this vivacity, they may well be painful, but they are
not depressing ; on the contrary, they denote a state of
effervescence which implies a mobilization of all our active forces,
and even a supply of external energies. It matters little that this
exaltation was provoked by a sad event, for it is real,
notwithstanding, and does not differ specifically from what is
observed in the happy feasts. Sometimes it is even made manifest
by movements of the same nature : there is the same frenzy which
seizes the worshippers and the same tendency towards sexual
debauches, a sure sign of great nervous overexcitement. Robertson
Smith had already noticed this curious influence of sad rites in the
Semitic cults : "in evil times," he says, " when men's thoughts were
habitually sombre, they betook themselves to the physical
excitement of religion as men now take refuge in wine. . . . And so
in general when an act of Semitic worship began with sorrow and
lamentation — as in the mourning for Adonis, or the great atoning
ceremonies which became common in later times — a swift revulsion
of feeling followed, and the gloomy part of the service was presently
* This is the case in which the Dieri, according to Jason, invoke the
jNIuraraura of water during a drought.
 4o8 Elementary Forms of Religious Life succeeded by a
burst of hilarious revelry." ^ In a word, even when religious
ceremonies have a disquieting or saddening event as their point of
departure, they retain their stimulating power over the affective
state of the group and individuals. By the mere fact that they are
collective, they raise the vital tone. When one feels life within him —
whether it be in the form of painful irritation or happy enthusiasm —
he does not believe in death ; so he becomes reassured and takes
courage again, and subjectively, everything goes on as if the rite had
really driven off the danger which was dreaded. This is how curing
or preventive virtues come to be attributed to the movements which
one makes, to the cries uttered, to the blood shed and to the
wounds inflicted upon one's self or others ; and as these different
tortures necessarily make one suffer, suffering by itself is finally
regarded as a means of conjuring evil or curing sickness.* Later,
when the majority of the religious forces had taken the form of
moral personalities, the efficacy of these practices was explained by
imagining that their object was to appease an evil-working or
irritated god. But these conceptions only reflect the rite and the
sentiments it arouses ; they are an interpretation of it, not its
determining cause. A negligence of the ritual acts in the same way.
It, too, is a menace for the group ; it touches it in its moral existence
for it touches it in its beliefs. But if the anger which it causes is
affirmed ostensibly and energetically, it compensates the evil which
it has caused. For if it is acutely felt by all, it is because the
infraction committed is an exception and the common faith remains
entire. So the moral unity of the group is not endangered. Now the
penalty inflicted as an expiation is only a manifestation of the public
anger, the material proof of its unanimity. So it really does have the
healing effect attributed to it. At bottom, the sentiment which is at
the root of the real expiatory rites does not differ in nature from that
which we have foimd at the basis of the other piacular rites : it is a
sort of irritated sorrow which tends to manifest itself by acts of
destruction. Sometimes it is assuaged to the detriment of him who
feels it ; sometimes it is at the expense of some foreign third party.
But in either case, the psychic mechanism is essentially the same.^
^ op. cit., p. 262. ' It is also possible that the belief in the morally
tempering virtues of suffering (see above, p. 312) has added
something here. Since sorrow sanctifies and raises the religious level
of the worshipper, it may also raise him up again when he falls lower
than usual. * Cf. what we have said of expiation in our Division du
travail social', pp. 64 ff.
 Piacular Rites 409 IV One of the greatest services which
Robertson Smith has rendered to the science of rehgions is to have
pointed out the ambiguity of the notion of sacredness, J Rehgious
forces are of two sorts. Some are beneficent, guardians of the
physical and moral order, dispensers of life and health and all the
qualities which men esteem : this is the case with the totemic
principle, spread out in the whole species, the mythical ancestor, the
animal-protector, the civilizing heroes and the tutelar gods of every
kind and degree. It matters little whether they are conceived as
distinct personalities or as diffused energies ; under either form they
fulfil the same function and affect the minds of the believers in the
same way : the respect which they inspire is mixed with love and
gratitude. The things and the persons which are normally connected
with them participate in the same sentiments and the same
character : these are holy things and persons. Such are the spots
consecrated to the cult, the objects which serve in the regular rites,
the priests, the ascetics, etc. — On the other hand, there are evil
and impure powers, productive of disorders, causes of death and
sickness, instigators of sacrilege. The only sentiments which men
have for them are a fear into which horror generally enters. Such are
the forces upon which and by which the sorcerer acts, those which
arise from corpses or the menstrual blood, those freed by every
profanation of sacred things, etc. The spirits of the dead and malign
genii of every sort are their personified forms. Between these two
categories of forces and beings, the contrast is as complete as
possible and even goes into the most radical antagonism. The good
and salutary powers repel to a distance these others which deny and
contradict them. Therefore the former are forbidden to the latter :
any contact between them is considered the worst of profanations.
This is the typical form of those interdicts between sacred things of
different species, the existence of which we have already pointed
out.^ Women during menstruation, and especially at its beginning,
are impure ; so at this moment they are rigorously sequestered ;
men may have no relations with them.^ Bull-roarers and churinga
never come near a dead man.^ A sacrilegious * See above, p. 301.
* Spencer and Gillen, Nat. Tr., p. 460 ; Nor. Tr., p. 601 ; Roth, Norlh
Queensland Ethnography, Bulletin No. 5, p. 24. It is useless to
multiply references for so well-known a fact. ' However, Spencer and
Gillen cite one case where churinga are placed on the head of the
dead man [Nat. Tr., p. 156). But they admit that the fact is unique
and abnormal {ibid., p. 157), widle Strehlow energetically denies it
(II, p. 79).
 410 Elementary Forms of Religious Life person is excluded
from the society of the faithful ; access to the cult is forbidden him.
Thus the whole religious life gravitates about two contrary poles
between which there is the same opposition as between the pure
and the impure, the saint and the sacrilegious, the divine and the
diabolic. r' But while these two aspects of the religious life oppose
one another, there is a close kinship between them. In the first
place, both have the same relation towards profane beings : these
must abstain from all contact with impure things just as from the
most holy things. The former are no less forbidden than the latter :
they are withdrawn from circulation alike. This shows that they too
are sacred. Of course the sentiments inspired by the two are not
identical : respect is one thing, disgust and horror another. Yet, if the
gestures are to be the same in both cases, the sentiments expressed
must not differ in nature. And, in fact, there is a horror in religious
respect, especially when it is very intense, while the fear inspired by
malign powers is generally not without a certain reverential
character. The shades by which these two attitudes are differentiated
are even so slight sometimes that it is not always easy to say which
^state of mind the believers actually happen to be in. Among certain
Semitic peoples, pork was forbidden, but it was not always known
exactly whether this was because it was a pure or an impm-e thing
^ and the same may be said of a very large number of alimentary
interdictions. But there is more to be said ; it very frequently
happens that an impure thing or an evil power becomes a holy thing
or a guardian power, without changing its nature, through a simple
modification of external circumstances. We have seen how the soul
of a dead man, which is a dreaded principle at first, is transformed
into a protecting genius as soon as the mourning is finished.
Likewise, the corpse, which begins by inspiring terror and aversion,
is later regarded as a venerated relic : funeral anthropophagy, which
is frequently practised in the Australian societies, is a proof of this
transformation. ^ The totemic animal is the pre-eminently sacred
being ; but for him who eats its flesh unduly, it is a cause of death.
In a general way, the sacrilegious person is merely a profane one
who has been infected with a benevolent religious force. This
changes its nature in changing its habitat ; it defiles rather than
sanctifies.^ The * Smith, Rel. of Semites, p. 153 ; cf. p. 446, the
additional note, Holiness, Vncleanness and Taboo. * Howitt, Nat. Tr.,
pp. 448-450 ; Brough Smyth, I, pp. 118, 120; Davrson, p. 67 ; Ejrre,
II, p. 251 ; Roth, North Queensland Ethn., Bull. Mo. 9, in Rec. of the
Austral. Museum, VI, No. 5, p. 367. * See above, p. 320.
 Piacular Rites 4^ blood issuing from the genital organs of a
woman, though it is evidently as impure as that of menstruation, is
frequently used as a remedy against sickness. ^ The victim
immolated in expiatory sacrifices is charged with impurities, for they
have concentrated upon it the sins which were to be expiated. Yet,
after it has been slaughtered, its flesh and blood are employed for
the most pious uses.^ On the contrary, though the communion is
generally a religious operation whose normal function is to
consecrate, it sometimes produces the effects of a sacrilege. In
certain cases, the persons who have communicated are forced to
flee from one another as from men infected with a plague. One
would say that they have become a source of dangerous
contamination for one another : the sacred bond which unites them
also separates them. Examples of this sort of communion are
numerous in Austraha. One of the most typical has been observed
among the Narrinyeri and the neighbouring tribes. When an infant
arrives in the world, its parents carefully preserve its umbilical cord,
which is believed to conceal a part of its soul. Two persons who
exchange the cords thus preserved communicate together by the
very act of this exchange, for it is as though they exchanged their
souls. But, at the same time, they are forbidden to touch or speak to
or even to see one another. It is just as though they were each an
object of horror for the other. ^ — . So the pure and the impure are
not two separate classes, but I two varieties of the same class,
which includes all sacred things. There are two sorts of sacredness,
the propitious and the unpropitious, and not only is there no break
of continuity between these two opposed forms, but also one object
may pass from the one to the other without changing its nature. The
pure is made out of the impure, and reciprocally.^ It is in the
possibility of these transmutations that the ambiguity of the sacred
consists; | But even if Robertson Smith did have an active sentiment
of this ambiguity, he never gave it an express explanation. He
confined himself to remarking that, as all religious forces are
indistinctly intense and contagious, it is wise not to approach them
except with respectful precautions, no matter what direction their
action may be exercised in. It seemed to him that he could thus
account for the air of kinship which they all present, in * Nojr. Tr., p.
599 ; Nat. Tr., p. 464. * Among the Hebrews, for example, they
sprinkled the altar with the blood o£ the expiatory victim (Lev. iv, 5
fi.) ; they burned the flesh and used products of this combustion to
make water of purification (Numb. xix). * Taplin, The Narrinyeri, pp.
32-34. When two persons who have thus exchanged their umbilical
cords belong to difïerent tribes, they are used as inter-tribal
messengers. In this case, the exchange of cords took place shortly
after birth, through the intermediary of their respective parents.
 412 Elementary Forms of Religious Life spite of the
contrasts which oppose them otherwise. But the question was only
put off ; it still remains to be shown how it comes that the powers of
evil have the same intensity and contagiousness as the others. In
other words, how does it happen that they, too, are of a religious
nature ? Also, the energy and force of expansion which they have in
common do not enable us to understand how, in spite of the conflict
which divides them, they may be transformed into one another or
substituted for each other in their respective functions, and how the
pure may contaminate while the impure sometimes serves to
sanctify.^ The explanation of piacular rites which we have proposed
enables us to reply to this double question, p We have seen, in fact,
that the evil powers are the product of these rites and symbolize
them. When a society is going through circumstances which sadden,
perplex or irritate it, it exercises a pressure over its members, to
make them bear witness, by significant acts, to their sorrow,
perplexity or anger. It imposes upon them the duty of weeping,
groaning or inflicting wounds upon themselves or others, for these
collective manifestations, and the moral communion which they
show and strengthen, restore to the group the energy which
circumstances threaten to take away from it, and thus they enable it
to become settled. This is the experience which men interpret when
they imagine that outside them there are evil beings whose hostility,
whether constitutional or temporary, can be appeased only by
human suffering. These beings are nothing other than collective
states objectified ; they are society itself seen under one of its
aspects. But we also knew that the benevolent powers are
constituted in the same way ; they, too, result from the collective life
and express it ; they, too, represent the society, but seen from a
very different attitude, to wit, at the moment when it confidently
aftirms itself and ardently presses on towards the realization of the
ends which it pursues. Since ^ It is true that Smith did not admit the
reality of these substitutions and transformations. According to him,
if the expiatory victim served to purify, it was because it had nothing
impure in itself. At first, it was a holy thing ; it was destined to re-
establish, by means of a communion, the bonds of kinship uniting
the worshipper to his god, when a ritual fault had strained or broken
them. An exceptionally holy animal was chosen for this operation in
order that the communion might be as efficacious as possible, and
efface the effects of the fault as completely as possible. It was only
when they no longer understood the meaning of the rite that the
sacrosanct animal was considered impure {op. cit., pp. 347 ff.). But it
is inadmissible that beliefs and practices as universal as these, which
we find at the foundation of the expiatory sacrilicc, should be the
product of a mere error of interpretation. In fact, we cannot doubt
that the expiatory victim was charged with the impurity of the sin.
We have shown, moreover, that these transformations of the pure
into the impure, or the contrary, arc to be found io the most inferior
societies which we know.
 Piacular Rites 413 these two sorts of forces have a common
origin, it is not at all surprising that, though facing in opposite
directions, they should have the same nature, that they are equally
intense and contagious and consequently forbidden and sacred. -J
From this we are able to understand how they change into one
another. Since they reflect the abjective state in which the group
happens to be, it is enough that this state change for their character
to change. After the mourning is over, the domestic group is re-
calmed by the mourning itself ; it regains confidence ; the painful
pressure which they felt exercised over them is relieved ; they feel
more at their ease. So it seems to them as though the spirit of the
deceased had laid aside its hostile sentiments and become a
benevolent protector. The other transmutations, examples of which
we have cited, are to be explained in the same way. As we have
already shown, the sanctity of a thing is due to the collective
sentiment of which it is the object. If, in violation of the interdicts
which isolate it, it comes in contact with a profane person, then this
same sentiment will spread contagiously to this latter and imprint a
special character upon him. But in spreading, it comes into a very
different state from the one it was in at first. Offended and irritated
by the profanation implied in this abusive and unnatural extension, it
becomes aggressive and inclined to destructive violences : it tends
to avenge itself for the offence suffered. Therefore the infected
subject seems to be filled with a mighty and harmful force which
menaces all that approaches him ; it is as though he were marked
with a stain or blemish. Yet the cause of this blemish is the same
psychic state which, in other circumstances, consecrates and
sanctifies. But if the anger thus aroused is satisfied by an expiatory
rite, it subsides, alleviated ; the offended sentiment is appeased and
returns to its original state. So it acts once more as it acted in the
beginning ; instead of contaminating, it sanctifies. As it continues to
infect the object to which it is attached, this could never become
profane and religiously indifferent again. But the direction of the
religious force with which it seems to be filled is inverted : from
being impure, it has become pure and an instrument of purification.
In résumé, the two poles of the religious life correspond toi the two
opposed states through which all social life passes. Between the
propitiously sacred and the unpropitiously sacred there is the same
contrast as between the states of collective well-being and ill-being.
But since both are equally collective, there is, between the
mythological constructions symboUzing them, an intimate kinship of
nature. The sentiments held in common vary from extreme dejection
to extreme joy, from
 414 Elementary Forms of Religious Life painful irritation to
ecstatic enthusiasm ; but, in any case, there is a communion of
minds and a mutual comfort resulting from this communion. The
fundamental process is always the same ; only circumstances colour
it differently. So, at bottom, it is the unity and the diversity of social
life which make the \ simultaneous unity and diversity of sacred
beings and things. This ambiguity, moreover, is not peculiar to the
idea of sacredness alone ; something of this characteristic has been
found in all the rites which we have been studying. Of course it was
essential to distinguish them ; to confuse them would have been to
misunderstand the multiple aspects of the religious life. But, on the
other hand, howsoever different they may be, there is no break of
continuity between them. Quite on the contrary, they overlap one
another and may even replace each other mutually. We have already
shown how the rites of oblation and communion, the imitative rites
and the commemorative rites frequently fulfil the same function. One
might imagine that the negative cult, at least, would be more
sharply separated from the positive cult ; yet we have seen that the
former may produce positive effects, identical with those produced
by the latter. The same results are obtained by fasts, abstinences
and selfmutilations as by communions, oblations and
commemorations. Inversely, offerings and sacrifices imply privations
and renunciations of every sort. The continuity between ascetic and
piacular rites is even more apparent : both are made up of
sufferings, accepted or undergone, to which an analogous efficacy is
attributed. Thus the practices, like the beliefs, are not arranged in
two separate classes. Howsoever complex the outward
manifestations of the religious life may be, at bottom it is one and
simple. It responds everywhere to one and the same need, and is
everywhere derived from one and the same mental state. In all its
forms, its object is to raise man above himself and to make him lead
a life superior to that which he would lead, if he followed only his
own individual whims : beliefs express this life in representations ;
rites organize it and regulate its working.
 CONCLUSION AT the beginning of this work we announced
that the religion £\_ whose study we were taking up contained
within it the most characteristic elements of the religious life. The
exactness of this proposition may now be verihed. Howsoever simple
the system which we have studied may be, we have found within it
all the great ideas and the principal ritual attitudes which are at the
basis of even the most advanced religions : the division 0Ï things
into sacred and profane, the notions of the soul, of spirits, of
mythical personalities, and of a national and even international
divinity, a negative cult with ascetic practices which are its
exaggerated form, rites of oblation and communion, imitative rites,
commemorative rites and expiatory rites ; nothing essential is
lacking. We are thus in a position to hope that the results at which
we have arrived are not peculiar to totemism alone, but can aid us in
an understanding of what religion in general is. It may be objected
that one single religion, whatever its field of extension may be, is too
narrow a base for such an induction. We have not dreamed for a
moment of ignoring the fact that an extended verification may add
to the authority of a theory, but it is equally true that when a law
has been proven by one well-made experiment, this proof is valid
universally. If in one single case a scientist succeeded in finding out
the secret of the life of even the most protoplasmic creature that can
be imagined, the truths thus obtained would be applicable to all
living beings, even the most advanced. Then if, in our studies of
these very humble societies, we have really succeeded in discovering
some of the elements out of which the most fundamental religious
notions are made up, there is no reason for not extending the most
general results of our researches to other religions. In fact, it is
inconceivable that the same effect may be due now to one cause,
now to another, according to the circumstances, unless the two
causes are at bottom only one. A single idea cannot express one
reality here and another one there, unless the duality is only
apparent. If among certain peoples the ideas of sacredness, the soul
and God are to be 415
 4i6 Elementary Forms of Religious Life explained
sociologically, it should be presumed scientifically that, in principle,
the same explanation is valid for all the peoples among whom these
same ideas are found with the same essential characteristics.
Therefore, supposing that we have not been deceived, certain at
least of our conclusions can be legitimately generalized. The moment
has come to disengage these. And an induction of this sort, having
at its foundation a clearly defined experiment, is less adventurous
than many summary generalizations which, while attempting to
reach the essence of religion at once, without resting upon the
careful analysis of any religion. in particular, greatly risk losing
themselves in space. The theorists who have undertaken to explain
religion in rational terms have generally seen in it before all else a
system of ideas, corresponding to some determined object. This
object has been conceived in a multitude of ways : nature, the
infinite, the unknowable, the ideal, etc. ; but these differences
matter but little. In any case, it was the conceptions and beliefs
which were considered as the essential elements of religion. As for
the rites, from this point of view they appear to be only an external
translation, contingent and material, of these internal states which
alone pass as having any intrinsic value. This conception is so
commonly held that generally the disputes of which religion is the
theme turn about the question whether it can conciliate itself with
science or not, that is to say, whether or not there is a place beside
our scientific knowledge for another form of thought which would be
specifically religious. But the believers, the men who lead the
religious life and have a direct sensation of' what it really is, object
to this way of regarding it, saying that it does not correspond to
their daily experience. In fact, they feel that the real function of
religion is not to make us think, to enrich our knowledge, nor to add
to the conceptions which we owe to science others of another origin
and another character, but rather, it is to make us act, to aid us to
live. The believer who has communicated with his god is not merely
a man who sees new truths of which the unbeliever is ignorant ; he
is a man who is stronger. He feels within him more force, either to
endure the trials of existence, or to conquer them. It is as though he
were raised above the miseries of the world, because he is raised
above his condition as a mere man ; he believes that he is saved
from evil, under whatever form he may conceive this evil. The first
article in every creed is the belief in salvation by faith. But it is hard
to see how a mere
 Conclusion 417 idea could have this efficacy. An idea is in
reaUty only a part of ourselves ; then how could it confer upon us
powers superior to those which we have of our own nature ?
Howsoever rich it might be in affective virtues, it could add nothing
to our natural vitality ; for it could only release the motive powers
which are within us, neither creating them nor increasing them.
From the mere fact that we consider an object worthy of being loved
and sought after, it does not follow that we feel ourselves stronger
afterwards ; it is also necessary that this object set free energies
superior to these which we ordinarily have at our command and also
that we have some means of making these enter into us and unite
themselves to our interior lives. Now for that, it is not enough that
we think of them ; it is also indispensable that we place ourselves
within their sphere of action, and that we set ourselves where we
may best feel their influence ; in a word, it is necessary that we act,
and that we repeat the acts thus necessary every time^wFleel the
need of renewing their effects. From this point of view, it is readily
seen how that group of regularly repeated acts which form the cult
get their importance. In fact, whoever fiasTeally practised a religion
knows very well that it is the cult which gives rise to these
impressions of joy, of interior pe'ace, of serenity, of enthusiasm
which are, for the believer, an experimental proof oFTiis beliefs. The
cult is not simply a system of signs by which the faith is outwardly
translated ; it is a collection of the means by which this is created
and recreated periodically. Whether it consists in material acts or
mental operations, it is always this which is efficacious. Our entire
study rests upon this postulate thafThe~ùnanimous sentiment of the
believers of all times cannot be purely illusory. Together with a
recent apologist of the faith ^ we admit that these religious beliefs
rest upon a specific experience whose demonstrative value is, in one
sense, not one bit inferior to that of scientific experiments, though
different from them. We, too, think that " a tree is known by its
fruits," ^ and that fertility is the best proof of what the roots are
worth. But from the fact that a " religious experience," if we choose
to call it this, does exist and that it has a certain foundation — and,
Welcome to our website – the ideal destination for book lovers and
knowledge seekers. With a mission to inspire endlessly, we offer a
vast collection of books, ranging from classic literary works to
specialized publications, self-development books, and children's
literature. Each book is a new journey of discovery, expanding
knowledge and enriching the soul of the reade

Our website is not just a platform for buying books, but a bridge
connecting readers to the timeless values of culture and wisdom. With
an elegant, user-friendly interface and an intelligent search system,
we are committed to providing a quick and convenient shopping
experience. Additionally, our special promotions and home delivery
services ensure that you save time and fully enjoy the joy of reading.

Let us accompany you on the journey of exploring knowledge and

personal growth!

ebookluna.com