The Sex Worship and Symbolism of Primitive Races Part 1

The s.e.x Worship and Symbolism of Primitive Races.

by Sanger Brown.

PREFACE

The greater part of the first three chapters of this book appeared in the _Journal of Abnormal Psychology_ in the December-January number of 1915-16 and the February-March number of 1916. This material is reprinted here by the kind permission of the Editor of that Journal.

This part of the subject is chiefly historical and the data here given is accessible as indicated by the references throughout the text, although many of these books are difficult to secure or are out of print. For this historical material I am particularly indebted to the writings of Hargrave Jennings, Richard Payne Knight and Doctor Thomas Inman. Most of the reference matter coming under the general heading of Nature Worship was obtained from comparatively recent sources, such as the publications of the Bureau of American Ethnology, of the Smithsonian Inst.i.tute, and certain publications of the American Museum of Natural History. Frazer's _Golden Bough_ and other writings of J. G. Frazer on Anthropology furnished much valuable information. The writings of special investigators, among others those of Spencer, and A. W. Howitt, on Primitive Australian Tribes, and W. H. R. Rivers on the Todas have been freely drawn upon. A number of other books and references have been made use of, as indicated throughout the text. I have found two books by Miss J. Harrison, _i. e._, _Themis_ and _Ancient Art and Ritual_, of great value in interpreting primitive ceremonies and primitive customs in general.

My main object has been to give the life history of a primitive motive in the development of the race, and to emphasize the dynamic significance of this motive. Later other motives may be dealt with in more detail if it is proved that both in normal and abnormal psychology we may best understand the mental development of the individual through our knowledge of the development of the race.

I wish to take this opportunity to express my appreciation of the a.s.sistance rendered me by my wife.

INTRODUCTION

Our knowledge of religion receives contributions from every quarter; even the student of mental diseases finds information that is of service to the student of religion. The reverse is equally true: a knowledge of religion sheds light upon even the science of mental disorders.

In this short book, a psychiatrist seeks in the study of one aspect of religious practice--the worship of the procreating power--to gain a clearer understanding of the forms taken by certain kinds of mental diseases. His theory is that we may expect diseased minds to reproduce, or return to expressions of desire customary and official in societies of lower culture. This is, as a matter of fact, less a theory than a statement of observed facts; of this, the reader of these pages, if familiar with certain mental disorders, may readily convince himself.

But Doctor Brown's intention is not merely, perhaps not primarily, to draw the attention of the Psychiatrist to a neglected source of information, he aims at something of wider import and addresses a wider public. His purpose is no less than the tracing of the history of that great motive of action, the s.e.x pa.s.sion, as it appears in religion and the interpretation of its significance. Those who come to this book without the preparation of the specialist will find it not only replete with novel and surprising facts, but will find these facts placed in such a relation to each other and to life in general, as to illuminate both religion and human nature. This important result is made possible by the point of view from which the author writes, the point of view of racial development which has proved its fertility in so many directions.

JAMES H. LEUBA.

THE s.e.x WORSHIP AND SYMBOLISM OF PRIMITIVE RACES: AN INTERPRETATION

CHAPTER I

SIMPLE s.e.x WORSHIP

Psychiatry, during recent years, has found it to its advantage to turn to related sciences and allied branches of study for the explanation of a number of the peculiar symptoms of abnormal mental states. Of these related studies, none have been of greater value than those which throw light on the mental development of either the individual or the race. In primitive races we discover a number of inherent motives which are of interest from the standpoint of mental evolution. These motives are expressed in a very interesting symbolism. It is the duty of the psychiatrist to see to what extent these primitive motives operate unconsciously in abnormal mental conditions, and also to learn whether an insight into the symbolism of mental diseases may be gained, through comparison, by a study of the symbolism of primitive races. In the following discussion one particular motive with its accompanying symbolism is dealt with.

A great many of the inst.i.tutions and usages of our present day civilization originated at a very early period in the history of the race. Many of these usages are carried on in modified form century after century, after they have lost the meaning which they originally possessed; it must be remembered, however, that in primitive races they were of importance, and they arose because they served a useful end.

From the study of these remnants of former days, we are able to learn the trends of thought which activated and inspired the minds of primitive people. When we clearly understand these motives, we may then judge the extent of their influence on our present day thought and tendencies.

It has only been during comparatively recent times that the importance of primitive beliefs and practices, from the standpoint of mental evolution, has been appreciated. Formerly, primitive man was regarded merely as a curiosity, and not as an individual from whom anything of any value whatever was to be learned. But more recent studies have changed all this. In order to ill.u.s.trate this matter of the evolution and development of the human mind we can very profitably quote from Sir J. G. Frazer:[1] "For by comparison with civilized man the savage represents an arrested or rather a r.e.t.a.r.ded state of social development, and an examination of his customs and beliefs accordingly supplies the same sort of evidence of the evolution of the human mind that an examination of the embryo supplies of the evolution of the human body.

To put it otherwise, a savage is to a civilized man as a child is to an adult; and just as a gradual growth of intelligence in a child corresponds to, and in a sense recapitulates, the gradual growth of intelligence in the species, so a study of savage society at various stages of evolution enables us to follow approximately, though of course not exactly, the road by which the ancestors of the higher races must have travelled in their progress upward through barbarism to civilization. In short, savagery is the primitive condition of mankind, and if we would understand what primitive man was we must know what the savage now is."

To properly interpret these beliefs and conduct, certain facts must be kept in mind. One is that with primitive races the group stands for the unit, and the individual has little if any personality distinct from the group. This social state gives rise to what is spoken of as collective thought, collective feeling, group action, etc. Miss J. Harrison[2]

considers this conception a very important one in primitive religious development. All that the race expresses, all that it believes, is an expression of collective feeling. As a result of this group thought, feelings and beliefs are developed which are entertained by every individual of the community. These racial feelings become a part of the race itself; they are inseparable from it, and they find expression in the loftiest of sentiments and the most earnest of religious beliefs.

Our study is not primarily concerned with religious development, but since early man's deepest feelings found expression in what later became a religion, it is necessary to search for racial motives in primitive religions. These feelings are in no way comparable to the conscious religious beliefs of later times, which were worked out in many instances by an ingenious priesthood. The period when group feeling predominated far antedated such civilizations as those of Egypt and later Greece, for example, in which very elaborate religious systems existed.

With primitive people these deeper feelings appear to arise unconsciously rather than consciously. Moreover, probably as a result of collective thought and feeling, motives and beliefs are developed and elaborated in a way quite beyond the mental capacity of any one individual of the community. Beliefs are formulated which have a grandeur of conception and a beauty of expression well worthy of admiration. The beauty and native vigor of some of the earlier myths are examples of this. They live in the tribe as traditions. No one person seems to have written them; in fact, they are added to, changed and improved until they represent the highest expression of national feelings. Gilbert Murray has indicated this in the _Rise of the Greek Epic_. He emphasizes that there is found an expression of racial feelings, built up from many sources. Such Sagas are not the property of any one individual. The feelings they express are a.s.sociated with the unconscious of the race, if such a term is permissible. Gilbert Murray,[3] in interpreting this element in primitive literature states: "We have also, I suspect, a strange una.n.a.lyzed vibration below the surface, an undercurrent of desires and fears, and pa.s.sions, long slumbering yet eternally familiar, which have for thousands of years lain near the root of our most intimate emotions and been wrought into the fabric of our most magical dreams. How far in the past ages this stream may reach back I dare not even surmise; but it sometimes seems as if the power of stirring it or moving with it were one of the last secrets of genius."

The importance of the collective or group feeling has been emphasized as thereby one sees how a fundamental racial motive becomes an integral part of the mental life of each and every member of the group. In primitive life every individual contributes something to this motive and in turn receives something from it. It enters into the developing mind and becomes inseparably a.s.sociated with it. In studying the evolution of these motives one is studying the evolution of the human mind.

The motive which we have undertaken to explain has to do with one of the most important of instincts, _i. e._, that of reproduction. The feelings a.s.sociated with this instinct were raised to the dignity of religion, and in this we have the worship of s.e.x. This worship is to be regarded as an unconscious racial expression, the result of group or collective feeling, the dynamic significance of which, from a biological standpoint, will appear later.

Before proceeding, it is desirable to make reference to some of our sources of information. There are plenty of books on the history of Egypt, the antiquities of India or on the interpretation of Oriental customs, which make scarcely any reference to the deification of s.e.x. We have always been told, for example, that Bacchus was the G.o.d of the harvest and that the Greek Pan was the G.o.d of nature. We have not been told that these same G.o.ds were representations of the male generative attribute, and that they were worshipped as such; yet, anyone who has access to the statuettes or engravings of these various deities of antiquity, whether they be of Egypt, of India or of China, cannot fail to see that they were intended to represent generative attributes. On account of the incompleteness of many books which describe primitive races, a number of references are given throughout these pages, and some bibliographical references are added.

As will be presently indicated, we have evidence from a number of sources to show s.e.x was at one time frankly and openly worshipped by the primitive races of mankind. This worship has been shown to be so general and so wide-spread, that it is to be regarded as part of the general evolution of the human mind; it seems to be indigenous with the race, rather than an isolated or exceptional circ.u.mstance.

The American Cyclopedia, under Phallic Worship, reads as follows: "In early ages the s.e.xual emblems were adored as most sacred objects, and in the several polytheistic systems the act or principle of which the phallus was the type was represented by a deity to whom it was consecrated: in Egypt by Khem, in India by Siva, in a.s.syria by Vul, in primitive Greece by Pan, and later by Priapus, in Italy by Mutinus or Priapus, among the Teutonic and Scandinavian nations by Fricco, and in Spain by Hortanes. Phallic monuments and sculptured emblems are found in all parts of the world."

Rawlinson, in his history of Ancient Egypt, gives us the following description of Khem: "A full Egyptian idea of Khem can scarcely be presented to the modern reader, on account of the grossness of the forms under which it was exhibited. Some modern Egyptologists endeavor to excuse or palliate this grossness; but it seems scarcely possible that it should not have been accompanied by indelicacy of thought or that it should have failed to exercise a corrupting influence on life and morals. Khem, no doubt, represented to the initiated merely the generative power in nature, or that strange law by which living organisms, animal and vegetable, are enabled to reproduce their like.

But who shall say in what exact light he presented himself to the vulgar, who had continually before their eyes the indecent figures under which the painters and sculptors portrayed him? As impure ideas and revolting practices cl.u.s.tered around the worship of Pan in Greece and later Rome, so it is more than probable that in the worship of Khem in Egypt were connected similar excesses. Besides his priapic or 'Ithyphallic' form, Khem's character was marked by the a.s.signment to him of the goat as his symbol, and by his ordinary t.i.tle _Ka-mutf_, 'The Bull of His Mother,' _i. e._, of nature."

This paragraph clearly indicates that the s.e.xual organs were worshipped under the form of Khem by the Egyptians. The writer, however, has fallen into a very common error in giving us to understand that this was a degraded form of worship; from numerous other sources it is readily shown that such is not the case.

The following lines, from _Ancient s.e.x Worship_, substantiate the above remarks, and at the same time, they show the incompleteness of the writings of many antiquarians. In this book we read: "Phallic emblems abounded at Heliopolis and Syria and many other places, even into modern times. The following unfolds marvelous proof to our point. A brother physician, writing to Dr. Inman, says: 'I was in Egypt last winter (1865-66), and there certainly are numerous figures of G.o.ds and kings on the walls of the temple at Thebes, depicted with the male genital erect.

The great temple at Karnac is, in particular, full of such figures and the temple of Danclesa, likewise, although that is of much later date, and built merely in imitation of old Egyptian art.'" The writer further states that this shows how completely English Egyptologists have suppressed a portion of the facts in the histories which they have given to the world. With all our descriptions of the wonderful temple of Karnac, it is remarkable that all mention of its a.s.sociation with s.e.x worship should be omitted by many writers.

A number of travellers in Africa, even in comparatively modern times, have observed evidences of s.e.x worship among the primitive races of that continent. Captain Burton[4] speaks of this custom with the Dahome tribe. Small G.o.ds of clay are made in priapic att.i.tudes before which the natives worship. The G.o.d is often made as if contemplating its s.e.xual organs. Another traveler, a clergyman,[5] has described the same worship in this tribe. He has observed idols in priapic att.i.tudes, rudely carved in wood, and others made of clay. On the lower Congo the same worship is described, where both male and female figures with disproportionate genital organs are used for purposes of worship.

Phallic symbols and other offerings are made to these simple deities.

Definite examples of the s.e.xual act having religious significance may be cited. Richard Payne Knight[6] quotes a pa.s.sage from Captain Cook's voyages to one of the Southern Pacific Islands. The Missionaries of the expedition on this occasion a.s.sembled the members of the party for religious ceremonies in which the natives joined. The primitive natives observed the ceremony with great respect and then with due solemnity enacted their form of sacred worship. Quite to the astonishment of the white people, this ceremony consisted of the open performance of the s.e.xual act by a young Indian man and woman. This was entirely a religious ceremony, and was fittingly respected by all the natives present.

Hargrave Jennings[7] describes the same custom in India. An Indian woman of designated caste and vocation is selected. Many incantations and strange rites are gone through. A circle, or "Vacant Enchanted Place" is rendered pure by certain rites and sprinkled with wine. Then secret charms are whispered three times in the woman's ear. The s.e.xual act is then consummated, and the whole procedure before the altar is distinctly a form of sacrifice and worship.

Hodder M. Westropp in _Primitive Symbolism_ has indicated the countries in which s.e.x worship has existed. He gives numerous instances in ancient Egypt, a.s.syria, Greece and Rome. In India, as well as in China and j.a.pan, it forms the basis of early religions. This worship is described among the early races of Greece, Italy, Spain, Scandinavia, and among the Mexicans and Peruvians of America as well. In Borneo, Tasmania, and Australia phallic emblems have been found. Many other localities have been mentioned by this writer and one seems fairly justified in concluding that s.e.x worship is regularly found at one time in the development of primitive races. We shall now pa.s.s to another form of this same worship, namely, sacred prost.i.tution.

There is abundant evidence to show that there was a time in the centuries before Christ when prost.i.tution was held as a most sacred vocation. We learn of this practice from many sources. It appears that temples in a number of ancient cities of the East, in Babylonia, Nineveh, Corinth and throughout India, were erected for the worship of certain deities. This worship consisted of the prost.i.tution of women.

The women were consecrated to the support of the temple. They were chosen in much the same way as the modern woman enters a sacred church order. The returns from their vocation went to the support of the deity and the temple. The children born of such a union were in no way held in disgrace, but on the contrary, they appeared to have formed a separate and rather superior cla.s.s. We are told that this practice did not interfere with a woman's opportunities for subsequent marriage. In India the practice was very general at one time. The women were called the "Women of the Idol." Richard Payne Knight speaks of a thousand sacred prost.i.tutes living in each of the temples at Eryx and Corinth.

A custom which shows even more clearly that prost.i.tution was held as a sacred duty to women was that in Babylonia every woman, of high rank or low, must at one time in her life prost.i.tute herself to any stranger who offered money. In _Ancient s.e.x Worship_ we read: "There was a temple in Babylonia where every female had to perform once in her life a (to us) strange act of religion, namely, prost.i.tution with a stranger. The name of it was Bit-s.h.a.gatha, or 'The Temple,' the 'Place of Union.'" Moreover we learn that once a woman entered the temple for such a sacred act she could not leave until it was performed.

The above accounts deal exclusively in the sacrifice made by women to the deity of s.e.x. Men did not escape this sacrifice and it appears that some inflicted upon themselves an even worse one. Frazer[8] tells us of this worship which was introduced from a.s.syria into Rome about two hundred years before Christ. It was the worship of Cybele and Attis.

These deities were attended by emasculated priests and the priests in oriental costume paraded Rome in religious ceremony.

On one occasion, namely, "the day of blood" in the Spring, the chief ceremony was held. This, among other things, consisted in fastening an effigy of the G.o.d to a pine tree, which was brought to the temple of the G.o.ddess Cybele. A most spectacular dance about the effigy then occurred in which the priests slashed themselves with knives, the blood being offered as sacrifice. As the excitement increased the s.e.xual nature of the ceremony became evident. To quote from Frazer: "For man after man, his veins throbbing with the music, his eyes fascinated by the sight of streaming blood, flung his garments from him, leaped forth with a shout, and seizing one of the swords which stood ready for the service, castrated himself on the spot. Then he ran through the city holding the b.l.o.o.d.y parts in his hands and threw them into one of the houses which he pa.s.sed in his mad career."

We see that this act directly corresponds with the part played by the female. The female prost.i.tuted herself, and the male presented his generative powers to the deity. Both the sacred prost.i.tutes and emasculated priests were held in religious veneration.

The above references are sufficient to show that a simple form of s.e.x worship has been quite generally found. It becomes apparent as we proceed that the worship of s.e.x not only plays a part, but a very prominent part, in the developing mind of man. In the frank and open form of this worship it is quite clear that we are dealing with a very simple type of mind. These primitive people exhibit many of the qualities of the child. They are quite without s.e.x consciousness. Their motives are at once both simple and direct, and they are doubtless sincere. Much misunderstanding has arisen by judging such primitive people by the standards of our present day civilization. s.e.x worship, while it held sway was probably quite as seriously entertained as many other beliefs; it only became degraded during a decadent age, when civilization had advanced beyond such simple conceptions of a deity, but had not evolved a satisfactory subst.i.tute.