Magical Beliefs Research Articles

Sectarianism, World View, and Anomie

Sectarianism, World View, and Anomie

Magical Child-Care Beliefs and Sequence and Recall Effects in Social Perception'

Magical Child-Care Beliefs and Sequence and Recall Effects in Social Perception'

The Tartaria Tablets

The inscribed clay tablets (PL. XVIa) found in a 'Neolithic' context at Tartaria (FIG. 1) in Romania in 1961 have already aroused a certain amount of interest here. The signs on the tablets are comparable with those of the script of the Late Predynastic (Uruk III Jemdet Nasr) period in Mesopotamia, as Dr Vlassa who excavated them has noted. It seems unlikely however that the tablets were drafted by a Sumerian hand or in the Sumerian language of early Mesopotamia. The shapes of the tablets and some of the signs are paralleled in the Minoan scripts of Crete, but the tablets do not seem to be Cretan. There are indications that a similar use of signs, if not actual writing, was practised in the rest of the Aegean and in Western Anatolia before the end of the 3rd millennium B.C. A knowledge of writing, or the use of signs derived from it, may have spread to these regions and to the Balkans from Mesopotamia through Syria. This was perhaps one aspect of a common inheritance of religious or magical beliefs and practices.

Illusory correlation in observational report

Phenomena from such diverse areas as superstition, belief in primitive magic, errors in clinical observations, social prejudice, and halo effect have certain similarities. All are based on a systematic error in reports of observations of a supposed correlation between the occurrences of two classes of events. It seems likely that the same principles may account for this systematic error regardless of the subject matter being observed. The term “illusory correlation” is proposed for such systematic errors in correlations reported by observers. Variables affecting illusory correlation were studied using visually presented words as stimuli. The findings indicate (a) that words which have a strong associative connection are reported as correlated in their occurrence when not actually correlated and (b) that illusory correlation also occurs between distinctive stimuli.

5. Africa

COLLOMB, in a new journal devoted to psychopathology in Africa, summarizes data collected by him and his co-workers during eight years of research and clinical work in Senegal (see also Transcultural Psychiatric Research, I, October I964, I23-38; III, April I966, 29-33). The major topics of this article are perception of mental disease, nature of therapeutic techniques, etiology, and forms of mental disorders. In a second article in this journal MARTINO, ZEMPLENI and COLLOMB report the case history of a Senegalese man who killed a sorcerer. The interest of this article rests on the obvious importance of collective represen tations, which are explained in relation to this case history, and which constitute cultural criteria for definitions of mental illness. FORTES' and MAYER's study of the Tallensi of Northern Ghana is well known. Their recent article on psychoses and social change among the Tallensi, although it lacks statistics and clinical deepness, is valuable because it shows with utmost clarity that recent social changes have brought about an increase in the frequency of psychoses among the Tallensi who were supposedly devoid of serious psychological illness before the occurence of social change. Another point of interest is the fact that, contrary to other people of Africa, the Tallensi are one of the few among whom sorcery is not widespread. The psychiatric implications of magic and witchcraft in Liberia are discussed by WINTROB and WITTKOWER. The authors give a description of magic and witchcraft in relation to disease and therapy, and they attempt to demonstrate why magic beliefs are not corrected by reality testing in Africa. There is little psychiatric research being done in Ethiopia. PAVICEVIC'S article on psychoses in this country is therefore of prime importance. It contains a survey of mental disease in Ethiopia and describes a special form of psychi atric disorder known as Zar and characterized by a state of possession.

5. Africa

Notions of health and sickness held by Egyptian Fellahin are mixed with magical and religious beliefs. A description of their etiological concepts of illness as well as of measures taken to counteract evil spirits is given by SANUA. In particular, the 'Jinn' and the 'Zar' ceremonies, fertility rites, and practices employed by village magicians, barbers, and 'sheikhs' are presented (cf. B. Lewin, Transcultural Psychiatric Rerearch, No. 12, April 1962, p. 45). Owing to the very high birth rate serious medico-social problems frequently arise in Tunisia in relation to pregnancy, childbirth, feeding, education and care of children, and the general behavior habits of the mother at home. AMMAR discusses socio-cultural factors accounting for the high birth rate in Tunisia and presents psychopathological features observed on examination of a sample of sixty-seven psychotic women. Culture-determined transference phenomena have been observed by MORGENTHALER and PARIN during psychoanalysis of members of the Dogon people in Mali. RANKIN and PHILIP report an epidemic of laughing, crying, and restlessness in the Bukoba district of northern Tan ganyika. SCOTCH and GEIGER applied the Cornell Medical Index (CMI) to a Zulu population. They discuss difficulties arising from a transfer of a question naire designed for one culture to another. They arrive at the conclusion that CMI scores yield clues to the culture and social situation. In the hands of an anthropologist-physician team, the CMI may serve not only to give a crude health profile of a population, but also point to puzzles, points of stress, or areas of apparently high risk. A thorough socio-psychiatric study of the entire population of Tristan da Cunha which was evacuated to England after a volcanic eruption on the island, was carried out by RAWNSLEY and LOUDON, a psychiatrist and an anthropologist. The authors report their findings, relating them to previous psychiatric observations made on the island.

7. North America

'Totally discouraged' is a pattern of disorder discovered among the Dakota Sioux. It is described and briefly analyzed by D. L. JOHNSON and C. A. JOHNSON. In their article on the vicissitudes of the aggressive drive among the Mescalero and Chiricahua Apaches, L. B. BOYER and R. M. BOYER compare the pre- reservation period when hostility created by socialization could be discharged through traditional channels, with the present-day situation where these channels have disappeared, but where the same hostillity is engendered during childhood. MURDOCK'S article is an ethnographic study of an Indian shamanistic system. It has a bearing on transcultural psychiatry because it deals with relationships between this system and native conceptions of disease and healing practices. Also of interest is the manner in which, in the Tenino society, a person becomes a shaman and is accepted as such. Protestant and Jewish schizophrenic patients of different social classes are compared by Victor D. SANUA. Major differences were found in the familial characteristics of patients of different social and ethnic groups as well as in sub-categories of schizophrenia (see also this Review, No. 12, April 1962, p. 12). In order to compare the conceptions of mental health of four Asian and two American groups, THAVER and his coworkers administered to them a questionnaire previously adapted to American subjects. Significant differences were found between the Asian and the American groups. However, these differences might have been due to different cultural reactions to the questionnaire itself. The final article in this section deals with Afro-Asian students in a Canadian University. Their behaviour and attitudes are described by R. C. A. HUNTER in relation to magical beliefs still prevalent among them, to their conception of physiology and disease, and to health facilities made available by the University.

Religion and Society Among the Kuria of East Africa

Opening ParagraphThis paper attempts to answer two broad questions. Firstly, what is Kuria religion about? and secondly, what is the relationship between Kuria religious concepts and their social life and what is the place of ritual in this relationship? Neither of these are questions which Kuria would themselves ask—certainly in this form—but they are perhaps the two leading questions which an anthropologist must ask in examining the religious beliefs and ritual practice of another people. Much depends upon the answer to the first, for it is in terms of the answer that one is likely to establish the particular coherence of ‘integrity’ of a people's beliefs, held existentially in the context of their own social life. The answer is relevant too to an issue which has concerned those writing on related peoples of the same area as the Kuria—the problem of the relation between magic and religious beliefs. Thus Wagner, writing on the Bantu Kavirondo, uses the undifferentiated category of ‘magico-religious’ belief. But what exactly is meant by this umbrella term, and does it not itself obfuscate what it seeks to define? The second question considered—the relationship between Kuria religious concepts and their social life—is a continuation of the first in relation to their very elaborate and, in one sense, autonomous system of ritual based in particular on a complex sequence of rites of passage. These rites are a very striking feature of Kuria culture. It is, I think, by considering them in this double context—as expressing religious values on the one hand while controlling social behaviour on the other—that these rites are most fully understood.

Drama of the "Siglo de Oro," a Study of Magic, Witchcraft, and Other Occult Beliefs

Drama of the "Siglo de Oro," a Study of Magic, Witchcraft, and Other Occult Beliefs

Magic and Witchcraft: An Interpretation from Dissonance Theory

Previous articleNext article No AccessMagic and Witchcraft: An Interpretation from Dissonance TheoryTheodore Rosenthal, and Bernard J. SiegelTheodore Rosenthal Search for more articles by this author , and Bernard J. Siegel Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Volume 15, Number 2Summer, 1959 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/soutjanth.15.2.3628803 Views: 10Total views on this site Citations: 32Citations are reported from Crossref Journal History This article was published in the Southwestern Journal of Anthropology (1945-1972), which is continued by the Journal of Anthropological Research (1973-present). PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Thi An Tran From Dichotomy to Multipolarity: A Case Study of the Four Ladyship Saints Worshipping Practices in Vietnam, (Oct 2021): 167–187.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-5055-0_10Patrick Kwaku Ofori, David Tod, David Lavallee An exploratory investigation of superstitious behaviours, coping, control strategies, and personal control in Ghanaian and British student-athletes, International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology 16, no.11 (Feb 2016): 3–19.https://doi.org/10.1080/1612197X.2016.1142460Richard Sosis, W. Penn Handwerker Psalms and Coping with Uncertainty: Religious Israeli Women's Responses to the 2006 Lebanon War, American Anthropologist 113, no.11 (Feb 2011): 40–55.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1433.2010.01305.xJules J. Wanderer, George Rivera, Jr. Black magic beliefs and white magic practices: The common structure of intimacy, tradition, and power, The Social Science Journal 23, no.44 (Dec 2019): 419–430.https://doi.org/10.1016/S0362-3319(86)80016-7Nicholas P. Spanos Hypnotic behavior: A social-psychological interpretation of amnesia, analgesia, and “trance logic”, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 9, no.33 (Feb 2010): 449–467.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00046537John O. Beahrs The “special-process” controversy: What is at issue?, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 9, no.33 (Feb 2010): 467–468.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00046549Patricia G. Bowers Understanding reports of nonvolition, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 9, no.33 (Feb 2010): 469–470.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00046562Nathan Brody Cognitively induced analgesia and semantic dissociation, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 9, no.33 (Feb 2010): 470–470.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00046574William E. Edmonston Hypnosis and social suggestibility, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 9, no.33 (Feb 2010): 470–471.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00046586Frederick J. Evans Hypnosis and behavioral compliance: Is the cup half-empty or half-full?, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 9, no.33 (Feb 2010): 471–473.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00046598Kenneth R. Graham Explaining “virtuoso” hypnotic performance: Social psychology or experiential skill?, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 9, no.33 (Feb 2010): 473–474.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00046604John F. Kihlstrom Strong inferences about hypnosis, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 9, no.33 (Feb 2010): 474–475.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00046616Irving Kirsch Role playing versus response expectancy as explanations of hypnotic behavior, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 9, no.33 (Feb 2010): 475–476.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00046628Peter L. N. Naish Hypnosis: Towards a rational explanation of irrational behaviour, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 9, no.33 (Feb 2010): 476–477.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X0004663XMartin T. Orne, David F. Dinges, Emily Carota Orne Hypnotic experience: A cognitive social-psychological reality, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 9, no.33 (Feb 2010): 477–478.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00046641Campbell Perry, Jean-Roch Laurence Social and psychological influences on hypnotic behavior, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 9, no.33 (Feb 2010): 478–479.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00046653Robert Rosenthal Nonsignificant relationships as scientific evidence, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 9, no.33 (Feb 2010): 479–481.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00046665Ted L. Rosenthal Hypnotic phenomena: Who really sees the emperor's new clothes?, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 9, no.33 (Feb 2010): 481–481.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00046677John Sabini, Debra A. Kossman What grandma thinks about hypnosis, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 9, no.33 (Feb 2010): 481–482.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00046689Richard St. Jean Hypnosis: Artichoke or onion?, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 9, no.33 (Feb 2010): 482–482.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00046690Peter W. Sheehan Theories of hypnosis – useful or necessary paths to truth?, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 9, no.33 (Feb 2010): 483–483.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00046707David Spiegel Painstaking reminders of forgotten trance logic, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 9, no.33 (Feb 2010): 484–485.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00046719Dennis C. Turk, Thomas E. Rudy Hypnotic behavior dissected or … pulling the wings off butterflies, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 9, no.33 (Feb 2010): 485–485.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00046720Geoffrey Underwood Using simulations to disprove hypnosis amnesia? Forget it, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 9, no.33 (Feb 2010): 485–486.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00046732Graham F. Wagstaff State versus nonstate paradigms of hypnosis: A real or a false dichotomy?, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 9, no.33 (Feb 2010): 486–487.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00046744Edwin A. Weinstein Attentional capacities have neurological basis, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 9, no.33 (Feb 2010): 487–488.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00046756Nicholas P. Spanos More on the social psychology of hypnotic responding, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 9, no.33 (Feb 2010): 489–502.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X0004677XThomas Frank Lazar Indigenous Curing Patterns in a Samoan Migrant Community, Oceania 55, no.44 (Feb 2015): 288–302.https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1834-4461.1985.tb02094.xTED L. ROSENTHAL Social Cueing Processes, (Jan 1980): 111–146.https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-535610-7.50009-8 References, (Jan 1978): 287–320.https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-596750-1.50010-1DAVID LANDY role adaptation: traditional curers under the impact of Western medicine 1, American Ethnologist 1, no.11 (Oct 2009): 103–127.https://doi.org/10.1525/ae.1974.1.1.02a00060Ted L. Rosenthal, Ronald W. Henderson, Arline Hobson, Maure Hurt Social Strata and Perception of Magical and Folk-Medical Child-Care Practices, The Journal of Social Psychology 77, no.11 (Feb 1969): 3–13.https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.1969.9919842

Body Ritual among the Nacirema

THE anthropologist has become so familiar with the diversity of ways in which different peoples behave in similar situations that he is not apt to be surprised by even the most exotic customs. In fact, if all of thelogically possible combinations of behavior have not been found somewhere in the world, he is apt to suspect that they must be present in some yet undescribed tribe. This point has, in fact, been expressed with respect to clan organization by Murdock (1949: 71). In this light, the magical beliefs and practices of the Nacirema present such unusual aspects that it seems desirable to describe them as an example of the extremes to which human behavior can go. Professor Linton first brought the ritual of the Nacirema to the attention of anthropologists twenty years ago (1936:326), but the culture of this people is still very poorly understood. T h w r e a North American group living in the territory between the Canadian Cree, the Yaqui and Tarahumare of Mexico, and the Carib and Arawak of the Antilles. Little is known of their origin, although tradition states that they came from the east.

Theurgy and its Relationship to Neoplatonism

The last half-century has seen a remarkable advance in our knowledge of the magical beliefs and practices of later antiquity. But in comparison with this general progress the special branch of magic known as theurgy has been relatively neglected and is still imperfectly understood. The first step towards understanding it was taken more than fifty years ago by Wilhelm Kroll, when he collected and discussed the fragments of the Chaldaean Oracles. Since then the late Professor Joseph Bidez has disinterred and explained a number of interesting Byzantine texts, mainly from Psellus, which appear to derive from Proclus' lost commentary on the Chaldaean Oracles, perhaps through the work of Proclus' Christian opponent, Procopius of Gaza; and Hopfner and Eitrem have made valuable contributions, especially in calling attention to the many common features linking theurgy with the Greco-Egyptian magic of the papyri. But much is still obscure, and is likely to remain so until the scattered texts bearing on theurgy have been collected and studied as a whole (a task which Bidez seems to have contemplated, but left unaccomplished at his death). The present paper does not aim at completeness, still less at finality, but only at (i) clarifying the relationship between Neoplatonism and theurgy in their historical development, and (ii) examining the actual modus operandi in what seem to have been the two main branches of theurgy.

Nietzsche, the Crisis and the War

Previous articleNext article No AccessNietzsche, the Crisis and the WarEric VoegelinEric Voegelin Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Journal of Politics Volume 6, Number 2May, 1944 Sponsored by the Southern Political Science Association Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.2307/2125271 Views: 70Total views on this site Citations: 10Citations are reported from Crossref PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Andreas Vrahimis Philosophy (and Wissenschaft) Without Politics? Schlick on Nietzsche, German Idealism, and Militarism, (Jan 2022): 53–84.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80363-6_4Alonso Zengotita Sobre cocaína y embriaguez: ética y estética en Freud y Nietzsche, Azafea: Revista de Filosofía 22, no.11 (Dec 2020): 109–131.https://doi.org/10.14201/azafea202022109131David McQueen, Francisca Farache, Georgiana Grigore A Revaluation of All Values: Nietzschean Populism and Covid-19, (Sep 2020): 279–311.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52466-1_12JEAN-FRANÇOIS DROLET Nietzsche, Kant, the democratic state, and war, Review of International Studies 39, no.11 (Jul 2012): 25–47.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0260210512000204Dan Stone The Energy of Nihilism: Understanding the Appeal of Nazism, (Jan 2003): 17–44.https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230505537_2Stefan Elbe European nihilism and annihilation in the twentieth century, Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions 1, no.33 (Oct 2007): 43–72.https://doi.org/10.1080/14690760008406940Steven E. Aschheim Zarathustra in den Schützengräben Der Nietzsche-Mythos, der Erste Weltkrieg und die Weimarer Republik, (Jan 2000): 130–167.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-476-04378-8_5 James L. Wiser Eric Voegelin: A Study in the Renewal of Political Science, Polity 18, no.22 (Nov 2016): 295–312.https://doi.org/10.2307/3234951 Literatur, ().https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110812954.420 Francis G. Wilson Pessimism in American Politics, The Journal of Politics 7, no.22 (Sep 2015): 125–144.https://doi.org/10.2307/2125837

Incentives to work in Primitive Communities

in the broadest sense, including the interests of one's family, friends or other group, is the motivation of labor in all societies. In EuroAmerican urban societies this self-interest operates largely through money acquisition and exchange. In pre-literate societies and also in rural, non-industrialized communities on all cultural levels, self-interest operates largely through conforming to community values, following prescribed rituals or magical beliefs, and maintaining valued personal relationships and esteem. Self-interest is differently defined by different cultures, in terms of goals; and by different castes and classes, in partly quantitative terms-ceilings and floors of aspiration. [Ed.]

Dominant Ideas in the Formation of Chinese Culture

Innumerable difficulties beset the man daring enough to attempt a subject such as this, quite aside from the obvious ones of facile generalization and limitations of space. Should we, for example, consider as dominant ideas those that have been expressed by the relatively small group of articulate Chinese known to us through literature, or should the heterogeneous and often contradictory beliefs held by the anonymous masses also be included? And if the latter, how are we to evaluate their importance as compared with those of the minority? In reply, I can merely say that I shall attempt to present as dominant only those concepts that I feel have had genuine importance for a very large number of Chinese, both literate and illiterate; that go far back into the roots of Chinese civilization and are presumably truly Chinese in origin; and that at the same time have continued over long epochs to exert a powerful influence in Chinese thought, in many cases unto the present day. This last criterion means that we shall be forced to disregard certain very early and in themselves interesting concepts (such as some of the magical beliefs current during the Shang dynasty, 1766 ?-1123? B. C.), simply because, important as they were in their own age, they either disappeared or became greatly changed by the time Chinese civilization assumed a well defined pattern or norm. As a convenient method of procedure I propose to treat our subject under three heads: (1) the basic concepts of the Chinese as regards the world of the supernatural; (2) as regards the world of nature; and (3) as regards the world of man. In other words, what has been the prevailing Chinese attitude toward religion, toward the physical universe, and toward themselves? Adoption of such a division will give us a convenient framework within which to move, even though we must recognize that some ideas cannot be readily confined to any one of these three categories, while others may conceivably escape the bounds of all of them together.

Swings among the Formosan aborigines

Although information available for the study of swings among the abo-rigines of Formosa is very scanty, we may deduce their distribution and practice as follows:(1) Only as an amusement of the children among the northern tribes (Atayal, Sedeq and Saisiyat) and probably so also among the Pangtsah (Ami) tribe in the East.(2) Practised especially by young women in connection with the millet harvest festival in the southern tribes (Dukai, N.W.Paiwan and Panapana-yan or Puyuma.)(3) By young people in connection with the rice harvest festival in the Cavoali village (Tamari) of N.E.Paiwan.(4) As part of the celebration, first by the bride, then by the young women of the village, at the marriage ceremony of chiefs-families in N.W.Paiwan.(5) Practised by young people in connection with the millet sowing festival in the Tsou tribe, central Formosa.(6) By young people, in combination, with the pop-guns of male children, at the weeding festival of millet fields in the Bunun tribe, central Formosa.On the meaning of these ritual swings, our information is rather obscure in cases (2), (3) and (4).In case (5), people play on the swings calling to the heavenly spirits for rain.There is a magical belief among the Bunun tribe that the stalks of millet will grow long as the swing goes high up in the air, while the pop-guns are homoeopathically effective in promoting the growth of millet-ears.And it may be remembered here that among the Tsou tribe some informants have avowed the same belief in ritual swings.

From Magic to Science

A MEETING of the Society for the Study of Alchemy and Early Chemistry took place on December 7, at Queen Mary College, London, when Mr. J. C. Gregory delivered a lecture entitled “From Magic to Science“. Mr. Gregory traced the interplay between reliance on magical efficacies, on one hand, and a recognition of rationally conceived agencies, or natural laws, on the other. Thus alchemy, complicated by mysticism and animism, had its rational theory, as in the Aristotelian Doctrine of the Elements, and its reliance on laboratory procedure. It had also its magically conceived efficacies, such as the reputed powers of the Philosopher's Stone. As the rational recourse constantly invaded magic, so the magical recourse influenced rational procedure. There came a point, however, when the magical belief was discarded to make way for a more scientific concept of natural laws. Mr. Gregory pointed out that the seventeenth-century corpuscle was a great scientific rationalizer of magic. Boyle discreetly reserved, however, some medicinal virtues for gems as a scientifically 'purified magic'. His reduction of the potency in the Powder of Projection, or in the Alkahest, to corpuscular catalysis illustrated the rationalization of magic by science. Though the master Therion still hoped to vindicate the thaumaturgic agent of alchemy, he deferred to present thought by applying the 'method of science' to the 'art of magic'.

Pyrenean Festivals

MISS ALFORD is well known as a student of the folk-dance and song of European peasantry, but the Pyrenees is a region which in this subject she has made peculiarly her own province. In this volume, æsthetically delightful, as well as scientifically valuable, she has reviewed the results of some years of observation on both sides of the political frontier among the inhabitants of the Pyrenean regions from Catalonia on the east to the Basque country in the west. Nor has she confined her studies to dance and song, for she deals here with some remarkable forms of custom and magical belief which serve to throw light on the main theme.

Aborigines of Australia

THE petition of eighteen hundred Australian aborigines addressed to the King, and asking for representation of their interests in the Federal Parliament (see NATURE, Nov. 6, p. 798), whether it attain its end or not, has at least served to direct attention once again to the question of their present condition and their future. Difficulties of the situation, which contribute to the failure to find a solution of a problem—for long a reproach to the Australian people—are set out with due appreciation of their weight by an Australian correspondent of The Times in an article in the issue of November 25. After pointing out the gravity of conditions which tolerate "tribe after tribe dying on their feet", and contrasting conditions among the natives of New Guinea, the writer refers to the mentality and character of the aborigines as in no small measure responsible for much for the failure of the Governments to check the degeneration which is taking place. Even such a beneficial, and indeed essential, provision in the organization of aboriginal protection as medical attention is rendered in a degree ineffective through the disinclination of the aboriginal to take advantage of it, owing to magical belief or misunderstanding. At the same time the nomadic habit, as well as the tendency to drift to centres of white civilization, neutralize the advantages of reserves of aboriginal lands. On the other hand, the inadequacy of the financial provision made by the Australian Governments is stressed, its most serious consequence being the lack of a trained body of special officers, such as the service organized by Sir Hubert Murray in Papua. A graver indictment of the Australian people appears in the same issue of The Times in the form of a report of a valedictory address by Prof. F. Wood-Jones to the Victorian Anthropological Society, which, notwithstanding a certain lack of restraint in language and certain inaccuracies, cannot be passed over by Australia as ill-founded, even though Prof. Wood-Jones, as well as the writer in The Times, as has been pointed out in subsequent correspondence, gives little or no credit to Federal and State Governments for what has been attempted to ameliorate aboriginal conditions.

Magical Beliefs and Practices among the Galician Ukrainians

Magical Beliefs and Practices among the Galician Ukrainians