Word: bruhl
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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There arose a distinguished group of portraitists of the primitive mind-Frazer, Sumner & Keller, Malinowski, Boas. One of these was Lucien Levy-Bruhl, longtime professor of the University of Paris, who published his first noteworthy treatise in 1884, followed by Primitive Mentality, How Natives Think, The "Soul" of the Primitive. Last week from the pen of Professor Levy-Bruhl, 78, appeared Primitives and the Supernatural,* a meaty summary of how the sons of the wilderness regard the unseen powers, benign and malevolent, that preoccupy virtually every hour of every day of their lives...
...Dispositions." This sort of unwitting evocation of magical influences is due to the savage's almost universal belief that mere mental attitudes may disrupt the peaceful course of affairs. He thus pays great attention to what Professor Levy-Bruhl calls dispositions. Quarrels are widely believed to set up baneful influences which may harm the whole tribe. Hence politeness and affability are at a premium. Among some American Indians it is not customary to refuse any gift asked for by a guest, lest his displeasure work some ill. When the Fiji Islanders set out a new turtle net, the head...