DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42067#0014
4
Prefa c e
getically propagated and spurious facts diligently disseminated color
the thinking of the people, and not only of the uneducated. The
intellectual is deceived as easily as the untutored by sanctimonious
professions that conform to the moral code of time and place and
flatter the feeling of selfrighteousness. They gloss over the conflict
of deed and word and, when uttered by those in authority, make
criminals appear like saints.
Our advantage over primitive people is one of greater knowledge
of the objective world, painfully gained by the labor of many genera-
tions, a knowledge which we apply rather badly and which we, or
at least most of us, discard just as soon as a strong emotional urge
impels us to do so, and for which we substitute forms quite analogous
to those of primitive thought.
The much maligned introspective psychology proves to the un-
biased observer that the causes that make primitive man think as
he does, are equally present in our minds. The particular behavior
in each case is determined by the traditional knowledge at the
disposal of the individual.
The second fundamental point to be borne in mind is that each
culture can be understood only as an historical growth determined
by the social and geographical environment in which each people
is placed and by the way in which it develops the cultural material
that comes into its possession from the outside or through its own
creativeness. For the purpose of an historical analysis we treat
each particular problem first of all as a unit, and we attempt to
unravel the threads that may be traced in the development of its
present form. For this reason we may not start our inquiries and
interpretations, as though the fundamental thesis of a single unilineal
development of cultural traits the world over, of a development that
follows everywhere the same lines, had been definitely proven. If it
is claimed that culture has run such a course, the assertion must be
proven on the basis of detailed studies of the historical changes in single
cultures and by the demonstration of analogies in their development.
Prefa c e
getically propagated and spurious facts diligently disseminated color
the thinking of the people, and not only of the uneducated. The
intellectual is deceived as easily as the untutored by sanctimonious
professions that conform to the moral code of time and place and
flatter the feeling of selfrighteousness. They gloss over the conflict
of deed and word and, when uttered by those in authority, make
criminals appear like saints.
Our advantage over primitive people is one of greater knowledge
of the objective world, painfully gained by the labor of many genera-
tions, a knowledge which we apply rather badly and which we, or
at least most of us, discard just as soon as a strong emotional urge
impels us to do so, and for which we substitute forms quite analogous
to those of primitive thought.
The much maligned introspective psychology proves to the un-
biased observer that the causes that make primitive man think as
he does, are equally present in our minds. The particular behavior
in each case is determined by the traditional knowledge at the
disposal of the individual.
The second fundamental point to be borne in mind is that each
culture can be understood only as an historical growth determined
by the social and geographical environment in which each people
is placed and by the way in which it develops the cultural material
that comes into its possession from the outside or through its own
creativeness. For the purpose of an historical analysis we treat
each particular problem first of all as a unit, and we attempt to
unravel the threads that may be traced in the development of its
present form. For this reason we may not start our inquiries and
interpretations, as though the fundamental thesis of a single unilineal
development of cultural traits the world over, of a development that
follows everywhere the same lines, had been definitely proven. If it
is claimed that culture has run such a course, the assertion must be
proven on the basis of detailed studies of the historical changes in single
cultures and by the demonstration of analogies in their development.