Elsie Clews Parsons

“ If a great people does not believe that the truth is only to be found in itself alone (in itself alone and exclusively) ; if it does not believe that it alone is fit and destined to raise up and save all the rest by its truth, it would at once sink into being—not a great people. ”

“ The object of every national movement in every people and at every period of its existence is only the seeking for its god, who must be its own god, and the faith in Him as the only true god. God is the synthetic personality of the whole people, taken from its beginning to its end. ”

“ Sympathetic magic is due to a sense of participation. Things that have been in contact affect each other both during and after the contact, and like affects like, these are the two leading principles of sympathetic magic. It is an analogous principle of association, an analogous sense of participation which prompts the family vendetta, the tribal feud, the wars of hamlets or hordes and, may I add, the wars of nations or races. The individual's sense of participation in his group, in his family, tribe or nation, is disturbed when any other fraction of the group is disturbed. ”

“ Not only are some of the methods of war magical, not only are war leaders the magicians par excellence of their people, the heads of the church; but the very motives and impulses of war arise in part from the same kind of association with which magic is likewise concerned, at least, what is called sympathetic magic. ”

“ Nations are built up and moved by another force [a force other than science and reason] which sways and dominates them, the origin of which is unknown and inexplicable: that force is the force of an insatiable desire to go on to the end, though at the same time it denies that end. ”

“ Piety too is non-logical, subjective, craving union, but the union it desires is not with humans, its sense of participation is with deity; so long as that sense is intact, piety is unconcerned about human relations. Piety is unconcerned about human relations in themselves, but, as the sense of union with deity is immensely strengthened by the sense of common worship, the pious are in fact concerned about the body of the faithful. What that body is to consist of is a matter of circumstance. ”

“ A comparison of male and female brains fails to establish the superiority of either sex. With the removal of folk- psychological prejudices, and with the advance of psychological ex- periment, a corresponding conclusion is gaining ground as to the aver- age mental equipment. And while the scarcity of female geniuses, and corresponding infrequency of epoch-making achievement, has been at- tributed to greater male variability, a sex difference in variability has never been scientifically demonstrated. ”

“ It is amusing to note how every sex difference that has been dis- covered or alleged has been interpreted to show the superiority of males. When students of institutional statistics discovered that there are more males among inmates of idiot asylums, and supposed this to mean that there must be more males than females among the feeble-minded, this apparently unfavorable fact was at once interpreted as confirmatory evi- dence of greater male variability; and as such it became immediately favorable to the theory of male superiority. ”

“ It expresses the same aversion to killing another human being that taboos on the savage homicide betray. After a Pima killed an Apache he had to fast for sixteen days, touching neither meat nor salt, nor looking at a fire blaze, nor speaking to a human being. ”

“ The restrictions of woman's sphere on the groimd that certain occupations are not natural for woman because they are not customary feminine oc- cupations in modern civilization, rests on sheer ignorance of history and ethnology, which reveal a very considerable range of activity under vary- ing social conditions. ”

“ He passes the plant under his right leg and again strikes downward, murmuring spells the while to cause the enemy to sleep heavily. Just before reaching the village he crouches on the ground, blocking his ears with his fingers to induce deafness in the enemy. Then, as the rush is made, each warrior jumps over the crouching faia chief. ”

“ He himself feels injured when the group in any part suffers injury. He therefore proceeds to protect his nation, his people, his home, i. e., himself by retaliation upon the injurious group or any part of it. ”

“ The Kaiser makes speeches and issues proclamations about the motives and purposes of the God of the Fatherland and of his royal house. Even the British recruit is asked to enter into partnership with God. ”

“ The verdict of present-day science is thus an uncompromisingly negative one: no rational grounds have yet been established that should lead to artificial limitation of woman's activity on the ground of inferior efiSciency. ”