Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from An Introduction to the History of Medicine: With Medical Chronology, Bibliographic Data and Test Questions
One of the best accredited doctrines of recent times is that of the unity or solidarity of folk - lore. The collective investigations of historians, ethnologists, archeologists, philologists, and sociolo gists reveal the singular fact that all phases of social anthropology which have to do with instinctive actions inevitably converge to a common point of similarity or identity. This is true of all myths, superstitions, laws, and social customs of primitive peoples (as also of the cruder ethnic aspects of religions) which are concerned with the fundamental instincts of self-preservation and reproduction. It is possible, as we shall see, that many strange cultural practices, such as mummification, circumcision, or the couvade, may have been deliberately transported by migrations from. One continent or island and imposed upon another (elliot Smith). But the fact remains that, for those human actions which have been defined as instinctive, as based upon the innate necessity which is the mother of invention, folklore is an essential unity.1 The mind of savage man, in its pathetic efforts to form religious and ethical systems for moral and spiritual guidance, or to beautify the commoner aspects of life with romance and poetry, has unconsciously taken the same line of least resistance, followed the same planes of cleavage. The civilized mind differs from the savage mind only in respect of a higher evolutionary development. Human races and racial cus toms have changed as they became more highly specialized. The heart of man remains the same.
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