clearly seen, closely associated with the
suggestibility of the gregarious animal, and therefore with that of man.
The effect of it will clearly be to make acceptable those suggestions
which come from the herd, and those only. It is of especial importance
to note that this suggestibility is not general, and that it is only
herd suggestions which are rendered acceptable by the action of
instinct.

B. THE CONFLICT AND FUSION OF CULTURES

1. The Analysis of Blended Cultures[243]

In the analysis of any culture, a difficulty which soon meets the
investigator is that he has to determine what is due to mere contact and
what is due to intimate intermixture, such intermixture, for instance,
as is produced by the permanent blending of one people with another,
either through warlike invasion or peaceful settlement. The fundamental
weakness of most of the attempts hitherto made to analyze existing
cultures is that they have had their starting-point in the study of
material objects, and the reason for this is obvious. Owing to the fact
that material objects can be collected by anyone and subjected at
leisure to prolonged study by experts, our knowledge of the distribution
of material objects and of the technique of their manufacture has very
far outrun that of the less material elements. What I wish now to point
out is that in distinguishing between the effects of mere contact and
the intermixture of peoples, material objects are the least trustworthy
of all the constituents of culture. Thus in Melanesia we have the
clearest evidence that material objects and processes can spread by mere
contact, without any true admixture of peoples and without influence on
other features of the culture. While the distribution of material
objects is of the utmost importance in suggesting at the outset
community of culture, and while it is of equal importance in the final
process of determining points of contact and in filling in the details
of the mixture of cultures, it is the least satisfactory guide to the
actual blending of peoples which must form the solid foundation of the
ethnological analysis of culture. The case for the value of
magico-religious institutions is not much stronger. Here, again, in
Melanesia there is little doubt that whole cults can pass from one
people to another without any real intermixture of peoples. I do not
wish to imply that such religious institutions can pass from people to
people with the ease of material