own. Even in the few
cases where men live in the comparative isolation of individual family
groups (as the Eskimo, Fuegians, and others are said to do[209]), there
is a communal feeling that is shown in the identity of customs and ideas
among the isolated groups. In early man there is little individuality of
thought or of religious experience,[210] and there is no observable
difference between public and private religious worship. Ceremonies,
like language, are the product of social thought, and are themselves
essentially social. When a man performs an individual religious act (as
when he recognizes an omen in an animal or bird, or chooses a guardian
animal or spirit, or wards off a sickness or a noxious influence), he is
aware that his act is in accordance with general usage, that it has the
approval of the community, and that its potency rests on the authority
of the community. It is true that such communal character belongs, in
some degree, to all religious life--no person's religion is wholly
independent of the thought of his community; but in the lower strata the
acceptance of the common customs is unreflective and complete. When
definite individualism sets in, ceremonies begin to lose their old
significance, though they may be retained as mere forms or with a new
interpretation.

+104+. That the ceremonial observances are usually sacred is obvious
from all the descriptions we have of them. Their power is not always
attributed to the action of external personal, supernatural agencies
(though such agencies may have been assumed originally); in many cases,
it is held to reside in themselves.[211] They are sacred in the sense
that they are mysterious, acting in a way that is beyond human
comprehension and with a power that is beyond human control.[212] They
are efficacious only when performed by persons designated or recognized
by the community. Here there is undoubtedly a dim sense of law and unity
in the world, based on an interpretation of experiences. This is a mode
of thought that runs through the whole history of religion--only, in the
earliest stages of human life, it is superficial and narrow. The earlier
ceremonial customs contain the germs and the essential features of the
later more refined procedures.

+105+. Without attempting to give an exhaustive list, the principal
early ceremonies may be divided into classes as follows:

EMOTIONAL AND DRAMATIC CEREMONIES

+106+. The dances that are so common amo