Author: William O. E. Oesterley

Publisher: Forgotten Books

Published: 2017-10-20

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 9780282715755

Excerpt from The Sacred Dance: A Study in Comparative Folklore The subject is more complicated than would appear at first sight; for while the fact of its universal prevalence among all races at one time or another of their cultural development shows how essential a rite it was, its origin is obviously veiled in obscurity seeing that it developed in pre-historic times. So that in seeking to throw light on the question of its origin one has to try to get at the back of the mind of the savage, and envisage things from his point of view; but that mind represents a complex of such crass and illogical elements that one may easily be led astray. The purpose of the Sacred Dance, again, presents us with another set of problems; for while in some cases this is clear enough, in others there are alternatives which suggest themselves; and, further, it is probable that a variety of motives not infrequently prompted its performance. To disentangle these is not always easy. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.