Forces beyond the ordinary include magic and religion. In this regard, the question arises about the relationship between these two phenomena, each of which is characterized by communication with the sacred. Without going into details, we only note that magic means manipulating an impersonal force with the help of special techniques, witchcraft in the name of achieving specific goals that correspond to the interests of the individual, not related to moral assessments. Its effectiveness depends on the accuracy of performing ritual magical actions, adherence to tradition.

Magic is associated with the stereotyping of human activity, while the religious rationalization of human activity is carried out in a different context - when existence

is no longer fully provided by tradition, and the sacred from an impersonal force spread in the world is transformed into a divine personality towering above the profane world.

At the same time, there is a structural similarity between magic and religion - Weber draws attention to this when introducing the concept of "magic symbolism". At a certain stage, a real victim is replaced, for example in a funeral ceremony, with a symbolic victim, a drawing of a sacrificial animal, some parts of its body, etc. To a greater or lesser extent, the magical meaning of ritual action is preserved in religion. In order to understand religion, it is therefore important to identify the differences between religious symbols not only from magical ones, but in general from non-religious ones.

If a deity, i.e. the omnipotent “other being” is in another world, then people gain access to this power in those actions that constitute the practice of religious life (cult activity) and whose purpose is to serve as a connecting bridge between “this world” and “another world” - a bridge over which the mighty power of the deity can be directed to help powerless people. In the material sense, this bridge is represented by "holy places" that are simultaneously in "this world" and outside it (for example, the church is considered the "house of God"), intermediaries - "holy people" (clergymen, hermits, shamans, inspired prophets), endowed with the ability to establish a connection with the forces of another world, while they themselves still live in this world. This "connecting bridge" is represented not only by cult activity, but also in mythology and ideas about incarnations, reincarnations of deities who manage to be both deities and human beings at the same time. The mediator - be it a real human being (for example, a shaman) or a mythological god-man - is endowed with "borderline" features: he is both mortal and immortal. The "power of the Holy Spirit" is a magical power in the general sense of "sacredness", but it is also a sexual power - capable of impregnating women.

An important characteristic of every religion is its relationship to magic and religion as "ideal types", ie. the degree of the presence of magical elements in it and the degree of its rationalization: in some religions there is more than one, in others - another. Depending on this, the type of attitude to the world inherent in a given religion is formed. The general trend of religious evolution in the Ve-

ber defines as "disenchantment of the world" and strengthening of religious rationalization.

Ritual and myth. In many religions, ritual behavior rather than belief is central. So, in Judaism, for example, the believer is required, first of all, not to know the dogmas, but to a certain, strictly regulated behavior, to comply with many prescriptions and rituals.

In the broadest sense of the word, a ritual is a collection of repetitive, regularly performed actions in a prescribed manner. Ritual action is a form of socially sanctioned symbolic behavior and, unlike custom, is devoid of utilitarian and practical goals. Its purpose is different - it performs a communicative role, symbolizes certain meanings and attitudes in the relations of both everyday and official life, plays an essential role in social education, control, exercising power, etc. Ritual, unlike etiquette, is associated with belief in its deepest value sense.

Religious rituals, together with related beliefs, focus on "sacred things". A magic ritual is, in fact, a witchcraft action, conspiracy, spell, a technique of influencing the phenomena of the surrounding world. The performer of this action is an individual, not a collective. The magic ritual is oriented pragmatically - to a greater extent on the "material" result than on the values \u200b\u200bof the sign order. The meaning of magical action is not in "serving" a higher power, but in serving human needs.

In religious and theological works, this moment is reflected in the form of opposing archaic beliefs with the "ugly crust of magic" growing on them - "reverence for the Supreme". A. Men characterizes magic as "a mechanical way to win the favor of mysterious forces, to make them work for you" according to the principle: "I gave you - you give me." "People were convinced that certain rituals must naturally deliver what they want."

People would not be people if they did not give meaning to what surrounds them and what they themselves do. The essence of culture is the insistence for people that some meaning should be established in the concrete reality that surrounds us. The deepest roots of its recognition of meaning, imparting meaning to the ear-

1. Men A. Sacrament, word, image. L., 1991.S. 9.

dies into the bowels of the cult. A cult ritual - a sacrament, a sacrament, and not myths and dogmas of beliefs, and even less rules of conduct, constitutes the core of religion. In ancient religion, belief in certain complexes of myths was not mandatory as a characteristic of true religion. And not morality is the essence of religion. Rituals mean more to society than words and thoughts; thanks to rituals, religion in ancient societies becomes a part of the social order, taking root in the general system of values, including the ethical values \u200b\u200bof the community, which, with its help, became a common system of behavior patterns for all. Some religions may be more ethical than others, but if a religion becomes moral, it ceases to be a religion.

The magic action is based on the idea that everything is connected with everything, "the logic of participation", in the words of L. Levy-Bruhl. It is realized in magical actions. At this level, magical action is not yet based on a certain cosmology. Only with its appearance (the creation myth) is the magical action transformed into a religious ritual - the image of creation. In religions, the strategic goal of thinking and action is to preserve the sacred order of the world building, space in the fight against the threat of chaos.

Human society in primitive ideas itself acts as a part of the cosmos: everything is part of the cosmos, which forms the highest value. For such a consciousness, only that which is sacralized (sacredly marked) is essential, genuine, real, and only that which constitutes a part of the cosmos, is deduced from it, participates in it, is sacred. In the sacralized world, according to V.N. Toporov, and only in such a world, the rules of organization are formed, for outside this world there is chaos, the kingdom of accidents, the absence of life. Religious ritual is associated, therefore, with mythological consciousness as the main way of understanding the world and resolving contradictions.

A man of this period saw the meaning of life and its purpose in ritual. This is already a religious, not a magical ritual. It is focused on the values \u200b\u200bof the sign order. He is the action that ensures the salvation of "his" space and control over it. The reproduction of the act of creation in the ritual actualizes the structure of being, giving it an emphasized symbolism, and serves as a guarantee of the safety and prosperity of the collective. The cosmological myth is the guide of life for a person of that era.

Only in the ritual is the highest level of sacredness achieved, and at the same time in it a person acquires the feeling of the greatest fullness of life.

In the life of archaic communities, rituals occupied the main place. Mythology served as a kind of explanation, commentary on him. Durkheim drew attention to this circumstance. Analyzing the descriptions of ritual in the religious life of Australian aborigines, he singled out the phenomenon of excitement (expressive symbolization, in the terminology of Parsons). The essence of this phenomenon is that the participants in the ritual are collective, i.e. already religious, and not magical action, - are in a state of strong emotional excitement, exaltation, which, according to Durkheim, is psychologically genuine and at the same time socially ordered. "Scenario" actions and patterns of behavior, interactions between the participants in the ritual, are developed in detail and prescribe who and what should do at one point or another. Thus, although arousal is genuine in a psychological sense, it cannot be considered a spontaneous response to immediate stimuli. This ordering of the organized nature of the ritual is determined by the fact that ritual actions are saturated with symbolic meanings that correspond to the structure and situation of the social system. Rituals, according to Durkheim, not only reinforce, but also generate what he calls "faith."

The correlation of myth with the social system is based on the fact that mythological symbols do not simply indicate something or refer to something else. They, in their sensible quality, are rather themselves perceived as this “other”, they are this “other” 1. According to Losev, complete identification in primitive cultures of a person with a mythical totem is a characteristic property of mythological symbolization: the animal-totem and the clan are identified in the minds of the Australian aborigine. The participants in the ritual really feel like mythical symbolic creatures whose actions they reproduce in the ritual. This identification provides the ability to simultaneously be yourself and something else. The identification of a thing and an idea in a symbol in early cultures leads to the fact that the "sacred thing" is treated as if it itself is what it symbolizes (like in the Orthodox

1. Losev A.F. Dialectics of myth // Myth, number, essence. M., 1994.

consciousness, the icon is not just an image of the face of God, but the very face of God). In modern secular systems of symbolization of a political or any other kind, no one ever identifies a symbol with what it symbolizes.

Another level of correlation between religion and sociality is that the primary function of religious ritual is to form and strengthen solidarity, which is based on the common code of ritual symbolism. Not a single object in the ritual is itself, it always acts as a symbol of something else; All operations with objects in the ritual are operations with symbols, performed according to established rules and having significance for those real objects of which they are symbols.

Thus, the sacrifice of a horse in the Vedic ritual simulates almost the entire cosmos, since each part of the sacrificial animal corresponds to a certain world phenomenon (the head of the sacrificial horse is the dawn, the eye is the sun, the breath is the wind, the ear is the moon, the legs are parts of the world .. .). The entire cosmos arises again every year from this sacrificed horse, the world is created anew in the course of the ceremony.

E. Leach, who studied the symbolic system, including ritual, myth, religious ethics and worldview, came to the conclusion that the ritual is a kind of "repository" of knowledge: the corresponding rituals can contain information concerning, for example, economic activity, in the form symbols that have power over people, determine their behavior. They are passed down from generation to generation, influencing the worldview and the associated ethos, influencing to a large extent through ritual, worship.

The Christian Church, professing the religion of "spirit and truth", did not abolish temple worship, rituals, and cult as an external symbol of spiritual service. Contemporary theologians, condemning "ritualism," recall that the founder of Christianity reproached the Jewish clergy and legalists for having reduced the highest religious duty to rituals and statutes; he wanted something else:

“I want mercy, not sacrifice.” For God, more important than burnt offerings and sacrifices are “cleansing of the heart,” justice, faith, moral exploit. However, religious faith lives in the symbolism of the ritual, and, according to the conviction of an Orthodox priest, it is not enough to carry God in the heart and strive do His will in the daily "kishi". Eucharist (thanksgiving), which is called "bloodless

sacrifice "and which is a sacred meal, is the fundamental mystery of the Christian church, the central moment of worship, symbolizing the true stay of the God-man in His Church: the sign of Christ's presence in the Church are the mysteries-sacraments, through which the union of man with God is accomplished again and again.

So, the ritual belongs to the area of \u200b\u200breligious practice, orthopraxia, while the myth - to the cognitive component of religion, orthodoxy. They are linked in such a way that the myth defines the boundaries of understanding the ritual and gives it a rationale, although this is not necessarily at a conscious level.

The advantage of the symbol over the concept is that it does not require preliminary "work of the mind", "school of thinking", logical discipline. Symbols are perceived much easier and simpler than intellectual definitions, they are grasped "on the fly" on the basis of emotions, feelings, beliefs that do not require and do not give in to any strict definition.

Since ritual actions are guided by religious symbols, myths that determine their meaning, they are viewed as completely different from the outwardly similar actions of a person in "ordinary" life: in the Christian sacrament of communion, a person "partakes of the body and blood of Christ" not in order to satisfy hunger and thirst. The ritual takes on its meaning, becomes a ritual only in the context of the corresponding mythological belief.

Only in the context of the Gospel story about the last meal of Jesus and his disciples ("The Last Supper") does the ritual of the Christian Eucharist - communion with bread and wine - make sense. Only in the context of the myth of original sin does ritual cleansing from sin, the sacrament of confession, make sense.

The myth is not an explanation of the ritual, but its justification, the rooting of the transitory in the eternal. Ritual is a dramatization of a myth, an embodiment of symbols into living reality. Ritual can express, however, and that which is not expressed in the language of myth is not verbalized. He speaks the language of gesture, dance, "body language". In mythological consciousness, everything that is the movement of the body is at the same time the movement of the soul. Levi-Strauss saw the challenge not in understanding how people "think in myths" with the help of myths, but in showing how "myths live in us".

The myth takes on visible features in the ritual, although the ritual can be performed without a clear awareness of the meaning inherent in the myth. Faith receives an incarnation visible to everyone. Ritual, worship -

pen in action, behavior, attitudes of the believer. With the help of the ritual, believers come into contact with "sacred time", become contemporaries of the events of "sacred history", gain "eternal life." Moreover, in the ritual, "sacred time" is, as it were, created, since time makes sense when something happens in it.

The social meaning of the ritual is the establishment of a connection between people, the assimilation of beliefs, religious attitudes and values, etc. Each ritual is an action aimed at establishing and maintaining order; it is a ceremony. Gods die without performing rituals, the death of a person is necessarily accompanied by them. The ceremony marks the power of society over the individual. In ritual, the individual establishes a connection with the group, society, in belief - with the cosmic order. Ritual fear is the fear of breaking the divine order. A person feels the need for a ritual as a "solemn fulfillment" of his daily routine at every turning point in his life. The ritual embodiment of faith is a tribute to the bodily nature of a person, which should be recognized in all its vitality and, if possible, spiritualized. The Christian cross is not only a symbol of the crucifixion, death and suffering of God, but also a reflection of the ideal.

Both magic and religion arise in situations of emotional stress: a life crisis, the collapse of the most important plans, death and initiation into the mysteries of their tribe, unhappy love or unquenched hatred. Both magic and religion point out the ways out of such situations and life dead ends, when reality does not allow a person to find another way, except for turning to faith, ritual, the sphere of the supernatural. In religion, this sphere is filled with spirits and souls, providence, supernatural patrons of the clan and heralds of its secrets; in magic - the primitive belief in the power of the magic of a magic spell. Both magic and religion directly rely on mythological tradition, on the atmosphere of a wonderful expectation of the disclosure of their miraculous power. Both magic and religion are surrounded by a system of rituals and taboos that distinguishes their actions from that of the uninitiated.

What makes magic different from religion? Let's start with the most definite and striking distinction: in the sacred sphere, magic appears as a kind of practical art that serves to perform actions, each of which is a means of achieving a specific goal; religion - as a system of such actions, the implementation of which is in itself a goal. Let's try to trace this difference at deeper levels. Practical art

magic has a specific technique of execution that is applied within strict boundaries: witchcraft spells, ritual and personal abilities of the performer form a permanent trinity. Religion in all the diversity of its aspects and goals does not have such a simple technique; its unity is not reduced either to the system of formal actions, or even to the universality of its ideological content, it rather lies in the function performed and in the value value of faith and ritual. The beliefs inherent in magic, in accordance with its practical orientation, are extremely simple. It is always a belief in the power of a person to achieve the desired goal with the help of witchcraft and ritual. At the same time, in religion we observe a significant complexity and diversity of the supernatural world as an object: the pantheon of spirits and demons, the beneficial powers of the totem, the spirits - the guardians of the clan and tribe, the souls of the forefathers, pictures of the future afterlife - all this and much more creates a second, supernatural reality for primitive man. Religious mythology is also more complex and diverse, more imbued with creativity. Usually religious myths are centered around various dogmas and develop their content in cosmogonic and heroic narratives, in descriptions of the deeds of gods and demigods. Magic mythology, as a rule, appears in the form of endlessly repeating stories about the extraordinary achievements of primitive people.

Magic, as a special art of achieving specific goals, in one of its forms, once enters the cultural arsenal of a person and then is directly transmitted from generation to generation. From the very beginning, it is an art that few specialists master, and the first profession in the history of mankind is that of a sorcerer and sorcerer. Religion in its most original forms acts as a common cause of primitive people, each of whom takes an active and equal part in it. Each member of the tribe goes through a rite of passage (initiation) and subsequently initiates others. Each member of the tribe grieves and weeps when his relative dies, participates in the burial and honors the memory of the deceased, and when his hour comes, he will be mourned and remembered in the same way. Each person has his own spirit, and after death everyone becomes a spirit himself. The only specialization that exists within the framework of religion - the so-called primitive spiritualistic mediumship - is not a profession, but an expression of personal talent. Another difference between magic and religion is the play of black and white in sorcery, while religion in its primitive stages is not too interested in the opposition between good and evil, beneficial and harmful forces. Here again, the practical nature of magic is important, aimed at immediate and measurable results, while primitive religion is addressed to fatal, inevitable events and supernatural forces and beings (albeit mainly in the moral aspect), and therefore does not deal with problems associated with human impact on the surrounding world. The aphorism that fear first created gods in the universe is completely wrong in the light of anthropology.

To understand the differences between religion and magic and to clearly understand the relationship in the triangular constellation of magic, religion and science, it is necessary at least briefly to outline the cultural function of each of them. The function of primitive knowledge and its value have already been discussed above, and it is quite simple. Knowledge of the surrounding world gives a person the opportunity to use natural forces; primitive science gives people a huge advantage over other living beings, advances them much further than all other creatures along the path of evolution. To understand the function of religion and its value in the minds of primitive man, it is necessary to carefully study the multitude of indigenous

beliefs and cults. We have already shown earlier that religious faith gives stability, formalizes and strengthens all value-significant mental attitudes, such as respect for tradition, harmonious outlook, personal valor and confidence in the fight against everyday adversity, courage in the face of death, etc. This faith, supported and formalized in cults and ceremonies, has great vital significance and reveals to primitive man the truth in the broadest, practically important sense of the word. What is the cultural function of magic? As we have already said, all the instinctive and emotional abilities of a person, all his practical actions can lead to such dead-end situations when they misfire all his knowledge, reveal their limited powers of reason, cunning and observation do not help. The forces that a person relies on in everyday life leave him at a critical moment. Human nature responds with a spontaneous explosion, releasing rudimentary behaviors and a dormant belief in their effectiveness. Magic builds on this belief, transforms it into a standardized ritual that takes on a continuous traditional form. Thus, magic gives a person a number of ready-made ritual acts and standard beliefs, formalized with a certain practical and mental technique. Thus, as it were, a bridge is being erected over those abysses that arise before a person on the way to his most important goals, a dangerous crisis is overcome. This allows a person not to lose his presence of mind when solving the most difficult life tasks; maintain self-control and integrity of the personality when an attack of anger, a paroxysm of hatred, hopelessness of despair and fear approaches. The function of magic is to ritualize human optimism, to maintain faith in the victory of hope over despair. In magic, a person finds confirmation that self-confidence, persistence in trials, optimism prevail over hesitation, doubt and pessimism.

Casting a glance from the heights of the present, far from primitive people, advanced civilization, it is easy to see the rudeness and inconsistency of magic. But we should not forget that without her help primitive man would not have been able to cope with the most difficult problems of his life and would not have been able to advance to higher stages of cultural development. Hence, the universal prevalence of magic in primitive societies and the exclusiveness of its power are clear. Hence, the invariable presence of magic in any significant activity of primitive people is understandable.

Magic must be understood by us in its inextricable connection with the majestic recklessness of hope, which has always been the best school of human character.

Myth is an integral part of the general belief system of the natives. The relationship between humans and spirits is determined by closely related mythical stories, religious beliefs and feelings. In this system, the myth is, as it were, the foundation of a continuous perspective, in which the everyday worries, sorrows and anxieties of people acquire the meaningfulness of movement towards a certain common goal. Walking his way, a person is guided by a common faith, personal experience and the memory of past generations, keeping traces of those times when the events took place that became the impetus for the emergence of the myth.

An analysis of the facts and the content of myths, including those retold here, allow us to conclude about an all-encompassing and consistent system of beliefs among primitive people. It would be in vain to look for this system only in the outer layers of native folklore accessible to direct observation. This system corresponds to a certain cultural reality, in which all the particular forms of indigenous beliefs, experiences and premonitions related to the death and life of spirits

after the death of people, they are woven into a kind of grandiose organic integrity. Mythical narratives interlock with each other, their ideas intersect, and the natives constantly find parallels and internal connections between them. Myth, faith and experience associated with the world of spirits and supernatural beings are the constituent elements of a single whole. What connects these elements is an enduring desire to have communication with the lower world, the abode of spirits. Mythical stories only give the most important points of indigenous beliefs explicit form. Their plots are sometimes quite complex, they always tell about something unpleasant, about some kind of loss or loss: about how people lost the ability to regain their youth, how witchcraft causes illness or death, how spirits left the human world and how everything is settled at least a partial connection with them.

It is striking that the myths of this cycle are more dramatic, the connection between them is more consistent, although more complex than the myths about the beginnings of life. Without dwelling on this point, I will only say that here, perhaps, it is a matter in a deeper metaphysical sense and a stronger feeling, which are associated with the problems of human destiny, in comparison with the problems of the social plan.

Be that as it may, we see that myth, as part of the spirituality of the natives, cannot be explained only by cognitive factors, no matter how great their significance. The most important role in the myth is played by its emotional side and practical meaning. What the myth tells about deeply excites the native. Thus, the myth of the origin of the Milamala festival determines the nature of the ceremonies and taboos associated with the periodic return of spirits. This story itself is completely understandable to the native and does not require any "explanations", therefore the myth, even to a small extent, does not claim such a role. Its function is different: it is designed to soften the emotional stress experienced by the human soul, anticipating its inevitable and inexorable fate. First, the myth gives this presentiment a completely clear and tangible form. Secondly, he reduces a mysterious and chilling idea to the level of familiar everyday reality. It turns out that the longed-for ability to regain youthfulness, saving from decrepitude and aging, was lost by people only through a trifling incident that could have been prevented even by a child or woman. Death forever separating loved ones and loving people is something that can occur from a small quarrel or carelessness with a hot soup. A dangerous disease occurs due to an accidental meeting of a person, a dog and a crab. Errors, faults and accidents take on enormous importance, and the role of fate, fate, inevitability is reduced to the scale of a human blunder.

To understand this, it should be reminded once again that the feelings experienced by a native in relation to death, either his own, or the death of his loved ones and loved ones, are by no means completely determined by his beliefs and myths. A strong fear of death, a keen desire to avoid it, deep grief over the loss of loved ones and relatives - all this deeply contradicts the optimism of faith in the easy achievement of the afterlife, which is permeated with native customs, ideas and rituals. When a person is threatened with death or when death enters his home, the most thoughtless faith cracks. In long conversations with some seriously ill natives, especially with my consumptive friend Bagido "u, I always felt the same, perhaps implicitly or primitively expressed, but undoubtedly melancholic sadness about the passing life and its joys, the same horror of the inevitable in the end, the same hope that this end might be delayed, even if not for long. But I also felt that the souls of these people were warmed by the reliable, coming from their faith. The living narrative of the myth obscured the abyss that was ready to open before them.

Myths of magic

Now I will allow myself to dwell in more detail on another type of mythical narrative: on those myths that are associated with magic. Magic, no matter how you take it, is the most important and most mysterious aspect of the practical relationship of primitive people to reality. The strongest and most conflicting interests of anthropologists are connected with the problems of magic. In northwestern Melanesia, the role of magic is so great that even the most superficial observer cannot fail to notice it. However, its manifestations are not entirely clear at first glance. Although literally the entire practical life of the natives is imbued with magic, from the outside it may seem that in a number of very important areas of activity it is not.

For example, no native dug up a bed of bagata or taro without uttering magic spells, but at the same time, the cultivation of coconuts, bananas, mangoes or breadfruit does without any magical rites. Fishing, which is of subordinate importance in comparison with agriculture, is associated with magic only in some of its forms. This is mainly fishing for sharks, kalala fish and that "ulam. But the equally important, although easier and more accessible, methods of fishing with the help of plant poisons are not at all accompanied by magical rituals. When building a canoe, in a matter associated with significant technical difficulties, risky and requiring a high organization of labor, the magic ritual is very complex, inextricably linked with this process and is considered absolutely necessary.But the construction of huts, technically no less difficult than the construction of a canoe, but not so dependent on chance, not subject to such risks and dangers, is not requiring such a significant cooperation of labor, is not accompanied by any magical rites.Wood carving, which has an industrial meaning, which is taught from childhood and which is employed in some villages by almost all the inhabitants, is not accompanied by magic, but an artistic sculpture made of ebony or ironwood, which only people who have outstanding technical and bad feminine abilities, has the appropriate magical rites, which are considered the main source of skill or inspiration. Trade, kula, the ceremonial form of the exchange of goods has its own magic ritual; however, other, smaller forms of exchange trade, which are purely commercial in nature, are not associated with any magical rites. War and love, illness, the element of wind, weather, fate - all this, according to the natives, is completely dependent on magical powers.

Already from this brief overview, an important generalization emerges for us, which will serve as some starting point. Magic takes place where a person encounters uncertainty and chance, and also where there is an extreme emotional tension between the hope of achieving a goal and the fear that this hope may not come true. Where the goals of an activity are defined, achievable, and well controlled by rational methods and technology, we do not find magic. But it is there where the elements of risk and danger are obvious. There is no magic when complete confidence in the safety of the event makes any prediction of the course of events superfluous. The psychological factor is at work here. But magic also performs another, no less important, social function. I have already written about the fact that magic acts as an effective factor in the organization of work and giving it a systemic character. It also acts as a force to carry out practical intentions. Therefore, the culturally integrative function of magic is to eliminate those obstacles and inconsistencies that inevitably arise in those spheres of practice that are of great social importance, where a person is not fully able to

control the course of events. Magic maintains in a person confidence in the success of his actions, without which he would not be able to achieve his goals; in magic, a person draws spiritual and practical resources when he cannot rely on the usual means at his disposal. Magic instills in him faith, without which he could not solve vital tasks, strengthens his spirit and allows him to gather strength in those circumstances when he is threatened with despair and fear, when he is gripped by horror or hatred, suppressed by a love failure or impotent rage.

Magic has something in common with science in the sense that it is always directed towards a specific goal, generated by the biological and spiritual nature of man. The art of magic is always subordinated to practical purposes; like any other art or craft, it has some conceptual framework and principles, the system of which determines the way to achieve goals. Therefore, magic and science have a number of similarities, and after Sir James Fraser, we could with some reason call magic "pseudoscience".

Let's take a closer look at what the art of magic is. Whatever the specific form of magic, it always contains three essential elements. In a magical act, there is a pronounced or chanted incantation, a ritual or ceremony, and the person who officially has the right to perform the ceremony and pronounce incantations. Thus, when analyzing magic, one should distinguish between the formula of the spell, the rite and the personality of the magician himself. Immediately, I note that in the area of \u200b\u200bMelanesia where I conducted my research, the most important element of magic is the spell. For a native to wield magic is to know the spell; in any witchcraft ritual, the entire ritual is built around the repeated repetition of the spell. As for the ritual itself and the personality of the magician, these elements are conditional in nature and are important only as an appropriate form for casting spells. This is important from the point of view of the topic we are discussing, since a magic spell reveals its connection with traditional teachings and even more so with mythology.

Exploring various forms of magic, we almost always find some narratives that describe and explain the origins of the existence of certain magical rites and spells. They tell how, when and where this formula began to belong to a particular person or some kind of community, how it was passed on or inherited. But one should not see in such narratives a "history of magic". Magic has no "beginning", it is not created or invented. Magic simply existed from the very beginning, it has always existed as an essential condition of all those events, things and processes that make up the sphere of human vital interests and are not subject to his rational efforts. The spell, the rite and the purpose for which they are performed coexist in the same time of human existence.

Thus, the essence of magic is its traditional integrity. Without the slightest distortions and changes, it is passed from generation to generation, from primitive people to modern performers of rituals - and only in this way does it retain its effectiveness. Therefore, magic needs a kind of pedigree, so to speak, a passport for travel in time. How myth gives value and significance to a magical rite, combined with belief in its efficacy, is best illustrated with a concrete example.

As we know, Melanesians place great importance on love and sex. Like other peoples inhabiting the South Sea islands, they allow for greater freedom and ease of conduct in sexual relations, especially before marriage. However, adultery is a punishable offense, and connections within the same totemic clan are strictly prohibited. The biggest crime in

the eyes of the natives are any form of incest. The thought of an unlawful bond between brother and sister makes them horrified and disgusted. Brother and sister, united by the closest ties of kinship in this matriarchal society, cannot even communicate freely with each other, they should never joke or smile at each other. Any hint of one of them in the presence of another is considered very bad form. However, outside the clan, the freedom of sexual relations is quite significant, and love is clothed in many alluring and attractive forms.

The attractiveness of sex and the power of love, the natives believe, originate in love magic. The latter is based on a drama that once happened in the distant past. The tragic myth of incest between brother and sister tells about her. Here is a summary.

In one village, a brother and sister lived in their mother's hut. One day, a young girl accidentally inhaled the scent of a potent love potion prepared by her brother to attract the favor of another woman. Mad with passion, she carried her brother to a deserted seashore and there seduced him. Overcome by remorse, tormented by the pangs of conscience, the lovers stopped eating and drinking and died nearby in the same cave. Where their bodies lay, a fragrant herb sprouted, the juice of which is now mixed with other infusions and used in rituals of love magic.

It is no exaggeration to say that magic myths, even more than other types of native mythology, serve as a social claim of people. On their basis, a ritual is created, belief in the miraculousness of magic is strengthened, traditional patterns of social behavior are consolidated.

The disclosure of this cult-creative function of the magical myth fully confirms the brilliant theory of the origin of power and monarchy, developed by Sir James Fraser in the first chapters of his "Golden Bough". According to Sir James, the main source of social power is to be found in magic. Having shown how the effectiveness of magic depends on local tradition, social belonging and direct inheritance, we can now trace another connection of cause and effect between tradition, magic and power.

3. Magic and religion

Before proceeding to a detailed description of totemism, it is necessary to determine the real place of another phenomenon. It is usually relied on when trying to separate religious faith from popular prejudices, presenting it as a higher "moment" of spiritual life, independent of the regional conditions of a particular historical era. It is about the relationship between magic and religion and the supposed difference between them.

In fact, it is unthinkable to completely separate the concepts of magic and religion. Each cult includes a magical practice: all sorts of prayers, from primitive to modern religions, are, in essence, a form of naive and illusory influence on the outside world. It is impossible to oppose religion to magic without breaking with science.

The relationship between man and nature, established from time immemorial, has always had a twofold character: the domination of an omnipotent nature over a helpless man, on the one hand, and on the other, the impact on nature, which man sought to carry out, even if in limited and imperfect forms characteristic of primitive society. - using their tools of labor, their productive forces, their abilities.

The interaction of these two only outwardly incomparable forces determines the development of peculiar methods by means of which primitive man sought to exert an influence on nature that he imagined. These techniques, in fact, are magical practice.

The imitation of hunting techniques should contribute to the success of the hunt itself. Before going in search of kangaroos, Australians dance rhythmically around a drawing depicting the much-desired prey on which the tribe depends.

If the people of the Caroline Islands want a newborn to become a good angler, they try to tie their newly cut umbilical cord to a pie or canoe.

The Ainu people, the indigenous population of Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, and the Japanese island of Hokkaido, catch a little bear cub. One of the women of the clan feeds him with her milk. After a few years, the bear is strangled or killed with arrows. The meat is then collectively eaten during a sacred meal. But before the ritual sacrifice, the bear is prayed to return to earth as soon as possible, to allow itself to be caught and thus continue to feed the group of people who raised it.

Thus, by its origin, witchcraft practice is not opposite to religion, but, on the contrary, merges with it. It is true that magic is not yet associated with any privileges of a social nature (in primitive society, everyone can try to "put pressure" on the forces of nature). However, very early, individual members of the clan begin to nominate, claiming to have special data for this. With the advent of the first "sorcerer", the concept of "priest" appears.

All these are indisputable signs of the formation of a religious ideology.

We have already noted that primitive society is characterized by a naive materialistic understanding of life, nature and social relations. The elementary needs of the first people, who owned everything in common and did not know the private appropriation of means of subsistence, were equally satisfied or not satisfied. The history of nature and the history of people merged into one: the second, as it were, continued the first.

The main contradiction between man and the forces of nature, underlying primitive society, is not enough in itself to explain the emergence of the idea of \u200b\u200bthe otherworldly, and even more so the concept of "evil", "sin" and "salvation." The contradictions rooted in differences in kinship, age and sex do not yet have a class character and have not engendered any form of genuinely religious withdrawal from life. It took people to realize the limitations that the new structure of society had imposed on their daily life, so that along with the decomposition of society into classes, there was also a need for some kind of "spiritual" element (as it is customary to express in theological and idealistic philosophy), opposing nature, bodily, material.

Strictly speaking, the first forms of religiosity cannot even be recognized as manifestations of ritual practice based on some kind of "supernatural" idea and thus opposed to the normal everyday customs of a person. The relationship between people and their totem - an animal, a plant or a natural phenomenon - does not go beyond the primitive materialistic worldview with all its characteristic absurdities, which are preserved and held in the beliefs of subsequent eras. At first, magic itself appears to be a kind of material pressure of man on nature or society to obtain certain tangible results.

Collective life by itself could not "objectively manifest itself in myth and ritual," as various representatives of the French sociological school assert, from Durkheim to Levy-Bruhl. A society without social contradictions could never give rise to religious "alienation."

When a primitive community, based on equal participation of its members in obtaining and appropriating products, disintegrates and gives way to a regime of private property, for this period, the religious ideas of people did not go further than the imaginary connections of the primitive group with certain animals or plants that its members ate (such hare, turtle, porcupine, kangaroo, wild boar, eagle, bear, deer, various types of berries and herbs, trees). But the stratification of the family and the emergence of classes led to a bifurcation of ideology, which was of exceptional importance, and gave rise to different views on nature, on the one hand, and, on the other, on the world of phenomena, which were now recognized as supernatural.

4 . From relative animal to ancestor animal

Totemism is the most ancient form of religion that we know in human history before the era of classes.

What exactly does "totem" mean? This word, as we have already seen, originally meant a kinship between members of a certain group of people and their alleged or actual ancestor. Later, this relationship was extended to animals and plants, which serve this group to maintain existence. This expansion of ideas itself is a certain religious process. From the idea of \u200b\u200bthe totem, over time, the cult of animals, plants and natural phenomena that determine human life will develop.

It is often argued that totemism cannot be considered a religious phenomenon, since the mythical relative and patron of the group is not yet recognized as standing above a person and is not identified with any deity. Proponents of this point of view, supported by theologians and some rationalistic scientists, simply do not take into account that the process of affirming the idea of \u200b\u200ba higher being and even more so a personified deity could not begin before privileged groups began to prevail in society, leading layers, social classes.

In a society with a division of labor based on kinship relations and age differences, kinship relations naturally become the main type of religious ties. The animal on which the clan's food supply depends is also considered a relative of the group. Members of a given clan do not eat its meat, just as men and women of the same group do not marry each other. This prohibition is expressed in the word of Polynesian origin - "tabu" ("tapu"), which was first heard by the navigator Cook in Tanga (1771). The original meaning of this word is separated, removed away. In a primitive society, taboo is everything that conceals in itself, according to the idea of \u200b\u200bprimitive man, danger.

A taboo is imposed on the sick, on corpses, on foreigners, on women at certain periods of their physiological life, and in general on all objects that, as it seems to primitive man, have an extraordinary character. Later, tribal chiefs, monarchs and priests would enter the same category. Everything that is taboo is untouchable and carries an infection; however, these notions gave rise to some healing and purifying prohibitions.

All these beliefs are explained in various forms of real life and social relations, the effect of which people have experienced on themselves. It was not religion that gave rise to the idea of \u200b\u200bthe pure and the unclean, the holy and the worldly, the permissible and the forbidden, but the social practice that created the reflected world of legends and rituals called sacred. But, having come into being, these ideas have gone the way of independent development. And the conclusion that the way of life of people and the mode of production, and not their way of thinking, led to certain ideas, does not at all mean neglect of the specific meaning of ideology or the explanation of religious issues with simple economic references.

Who among the researchers of primitive society can deny the decisive role of social production relations?

A group of people lives by hunting, which has been an obligatory stage in the development of society everywhere. But in order to overtake the prey, it is necessary to master an extremely complex hunting art, the ideological reflection of which can be seen in the so-called initiation rites, to which only men are allowed so far. This is the cleansing, dedication and introduction of the young man into the number of hunters (or fishermen).

During ceremonial festivities, often lasting weeks, the initiate symbolically dies in order to be reborn to a new life and to be able to fulfill his duties in relation to society. We are still far from the notions of redemption and salvation, arising only in the era of the highest development of slavery, when salvation that was not feasible on earth was transferred to the realm of fiction, to the world of the other world. But the transition of a young man to a more responsible category in connection with his age or the skills he has acquired carries in itself the embryo of the idea of \u200b\u200bthose rituals that would later develop in the religion of the "mysteries" and in Christianity itself.

Powerless in the face of nature and the collective, primitive man identifies himself with the animal ancestor, with his totem, through complex and often painful ceremonies, which ultimately increases his dependence on nature and social environment. From the rite, from the details of the cult, little by little the desire arises to interpret reality from the point of view of myth and tradition.

When restoring the development process of the first forms of religious ideology, it is always necessary to beware of attributing to a person concerns and beliefs that can arise only in subsequent phases of the development of society.

There is no doubt that when we seek to judge the customs and views related to the era in which the exploitation of man by man did not yet exist, it is difficult for us to get rid of the burden of old ideas accumulated over millennia, which are reflected in the very language in which we speak about all these issues. ... It is as difficult as to describe now, even in general terms, the changes that will occur in the character, morality and mind of people with the disappearance of classes and the establishment of a society where freedom and equality will not be, as now, dubious expressions.

When, for example, we talk about a cult, we introduce a concept that could not make sense at the earliest stage in the development of human society.

After all, etymologically, the idea of \u200b\u200ba cult is associated with the practice of cultivating the land and presupposes a society in which production relations are already based on a primitive form of agriculture and on the appropriate division of labor between old and young, especially between men and women.

It was women who were entrusted by the tribe during this period, in addition to cooking, field work, growing fruits and plants, at the same time, men were still engaged in hunting. This period in the history of primitive society includes the advancement of women in society, which characterizes the era of matriarchy.

Traces of this era are preserved not only in religious life, in folk traditions and in language, but also in the customs of many peoples of our time: on the Malacca Peninsula, in India, in Sumatra, in New Guinea, among the Eskimos, among the Nile tribes, in the Congo, Tanganyika, Angola and South America.

The era of matriarchy explains why the most ancient rituals of fertility known to us are primarily characterized by the cult of a woman or the attributes of a woman (schematic images of details of a woman's anatomy, magical vulvar cults, etc.).

But before forcing the land to submit to the will of the person who cultivates it, society went through a period of fundraising, which everyone was engaged in on equal terms, a period of hunting, cattle breeding and shepherding. While the division of labor was carried out within the framework of age and kinship relations, the connection between the individual and the totem could not yet acquire the character of a genuine cult.

Each group of people within a larger association - the terms clan and tribe suggest an already sufficiently developed social organization - specializes in hunting a specific animal: boar, deer, snake, bear, kangaroo. But in a society where an individual is dependent on others for food, this animal eventually ceases to separate from the group itself - it becomes its symbol, its patron, and finally, its ancestor.

Intricate ceremonies gradually transform the concept of a biological connection into an imaginary one. And little by little, from such ideas, the cult of ancestors arises, which is possible with a significantly higher degree of social differentiation and has survived among various peoples of India, China, Africa and Polynesia.

A person of a certain totemic group treats his ancestor animal with special respect. Those, for example, that hunt a bear, avoid eating its meat, at least during the period of sacred fasting, but feed on the game taken by hunters of other groups who have a different totem. A community of people formed in the place of a decayed primitive horde is like a vast cooperative, in which everyone must take care of food for others and in turn depends on others for their livelihood.

They are blurred, but the commonness of stages can be traced everywhere. Relationship between art and religion In general, the close relationship between art and religion is determined by a number of common points. Most importantly, they express a person's value attitude to reality, to the world of being, to the meaning of his own life and the future of his land. Art and religion were closely intertwined in the structure of the ancient syncretic ...

According to the tribes of the present time, which are in similar conditions. And again, the main manifestation of the initial stage of the development of religion is totemism. It is especially pronounced among the peoples of Australia. This form of religion consists in the fact that each clan, tribe is magically related to its animal totem or object. Each member can have his own totem, there is also sexual totemism, i.e. one...

Both magic and religion arise in situations of emotional stress: a life crisis, the collapse of the most important plans, death and initiation into the mysteries of their tribe, unhappy love or unquenched hatred. Both magic and religion point out the ways out of such situations and dead ends in life, when reality does not allow a person to find another way, except for turning to faith, ritual, the sphere of the supernatural. In religion, this sphere is filled with spirits and souls, providence, supernatural patrons of the clan and heralds of its secrets; in magic a primitive belief in the power of the magic of a magic spell. Both magic and religion directly rely on mythological tradition, on the atmosphere of a wonderful expectation of the disclosure of their miraculous power. Both magic and religion are surrounded by a system of rituals and taboos that distinguishes their actions from that of the uninitiated. But what is the difference between magic and religion?

Magic is the science of practical creation. Magic is based on knowledge, but spiritual knowledge, knowledge of the supersensible. Magical experiments aimed at studying the supernatural are in themselves scientific in nature, therefore, their presentation belongs to the scientific literature by genre. Let's trace the differences and similarities between magic and religion and science.

The difference between magic and religion

Let's start with the most definite and striking distinction: in the sacred sphere, magic appears as a kind of practical art that serves to perform actions, each of which is a means of achieving a specific goal; religion - as a system of such actions, the fulfillment of which is in itself a goal. Let's try to trace this difference at deeper levels. The practical art of magic has a specific technique of execution that is applied within strict boundaries: witchcraft spells, ritual and the performer's personal abilities form a constant trinity. Religion in all the diversity of its aspects and goals does not have such a simple technique; its unity is not reduced either to the system of formal actions, or even to the universality of its ideological content, it rather lies in the function performed and in the value significance of faith and ritual. The beliefs inherent in magic, in accordance with its practical orientation, are extremely simple. It is always a belief in the power of a person to achieve the desired goal with the help of witchcraft and ritual. At the same time, in religion we observe a significant complexity and diversity of the supernatural world as an object: the pantheon of spirits and demons, the beneficial powers of the totem, the spirits - the guardians of the clan and tribe, the souls of the forefathers, pictures of the future afterlife - all this and much more creates a second , a supernatural reality for primitive man. Religious mythology is also more complex and diverse, more imbued with creativity. Usually, religious myths are centered around various dogmas and develop their content in cosmogonic and heroic narratives, in descriptions of the deeds of gods and demigods. Magic mythology, as a rule, appears in the form of endlessly repeating stories about the extraordinary achievements of primitive people. B. Malinovsky "Magic, Science and Religion" - [Electronic resource |

Magic, as a special art of achieving specific goals, in one of its forms, once enters the cultural arsenal of a person and then is directly transmitted from generation to generation. From the very beginning, it is an art that few specialists master, and the first profession in the history of mankind is that of a sorcerer and sorcerer. Religion in its most original forms acts as a common cause of primitive people, each of whom takes an active and equal part in it. Each member of the tribe goes through a rite of passage (initiation) and subsequently initiates others. Each member of the tribe grieves and weeps when his relative dies, participates in the burial and honors the memory of the deceased, and when his hour comes, he will be mourned and remembered in the same way. Each person has his own spirit, and after death everyone becomes a spirit himself. The only specialization that exists within the framework of religion - the so-called primitive spiritualistic mediumship - is not a profession, but an expression of personal talent. Another difference between magic and religion is the play of black and white in sorcery, while religion in its primitive stages is not too interested in the opposition between good and evil, beneficial and harmful forces. Here again, the practical nature of magic is important, aimed at immediate and measurable results, while primitive religion is addressed to fatal, inevitable events and supernatural forces and creatures (albeit mainly in the moral aspect), and therefore does not deal with problems associated with human impact on the surrounding world.

Religious faith gives stability, forms and strengthens all value-significant mental attitudes, such as respect for tradition, harmonious outlook, personal valor and confidence in the struggle against everyday adversity, courage in the face of death, etc. This faith, supported and formalized in cults and ceremonies, has great vital significance and reveals to primitive man the truth in the broadest, practically important sense of the word. What is the cultural function of magic? As we have already said, all the instinctive and emotional abilities of a person, all his practical actions can lead to such dead-end situations when they misfire all his knowledge, reveal their limited powers of reason, cunning and observation do not help. The forces that a person relies on in everyday life leave him at a critical moment. Human nature responds with a spontaneous explosion, releasing rudimentary behaviors and a dormant belief in their effectiveness. Magic builds on this belief, transforms it into a standardized ritual that takes on a continuous traditional form. Thus, magic gives a person a number of ready-made ritual acts and standard beliefs, formalized with a certain practical and mental technique. Thus, as it were, a bridge is being erected over those abysses that arise before a person on the way to his most important goals, a dangerous crisis is overcome. This allows a person not to lose his presence of mind when solving the most difficult life tasks; maintain self-control and integrity of the personality when an attack of anger, a paroxysm of hatred, hopelessness of despair and fear approaches. The function of magic is to ritualize human optimism, to maintain faith in the victory of hope over despair. In magic, a person finds confirmation that self-confidence, persistence in trials, optimism prevail over hesitation, doubt and pessimism. In the same place

According to J. Fraser, the radical opposition of magic and religion explains the relentless hostility with which clergymen throughout history have treated sorcerers. The priest could not help but be outraged by the arrogant arrogance of the sorcerer, his arrogance in relation to higher powers, shameless claim to possess equal power with them. To a priest of a god, with his reverent sense of divine majesty and humble admiration for him, such claims must have seemed an impious, blasphemous usurpation of prerogatives belonging to one god. At times, this hostility was exacerbated by lower motives. The priest proclaimed himself the only true intercessor and true mediator between God and man, and his interests, as well as feelings, often went against the interests of the rival, who preached a more sure and smooth path to happiness than the thorny and slippery path of gaining divine favor.

But this antagonism, however familiar it may seem to us, appears to appear at a relatively late stage in religion. In earlier stages, the functions of the sorcerer and the priest were often combined, or rather not separated. Man sought the favor of the gods and spirits with the help of prayers and sacrifices and at the same time resorted to charms and spells that could have the desired effect on their own, without the help of God or the devil. In short, a person performed religious and magical rites, recited prayers and spells in one breath, while he did not pay attention to the theoretical inconsistency of his behavior, if by hook or by crook he managed to achieve what he wanted. J. Fraser "Golden Branch"

As we can see, there are differences between magic and religion. Religion is focused on meeting the corresponding needs of the people, on mass worship. Magic, by its nature, cannot be conveyor production. In magical training, constant personal guidance of a person from the Higher Forces is mandatory. There is a direct parallel here with experimental research in science.

No one will allow a stranger to enter a closed laboratory where experiments are carried out, for example, with high energies, low temperatures, and nuclear research. These experiments are carried out only by experienced scientists after preliminary mathematical and physical modeling in full compliance with safety regulations and guaranteed absence of unauthorized persons in the laboratory.

magic religion rite ritual

History of British social anthropology Alexey Nikishenkov

3.1.2. Religion, magic, mythology

Malinovsky generally shared the division of phenomena in traditional societies into “sacred” and “profane” proposed by E. Durkheim. He deduced the nature of the "sacred", that is, religion and magic, not from social consciousness, but from the psychology of the individual. According to his biopsychological doctrine, the researcher considered religion and magic to be “cultural correspondences” designed to satisfy certain biopsychological needs of a person. Developing this a priori thesis, Malinovsky built his "pragmatic theory" of religion, magic and mythology. The premise of his "pragmatic theory" of magic was the recognition of the fact that in "primitive" societies, human capabilities are very limited. The feeling of his weakness prompts a person to look for "additions" to his positive knowledge and available technical means. He “tries to control the forces of nature directly, with the help of“ special knowledge, ”that is, magic. Thus, magic, according to Malinovsky, is a person's attempt to achieve fulfillment, even if illusory, of "strong and unfulfillable desires."

Without magic, Malinovsky argues, primitive man "could neither cope with the practical difficulties of life, nor achieve higher levels of culture." The scientist explains this statement by the fact that the function performed by magic is necessary, and it is necessary not so much for society as for each of its constituent individuals: “... The function of magic is to ritualize a person's optimism, to increase his faith in the triumph of hope over fear. Magic brings to a person the predominance of confidence over doubt, steadfastness over indecision, optimism over pessimism. " In the same vein, the researcher decides the question of the roots and functions of religion.

The emergence of religion, according to Malinovsky, was caused by a person's fear of death and those phenomena that he could not explain, in front of natural and social forces that he could not resist. The function of religion, the scientist believes, is that it “introduces, fixes and strengthens all valuable mental attitudes, such as respect for traditions, harmony with the surrounding nature, courage and firmness in the struggle against difficulties and in the face of death. Religious beliefs embodied in cults and ceremonies have tremendous biological value and, as such, represent truth in the broad pragmatic sense of the word for primitive people. " The definitions of magic and religion given by Malinowski show that both of these phenomena merge in his concept, although Malinowski declaratively joined Fraser's thesis about their fundamental difference. Mythology "pragmatic theory" assigned the auxiliary role of a kind of repository of religious plots, images, magic spells, etc.

The comforting, illusory compensatory function of religion attracted the attention of philosophers long before Malinovsky. L. Feuerbach spoke about the nature of this function, which is rooted in the fundamental contradiction between the "will and skill" of people. This position was developed by the classics of Marxism, who, along with an analysis of the material conditions for the emergence and existence of religion, never lost sight of the fact that it is also a “direct, that is, emotional, form of people's relationship to alien forces dominating them, natural and public ”. K. Marx in his work "On the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Law" defines religion as "the illusory happiness of the people", "the sigh of an oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world" and, ultimately, as "the opium of the people."

"Pragmatic theory", expressing the most general ideas of Malinovsky about the nature of religion, does not cover, however, all his ideas about the significance of this phenomenon in a concrete pre-class society. The duality of the anthropologist's scientific thinking is especially clearly manifested in this question. His ideas about religion are located, as it were, at different levels - general sociological and empirical. If the source of the first is a priori ideological attitudes, then the source of the second is the reality observed on Trobriand.

Malinowski's specific scientific conclusions about the role of religion, magic and mythology in Trobriand society are the result of a complex interaction of the two indicated tendencies, a clash of ideological bias with factual material. Malinovsky was one of the first to draw attention to the specifics of the existence of religious ideas in pre-class society - to their vagueness, inconsistency, in fact, to the absence of a clear, logically coherent religious system. He was one of the first in anthropology to pose the problem of creating a special methodology for studying these ideas, a problem extremely important and controversial to this day.

Not having received from the Trobriands a coherent description of their ideas about the souls of the dead ( baloma), Malinovsky proposed an indirect way of isolating the invariant features of religious ideas - either through their manifestation in ritual practice, the procedure of which is strictly regulated by tradition, or through spontaneous expressions of religious ideas in everyday activities. He believed that “all people, even those of them who are not able to express in words what they think about the“ baloma ”... nevertheless always behave in a certain way towards her, adhering to certain rules of custom and fulfilling certain canons of emotional reactions ". This empirical-methodological position acquired the character of a guiding principle both in the description of the religious and magical activity of the Trobriands and in its interpretation. According to this principle, "religious beliefs should be studied in their actions in the space of social dimensions, they should be considered in the light of different types of thinking and different institutions in which they can be traced."

Such a methodological prescription, while essentially denying the narrowness of the “pragmatic theory”, corresponds to the real state of affairs in pre-class society, which is characterized by “sacralization of social ideas and norms, relations, groups and institutions. Religious consciousness dominates. Religious groups coincide with ethnic communities. Religious activity is an indispensable link in general social activity. Religious relationships are “superimposed” on other social relationships. Social institutions combine religious and secular power ”.

Malinovsky rightly believed that every primitive society possesses a certain store of knowledge based on experience and organized in a rational way, and this knowledge is strangely intertwined with ignorance. Starting from this position, he came to a number of interesting conclusions about the importance of religion in various spheres of Trobriand's life. Malinovsky's contribution to the study of the role of mythology in pre-class society was especially noticeable. His contemporaries, not without reason, was perceived as a "revolution" in this branch of anthropology.

Malinovsky's predecessors, who studied the mythology of primitive and ancient peoples, dealt, as a rule, with texts, but not with the life of the peoples themselves, among whom these myths existed. Ancient myths have reached the New Age in a form strongly distorted by literary processing; the myths of modern pre-class and early class societies entered the hands of scientists as scattered plots that lost their original appearance from the retelling of random people - travelers, missionaries, merchants, etc. All this inevitably led to a certain limitation of the myth theories created by scientists.

By the time Malinovsky appeared in print with his interpretation of "primitive" mythology, E. Tylor's ideas about primitive mythology, as well as the ideas of M. Müller's "mythological school", were most widespread in Western science. If Tylor viewed primitive mythology as the result of man's attempts to explain the world around him with the meager means of his “primitive” intellect, then the representatives of the Mueller school saw the reason for the appearance of mythological plots in the “disease of the language” of primitive people who resorted to metaphors, representing meteorological phenomena in the form of supernatural characters.

A fundamentally new vision of “primitive” mythology allowed Malinovsky to reveal the limitations of the armchair interpretation of the nature of myth and myth-making. The scientist showed that Taylor's and Müller's interpretations of the myth are attempts to impose on some imaginary “savage” his own rationalistic position, the position of a contemplator and thinker, which is least suitable for real representatives of pre-class society. “Based on my own study of living myths among savages,” writes Malinowski, “I must admit that a purely scientific or poetic interest in nature is extremely small for a primitive person; extremely little space is allotted to symbolic creativity in his ideas and stories; myth in reality is not an idle rhapsody and not an aimless outpouring of vain imagination, but an intensely working, extremely important cultural force. "

It was Malinovsky who first presented the mythology of pre-class society in the fullness of its diverse social functions. The myth in his interpretation “expresses and attaches special importance to religious beliefs, codifies them; it protects and strengthens morality, it promotes the effectiveness of ritual and provides practical guidelines for human action. " In short, mythology is a “charter” of all social institutions of a “primitive” society. In this capacity, the myth is considered as a set of social attitudes, rules of behavior, norms of customary law, embodied in the subjects of the sacred past, that is, it acts as a regulator of social activity in an unwritten society. E.M. Meletinsky rightfully called this interpretation of the myth Malinovsky's discovery, which laid the foundation for a fundamentally new direction in the study of mythology.

Malinovsky's view of the regulatory role of myth in pre-class society reveals the characteristic features of this phenomenon as a kind of synthesis of perverse ideas and objective judgments. Here knowledge appears in the form of ignorance, objective reality is reflected inadequately, but in this reflection there is an element of truth clothed in fantastic clothes of fiction. Such an interpretation of mythology makes its consideration a necessary element in the study of any sphere of the spiritual culture of a pre-class society and, in particular, religion and magic.

If the connection between mythology and religion has always been obvious to scientists, then its connection with magic was discovered by Malinowski and convincingly illustrated in Trobriand's material. The naive and absurd, from the point of view of a European, the determinism of magical actions received a new interpretation thanks to Malinovsky's research. The anthropologist came to the conclusion that the Trobriands resort to magical actions not only and not so much because they misunderstand the objective causal relationship of phenomena, but because the sacred characters of their myths behave in a similar way in similar cases. The magical act itself looks like a dramatization of a certain mythological plot, through which those who perform it seem to join the sacred mythical world. The desired result is "achieved" not as a result of a certain action, but as a result of the "transfer" of the emerging life situation to another state - to the mythological "space - time", where special laws operate and where the spirits of ancestors, cultural heroes, etc. are helpers of people.

Magic, according to Malinowski, is completely based on mythology: magic spells are nothing more than a certain piece of myth; the necessity and content of certain magical rites in various situations are determined by the structure and content of mythology. The examination of magic in its connection with mythology revealed a whole layer of new for British social anthropology in the first third of the twentieth century. qualities of this phenomenon - systemic qualities that did not flow from the inner nature of the magical act, but were determined by the place of this act in the worldview of society.

Malinovsky did not stop at analyzing the systemic qualities of magic ritual only in the plane of its connections with mythology. He went further, revealing the functional connections of magic with the main spheres of life in Trobriand society - the economy and social organization. Analyzing the significance of magic in the agriculture of the Trobriands, Malinowski comes to the conclusion that "magic always accompanies agricultural labor and is not practiced from time to time, as soon as a special occasion arises or at the behest of a whim, but as an essential part of the entire system of agricultural labor," which "does not allow to an honest observer, discard it as a mere appendage. " At the same time, the scientist notes a paradoxical dichotomy in the minds of the Trobriands - they know perfectly well and can rationally explain what is required to achieve a good harvest, but at the same time they are absolutely sure that you cannot get it without magic rituals and, explaining this, they refer to the myth, in in which the cultural hero performs a magic ceremony.

What is the reason for this inconsistency? Malinowski attaches special scientific importance to the answer to this question: "The relationship between supernatural means of control over the natural course of things and rational technology is one of the most important problems for a sociologist." Magic rituals, as interpreted by Malinowski, are a kind of communication mechanism between mythology as the focus of tribal tradition and the practical activities of people. Through the magic rite, the implementation of the centuries-old experience inherent in mythological legends, including the experience of cultivating cultivated plants and the organization of this technological process, is carried out. The magical rite affirms and maintains the value of this experience in the minds of people, attributing a sacred meaning to it by referring to the authority of mythical ancestors. Mages ( tovosi), responsible for the ceremonies that promote the growth of yam ( megwakeda), are at the same time organizers of collective labor; they are generally recognized experts in agricultural matters.

In the minds of the Trobriands, the idea of \u200b\u200bownership of a particular piece of land is often associated with the sacred connection of the magician with this plot, although in reality its real owner is a certain community or its subdivision. “The magic performed for the village community as a whole (including several settlements. - A. N.), villages, and at times for the subdivision of the village (sub-clan. - A. N.), has its own "tovosi" (magician) and its own system of "tovosi" (magic), and this is perhaps the main expression of the unity (of the listed divisions. - A. N.) ". The described situation means that the land-ownership and real production-territorial structure of Trobriand society in the minds of its members appear in an "inverted" form as a structure of magical activity and a hierarchy of persons who produce it. And this is not surprising, since it is the magicians who usually lead the collectives gathering for joint work.

Empirically reflected by Malinowski, the picture of the "imposition" of magical practice on the structure of industrial activity of the Trobriands includes another significant aspect - the role of magic in their social organization. Indeed, in this society, the magician is often united in one person with the leader or head of the community, which follows from the principle of the correspondence of the sacred status to the social potestar, characteristic of all Melanesia.

Malinowski gives an interesting interpretation of the links between Trobriand mythology and their systems of kinship. Myths, he argues, contain norms that govern relationships between different kindred groups. The researcher confirms this by the fact that the relations between mythological creatures are codified norms of behavior. So, for example, the mythological plot, which tells about all kinds of meetings and adventures of the Dog, Pig and Crocodile, is nothing more than the norms of relations between the most important totem groups bearing the names of these creatures, generalized on the basis of specific logic. The relationship of the Trobriands with the souls of the dead and the souls of the dead among themselves is a converted, sacralized type of relationship between various categories of classifying relatives. This is due to the fact that "social division, the individual's belonging to a clan or sub-clan is preserved through all his rebirths", which gives significant social and regulatory significance to the cult of ancestors, who act here as sacred guardians of traditional norms of behavior.

Specific empirical interpretation of the religion, magic and mythology of the Trobrians by Malinowski, which was the result of certain logical possibilities of this level of methodology, made an undoubtedly positive contribution to the study of the problem. But while recognizing this, we must pay attention to the limitations of this interpretation.

The limiting influence of Malinovsky's a priori attitudes on his specific conclusions was expressed, first of all, in focusing attention on the positive side of religious functions and in a complete refusal to see their negative sides (dogmas of “universal functionality” and “functional necessity”). Malinovsky unreasonably put an equal sign between socially useful phenomena, in the functioning of which there is a religious and magical aspect, and religion itself. Speaking about the illusory compensatory function of religion, he did not want to notice its other features - the constant fear of black magic, the fear of evil spirits that fetter the will and mind of man.

Briefly summarizing the conclusions from the analysis of the specific scientific interpretation of Malinowski's factual material on Trobriand, which is a modeling type of explanation, we can conclude the following. Intuitive-fictional descriptiveness as a consequence of the operational uncertainty of the methods led to the fact that explanations of the factual material turned out to be extremely vague and ambiguous, they seem to be guessed when reading Malinovsky's monographs. You can never say with complete certainty how he assesses this or that fact. Rather, the fact speaks for itself than Malinovsky speaks about it.

Many of the principles of his specific methods, which in themselves were certain methodological achievements, in practice often gave an undesirable effect. Thus, the principle of reflecting phenomena in their interrelation led to factual overload - behind the huge amount of materials used, the analytic thought of the researcher was lost, isolating invariant relations that express not directly visible, but essential ties in society. The principle of a modeling explanation of the phenomenon by showing its role in the general cultural context contributed to the dissolution of the qualitative specificity of this phenomenon in many others.

The result of all this was the absence of a clear theoretical analysis of the institutions of kinship and religion of pre-class society, a logical conclusion about their qualitative specificity. Malinovsky's conclusions on these problems do not represent a coherent system of views, they are only a series of observed empirical patterns, not explanations, but only sketches of explanations, not a solution to the problem, but its formulation and an indication of possible directions of solution. The noted analytical weaknesses, however, are more than compensated for by the literary gift of Malinovsky, who had a mysterious ability in his works to describe the phenomena under study in such a way that these descriptions spoke much more about reality than their generalized interpretation.

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