Human beings face problems and perplexities throughout
life. It would have been similar experience with the primitive people as well.
The primitive man when faced with an insurmountable problem would have prayed
and offered worship making a religious approach. He would have tried to coerce
a superior unseen power into service
through magic. The two kinds of approaches would have been made to tide
over difficult situations.
Frazer based on world wide studies arrived at two laws
in classifying magic. The first law known as law of similarity includes
homoeopathic and imitative or mimetic magic. The second law named law of
contact is associated with contagious magic.
Homoeopathic magic is known among some tribes in Chota
Nagpur and in the Ho tribe. The tribes of Chota Nagpur believe that thunder
with its rumbling noise causes rains .In order to cause rains they imitate thunder
by flinging down rocks and boulders down hills with the hope that rains will
follow. The Ho tribe lights huge bonfires from which smoke curls up and hope
that rains will follow.
Belief in natural and super natural phenomena in
primitive people possibly developed side by side independently. The powers of
two needed to be controlled through religion and magic. Religion is communal
and has a congregated character and magic is surrounded by secrecy. While people
respect the religious priest the magician is feared. The benign quality of
religion is ostensibly the reason for religion to take deep roots in society.
Mechanistic procedures are involved in the pursuit of
both science and magic. The difference is that the scientists deal with the natural
world and the magician is concerned with the supernatural.
According to Fraser religion, science and magic are in
principle similar but magic is based on wrong assumptions regarding causal relations.
Magic has an element of amazement, expectation and uncertainty. In science
there is expectation based on observations,experiment and analysis of the data obtained from experiment.Failure in science may be due to inadequate knowledge and so
continued research on right lines may
lead to success.Failure in magic may be the result of errors in performing rituals.
In certain situations skills and capabilities
possessed by people are of no avail and so religion or magic may be used as tools
to gain what is desired. In magic certain objects are considered to possess
powers which help people to get over difficulties. The sheer anchor of religion is faith and faith makes one to pray to
His benediction.
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