Psychology and Ethnology (Classic Reprint) - Softcover

Inhaltsangabe

A psychological study of how ritual, belief, and social life shape cultures.

This volume gathers the essential essays and memoirs of William Halse Rivers, a pioneering thinker who treated ethnology as a branch of psychology. Readers will encounter Rivers's distinctive approach to understanding customs and beliefs by tracing the mental processes that drive human societies.

From the megalithic monuments of the New Hebrides to the complexities of social organization, kinship, and ritual practice, the book weaves together field observations with theoretical inquiries. It examines how ceremonies, magic, and funeral rites relate to social ranks, migration, and cultural diffusion, and it situates these phenomena within broader questions about how cultures grow, interact, and change.

• Exploration of ritual objects and monuments, status rites, and the role of secret societies in Melanesia and Oceania.
• Analysis of how magic, death, and healing relate to social structure and identity.
• Discussion of diffusion, contact, and the spread of cultural practices across islands and regions.
• Connections between language, kinship, land tenure, and the organization of communities.

Ideal for readers of anthropology, psychology, and the history of cultural ideas, this edition presents Rivers's ideas in a clear, accessible way.

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