ABSTRACT
INSTITUTIONS IN WHICH COLLECTIVE REPRE SENTATIONS GOVERNED B Y THE LAW OF PARTICIPATION ARE INVOLVED (II)
T here are certain practices, the meaning of which, at any rate as far as their object is concerned, does not admit of doubt : such are those which aim at treating the sick, pre venting the disease from having a fatal issue, and restoring the sufferers to health. Here again we shall see, when we study the practices almost universally followed by primitive peoples, that they confirm the results yielded by an analysis of their collective representations. Once more we perceive the mystic orientation, the preconceived ideas which allow observation and experience but a very limited area of influence, the connections between entities and phenomena dominated by the law of participation. The facts vary greatly in detail, and yet when they are referred to the mental conditions upon which they depend, they will be found fairly uniform. I shall preferably select those which most clearly demonstrate these mental conditions.
