ABSTRACT
What does all this signify? Was it merely a stirring around in what Augustine Birrell described as ‘The great dust-heap called “history” ‘, to come up with some intriguing facts that no longer concern us today? Has the continuity now been broken, so that in our modern age we can dismiss these absurdities from the past as no longer relevant? Or perhaps the continuity itself might be questioned as an unlikely phenomenon. Beginning with this last issue, I would point out that such continuity is by no means confined to images of savages. It applies, for instance, to a different kind of Other, namely the mentally ill; and the parallel is rather close: Jodelet (1991, p. 176) specifically referred to the notion of the ‘animality’ of mental patients. Non-rational, ‘superstitious’ beliefs and practices have persisted, sometimes for millennia. In some European communities even the use of sorcery is, or was until quite recently, still alive (Favret-Saada 1977). An outstanding example is that of astrology, which has not merely survived but regained a certain amount of respectability as well as enjoying considerable commercial success. The reason is that such beliefs continue to serve psychological functions which I have discussed elsewhere (Jahoda 1969). 1
