ABSTRACT
Misdirected activities, a form of maladaptive activities, play a specially large part in the lives of savages. Some of the most striking examples of misdirected activities among savages are connected with the food problem. In this case the maladaptiveness is involved in food-getting more than in food-using. We should be prepared to find our low-cultured kindred carrying on some of their most seriously misdirected activities, and making some of their worst mistakes, in their efforts to get possession of the indispensable sustentatives of life. The chapter looks at some of the absurd practices of savages, designed to make their hunting and other necessity-securing activities more successful. The most immediately and obviously self-injurious practices of savages occur when eating and drinking are combined with festival performances involving sexual and religious activities. The most fundamental element is the absolute necessity of all human beings, like all other living beings, for food.
