ABSTRACT
Among the many attempts that have been made to describe and explain the origin and development of the concepts of soul and immortality the one made by Edward B. Tylor in his “Primitive Culture” is most exhaustive and carefully thought out. To him the ideas by which primitive man expresses his sense experience are a result of speculative thought, of reasoning that leads to a consistent view of the world. It is noticeable that particularly the states and functions of physical and mental life do not appear to primitive man as qualities, conditions or actions, but as definite concepts which tend to take on concrete form. A study of the terms which are ordinarily translated as “soul” shows clearly that the equivalents in primitive tongues represent a variety of qualities of living man, and that their meaning varies accordingly. Preexistence is necessarily connected with the idea, of rebirth! It is another expression of the primitive mythological thought.
