V.--On the pretended absurdity of sacrificial oblations--How they are explained: dependence of sacred beings upon their worshippers--Explanation of the circle in which sacrifice seems to move--Origin of the periodicity of positive rites 344
II.--_Imitative Rites and the Principle of Causality_
I.--Nature of the imitative rites--Examples of ceremonies where they are employed to assure the fertility of the species 351
II.--They rest upon the principle: _like produces like_-- Examination of the explanation of this given by the anthropological school--Reasons why they imitate the animal or plant--Reasons for attributing a physical efficacy to these gestures--Faith--In what sense it is founded upon experience-- The principles of magic are born in religion 355
III.--The preceding principle considered as one of the first statements of the principle of causality--Social conditions upon which this latter depends--The idea of impersonal force or power is of social origin--The necessity for the conception of causality explained by the authority inherent in social imperatives 362
III.--_Representative or Commemorative Rites_
I.--Representative rites with physical efficacy--Their relations with the ceremonies already described--Their action is wholly moral 371
II.--Representative rites without physical efficacy--They confirm the preceding results--The element of recreation in religion: its importance; its reason for existence--The idea of a feast 376
III.--Ambiguity of function in the various ceremonies studied; they substitute themselves for each other--How this ambiguity confirms the theory proposed 383
PIACULAR RITES AND THE AMBIGUITY OF THE NOTION OF SACREDNESS
I.--Positive rites of mourning--Description of these rites 390
II.--How they are explained--They are not a manifestation of private sentiments--The malice attributed to the souls of the dead cannot account for them either--They correspond to the state of mind in which the group happens to be--Analysis of this state--How it ends by mourning--Corresponding changes in the way in which the souls of the dead are conceived 396
III.--Other piacular rites; after a public mourning, a poor harvest, a drought, the southern lights--Rarity of these rites in Australia--How they are explained 403