[192]
The head-hunting mania of Borneo is also a pathological expression
of the desire to get approval of destructive activity from both the
living and the dead:
The aged of the people were no longer safe among their
kindred, and corpses were secretly disinterred to increase the
grizzly store. Superstition soon added its ready impulse to
the general movement. The aged warrior could not rest in his
grave till his relatives had taken a head in his name; the
maiden disdained the weak-hearted suitor whose hand was not
yet stained with some cowardly murder.[193]
Class distinctions and the attendant ceremonial observances go
immediately back to an appreciation of successful motor activities.
We need only observe the conduct of weaker animals in the presence
of the stronger to appreciate the differences in behavior induced
by the presence of superior motor ability. The recognition of this
difference, as it is finally expressed in habitual forms of behavior,
becomes a symbol of the difference, while the difference goes back,
in reality, to a difference in capacity.
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