Abstract
THE primitive in man in Dr. Murphy's definition is that which characterises him near to his origin as man, that is, when he began to be human, and includes the mind of the savage of the present day who is at a low stage of culture, probably at the intellectual level occupied by early man. His viewpoint in analysing the development of human society from its beginnings in primitive customs arid belief to higher manifestations is evolutionary and psychological. Tn his view, man has progressed by integration through differentiation from the lower to the higher on a line which in a sense is parallel to the evolution of the brain. This, as has been shown by the study of the brain in the anthropoids and fossil man, has been a process of development in the frontal area and a resulting improvement in the powers of co-ordination which have been largely responsible for man's intellectual advancement. Dr. Murphy therefore has a sound physical basis upon which to rest his interpretation of the facts; but it needs no great discernment to see that from the outset he is at odds both with the diffusionist school of Prof. jElliot Smith and with the recently enunciated theories of Prof. Levy Bruhl.
Primitive Man: his Essential Quest.
Dr.
John
Murphy
By. Pp. xiv + 342 (London: Oxford University Press 1927.) 15s. net.
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Primitive Man: his Essential Quest . Nature 120, 294 (1927). https://doi.org/10.1038/120294a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/120294a0