There are certain questions of principle in every branch of science which cannot be passed over in any comprehensive and thorough treatment of the subject, and upon the answer of which the further course of inquiry essentially depends.

Such questions are, as a rule, the most difficult to settle, because only an overwhelming amount of evidence gathered with the very problem in view allows of an unequivocal answer. In anthropology the mutual co-operation of the theorist and of the field-worker is essential in all such cases.

A question of this type presents itself at the outset in anthropological investigations of religion. Is there a sharp and deep cleavage between religious and profane matters among primitive peoples? Or, in other words: Is there pronounced dualism in the social and mental life of the savage, or, on the contrary, do the religious and non-religious ideas and activities pass and shade into each other in a continuous manner?

This question is of utmost importance for the general theory of religion. Professor Durkheim postulates the existence of a perfectly sharp and deep cleavage between the two domains of the sacré and profane, and his entire theoretical construction stands and falls with this assumption. Again, Dr Marett is of the opinion that, generally speaking, ‘the savage is very far from having any fairly definite system of ideas of a magico-religious kind, with a somewhat specialised department of conduct corresponding thereto’.

This view, although expressed in a somewhat different connection, undoubtedly implies the negation of Durkheim's dogmatic standpoint.