The Encyclopedia of World Religions

dynamism S 127

dangerous. So people protected themselves by cre ating TABOOS . Animism resulted when people asso ciated personal characteristics with mana. Like all other theories of the origin of reli gion, Marett’s theory was entirely speculative. His description of mana also distorted the Polynesian idea. Today dynamism is no longer accepted. But the ideas that it made popular, mana and taboo, have taken on a life of their own.

MISM . R. R. Marett (1866–1943), an anthropologist, disagreed. He said there was an earlier form of reli gion. He called it preanimism. Later, others called it dynamism. According to Marett, before people believed in spirits, they felt awe before the supernatural energy that pervaded the universe. Marett called this energy mana, a Polynesian word. Mana was life-giving, but like electricity, too much of it was