the Pacific and with the Orenda of the Iroquois. It implies
"wonder-working," and may be shown in sheer luck, in individual cunning
and power, or in such a form as the "uncanny" psychic qualities ascribed
to women from the dawn of history. With this interpretation of mana in
mind, taboo may be conceived as negative mana; and to break taboo is to
set in motion against oneself mystic wonder-working power.

Our study thus far has made it clear that there are mystic dangers to be
guarded against from human as well as extra-human sources. There is
weakness to be feared as well as power, as shown by the food and sex
taboos. And once again there is mystery in the different, the unusual,
the unlike, that causes avoidance and creates taboos. Man's dislike of
change from the old well-trodden way, no matter how irrational, accounts
for the persistence of many ancient folkways[6] whose origins are lost
in mystery.[A] Many of these old and persistent avoidances have been
expanded in the development of social relationships until we agree with
Mr. Crawley that taboo shows that "man seems to feel that he is treading
in slippery places." Might it not be within the range of possibility
that in the study of taboo we are groping with man through the first
blind processes of social control?[B]

[Footnote A: Prof. Franz Boas explains this tendency: "The more
frequently an action is repeated, the more firmly it will become
established ... so that customary actions which are of frequent
repetition become entirely unconscious. Hand in hand with this decrease
of consciousness goes an increase in the emotional value of the omission
of these activities, and still more of the performance of acts contrary
to custom."[7]]

[Footnote B: No study of the tabu-mana theory, however delimited its