Chapter III: THE POSITIVE CULT--(continued)

II.--_Imitative Rites and the Principle of Causality_

I.--Nature of the imitative rites--Examples of ceremonies where
they are employed to assure the fertility of the species 351

II.--They rest upon the principle: _like produces like_--
Examination of the explanation of this given by the
anthropological school--Reasons why they imitate the animal
or plant--Reasons for attributing a physical efficacy to these
gestures--Faith--In what sense it is founded upon experience--
The principles of magic are born in religion 355

III.--The preceding principle considered as one of the first
statements of the principle of causality--Social conditions
upon which this latter depends--The idea of impersonal force or
power is of social origin--The necessity for the conception of
causality explained by the authority inherent in social
imperatives 362

CHAPTER IV

THE POSITIVE CULT--(_continued_)

III.--_Representative or Commemorative Rites_

I.--Representative rites with physical efficacy--Their relations
with the ceremonies already described--Their action is wholly
moral 371

II.--Representative rites without physical efficacy--They confirm
the preceding results--The element of recreation in religion:
its importance; its reason for existence--The idea of a feast 376

III.--Ambiguity of function in the various ceremonies studied;
they substitute themselves for each other--How this ambiguity
confirms the theory proposed 383

CHAPTER V

PIACULAR RITES AND THE AMBIGUITY OF THE NOTION OF SACREDNESS

Definition of the piacular rite 389

I.--Positive rites of mourning--Description of these rites 390

II.--How they are explained--They are not a manifestation of
private sentiments--The malice attributed to the souls of the
dead cannot account for them either--They correspond to the
state of mind in which the group happens to be--Analysis of
this state--How it ends by mourning--Corresponding changes in
the way in which the souls of the dead are conceived 396

III.--Other piacular rites; after a public mourning, a poor
harvest, a drought, the southern lights--Rarity of these rites
in Australia--How they are explained 403

IV.--The two forms of the sacred: the pure and the impure--Their
antagonism--Their relationship--Ambiguity of the idea of the
sacred--All rites present the same character 409