Chapter I: THE COMMON ELEMENTS.—The common elements in the foregoing

ritualistic complexes are both general and specific in nature. We have, as general, an initiation ritual; and as specific, a shooting ritual. There are in addition, in the Central Algonkin and Winnebago group, other resemblances, such as similarities in the ethical teaching, in the details of the shooting ritual itself, and in the presence of the secret brush ritual. To the above must be added the fact that the songs of the Winnebago ceremonies are to a large extent in some Central Algonkin dialect.

The meaning of these general similarities will be touched upon later. What I wish to insist upon here is, that if the ritualistic complexes are at all to be regarded as identical, this is so by reason of the presence in each of a shooting ritual. This identity is strengthened in each case by the association of this specific shooting ritual with the more general feature of initiation. The most dramatic phase in the main ceremony is this initiation and shooting complex; and it seems, therefore, quite intelligible why the number of similar details thus associated together should have been interpreted as the historically primary and basic elements.

To postulate an historical identity, however, on the basis of a number of common elements, in the face of numerous and important differences, implies a specific attitude toward the nature and significance of the common elements in these ceremonies. We know, indeed, that almost all theoreticians place greater insistence upon the similarities than upon the differences in cultural phenomena. There is perhaps a natural tendency to do so. But quite apart from this tendency, there must likewise be certain definite reasons for such an interpretation. It is essential, consequently, to understand at the very outset the theoretical justification of this position.