Document Type : .

Authors

• ghorban elmi ¹
• Nazanin جلیلی ²

¹ religions

² Religions and Comparative Mysticism, University of Tehran

Abstract

.This article, in a descriptive and analytical way, has investigated the concept and characteristics of mana and the sacred in Marett's intellectual system. He, who primarily focuses on the anthropology of religion, emphasized emotion and feeling as the basic principle of analytical psychology of mind and human personality and the psychological components of religious belief, and instead of Tyler's animism, he offered pre-animism or animatism (the experience of mana) as the first and the original religious experience. Marett interprets the subject of religious consciousness as mana or sacred. The feeling of mana is the feeling of the presence of a wonderful and mysterious power or force that forms the essence of primitive religion. Basically, religion was formed in response to the feeling of awe and in connection with it. The feeling of mana is a mixture of fear, wonder and attraction that creates awe in humans. His minimal definition of religion includes the taboo-mana formula, where taboo is the negative aspect of a sacred or supernatural entity, which "should not be approached without restraint." In its positive aspect, it is named manna. Things that have mana are also taboo. Marett's mana, unlike Codrington's, is not power, but is entirely supernatural, i.e. religious and the core of religion.

Keywords

• religion
• sacred
• supernatural
• Marett
• mana