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Introduction

The Terry Lectures at Yale University deal with "Religion in the light of Science and Philosophy." They have been delivered by philosophers and eminent authorities in various branches of science but now, for the first time, the subject is approached by a humble anthropologist from the angle of a primitive religion.

Anthropology is a very wide subject, and even primitive religion is too extensive to be exhaustively discussed in three lectures. I will not pursue the academic method followed by Sir James Fraser in his Golden Bough whereby certain elements were isolated from the complex settings of which they formed an integral part. I prefer to follow the procedure of Professor Jung who, in his Terry Lectures on Psychology and Religion, confined himself to that part of psychology with which he was concerned in his medical practice. I will confine myself to the one ethnographical area with which I am best acquainted by reason of field work, namely, Polynesia.

Polynesia is an excellent field for study because, owing to its comparatively late settlement, we are enabled to obtain from the traditional records of its people a picture of the growth, elaboration, and decay of various social institutions which include religion. I will endeavor in this study of a primitive religion to apply the simple methods that are used in the study of a complex material structure, such as a house. I will commence on page viiithe ground with the erection of ridgeposts and wall posts, the subsequent addition of the upper framework and, last of all, the roof and walls which conceal the inner details. By starting from the ground, we may avoid the confusion of beginning in the clouds of metaphysics and philosophy. From the simple treatment of recorded material we may better appreciate the process of evolution that has taken place in religious concepts as well as in material things and social institutions. The book will therefore deal with the birth, growth, and decay of Polynesian religion under the following headings:

I.	Man Creates His Gods.
II.	The Gods Create Man.
III.	The Death of the Gods.