Essays in the comparative religion of the 1880s: on the origin of serpent-worship and phallic symbolism in ancient faiths, sacred prostitution, the Adamites and the descendants of Cain, marriage by capture and the development of the family, the place of women under civilisation, modern spiritualism and totemism. Wake responds throughout to Forlong’s Rivers of Life and other theorists of his day.
Interesting as a record of early anthropology, though its theories and its view of so-called primitive peoples are those of the 1880s. Download the free EPUB.