HARTLAND, E. SIDNEY (1848–1927), was an English folklorist and armchair anthropologist. Hartland is a good example of the polymaths produced by the Victorian era, contributing prolifically to a wide range of topics but practically forgotten today. Although he wrote books on primitive law, primitive society, and the priority of matrilineal kinship, Hartland's favorite subject was religion, and his opinions obtained attention not only in his native Britain but from such leading figures of the day as the French comparativist Marcel Mauss and the Austrian theorist and historian of religion Wilhelm Schmidt.

Among Hartland's contributions to the study of religion may be mentioned his theory of magic and religion. He considered that the early humans' awe and wonder were aroused by their sense of a power behind appearances. Through personification early humankind shaped gods or spirits with humanlike dispositions, making it natural to attempt to placate...