In this part, we see why the spirits were invented and the functions that were assigned to them.
Most of the documentation used here comes from the ethnographical and anthropological literature.
This first part is divided into three chapters and a conclusion:
I. Of Sex and Procreation, which shows why procreation in most primitive communities has been the source of a gnawing mystery
II. Of Male Power describes why and how the spirits were used to explain nature’s mysteries
III. Of Female Power sketches the misconceptions related to female sexuality and to pregnancy
To Be and To Have draws the conclusion that men, not knowing the function that nature had assigned to them, craved to possess what they did not have