The Handbook of Jungian Psychology: Theory, Practice and Applications

by Renos K. Papadopoulos

The ethnographer Adolf Bastian (1826–1905), who travelled extensively throughout the world recording the folklore of diverse cultures, noted the existence of universal themes which he called ‘primordial thoughts’ or ‘elementary ideas’ which nonetheless manifested themselves in local forms (‘ethnic ideas’) peculiar to the group of people he happened to be studying;