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Psycho-analysis has often endeavoured to apply its methods and views to folk-psychology. It was in the nature of the case that the primary object of study thus selected was not civilized peoples but rather the manners and customs of the races of antiquity and of uncivilized peoples of the present time. For in the course of evolution the conditions of life amongst civilized races have grown much too complicated. It is amongst primitive peoples that we meet with the simplest conditions and it is their manners and customs which are most easily comprehended.
Even at the present day, however, we come across certain races in civilized countries who live in a state of isolation and whose customs are strikingly unusual; and who consequently arouse our interest from the point of view of folk-psychology. We have an instance of this sort in the inhabitants of Marken, a little island with a population of barely 1, 300, situated in the Zuyderzee, about four kilometers (two and a half miles) from the mainland. The reason probably is that for many centuries the inhabitants have been isolated from the rest of the world; it is possible that their natural persistency and conservatism form other contributory factors.
It was early in the thirteenth century that the island of Marken emerged from the sea, and at about that date a small tribe migrated thither from Friesland. All the inhabitants were fishermen. The men went to sea and the women stayed at home and cultivated the land. Till quite recently this tribe still lived in great retirement and seclusion, and it is only in the last few decades that the people of Marken have had freer communication with the rest of the world. To-day the island is frequently visited by foreigners; in summer especially there is a stream of tourists coming from all parts of the world to see Marken, its inhabitants and their peculiar costume. In the winter, on the other hand, the island is deserted by the tourists; the inhabitants once more live, a