The theoretical consideration of magic changed radically in the late nineteenth century, thanks to the work of great thinkers who explored the provenance of magic as a phase in the spiritual evolution of man. While in the early twentieth century another group of scholars enriched the issue drastically, proposing that if the provenance of magic is to be fully understood, its social function should first be examined. The world of magic has been constructed and is inhab­ited “by the successive expectations, obsessive il­lusions and prospects of entire generations, which are all expressed in the form of formulas”.