HEART. Analysis of the symbolic values attached to the heart shows an unquestionable distance between the heart as a source of biological life and its diverse meanings for the emotional, moral, and religious life. The word heart may be specific, but the symbol is as multifarious as the polysemy of the term is rich. The range of meanings of heart is, indeed, at once based on a physiological reality (which entails a certain animistic conception of the individual) and on spiritual and mystical meditations—two sources that are intimately linked in most cultures.

It seems certain that the vitalistic conception of the heart as the seat of courage, strength, and life is represented by the presence in a great number of ancient societies of the custom of eating the heart of one's enemy to acquire his strength. Likewise, the notion of the heart as the source of life...