Ancient agricultural societies used reproductive symbolism as a form of magic to influence crop yields

The Kanamara Matsuri festival in Kawasaki, Japan, preserves a Shinto tradition where the public display of phallic totems is intended to ensure bountiful harvests and the prosperity of the community. This practice is rooted in the concept of sympathetic magic, a belief system where performing a symbolic act—such as representing human procreation—causes a corresponding physical effect in the natural world, such as the germination of rice crops.