Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/868

 TOTEMISM

790

TOTEMISM

Totem, pref.). Hence he agrees with J. F. McLen- nan, Loret, and Wake that totems were merely ethnic attributes, symbols, or ensigns of clans. A. K. Keane also holds that Totemism arose in "heraldic badges" (Ethnology, 9). Max Miiller writes, "A totem is a clan mark, then a clan name, then the name of the ancestor of the clan, and lastly the name of something worsliipped by the clan" (Contributions to the Science of Mythology, I, 201). Lang, however, holds that the name came into use before, not after, its pictorial representation, i. e., the clan mark. Pikler says the germ of Totemism is in the naming and has "its original germ not in rehgion but in the prac- tical every-day needs of man". Risley also says that the totem is an ancient nickname, usually derived from some animal, of the supposed founder of the exogamous sept, now stripped of its personal associa- tion and remembered solely in virtue of the part it plays in giving effect to the rule of exogamy. In criticism it can be said that the name-theory fails to explain the intimate relation of the individual or clan to the totem. Hence Durkheim writes "a totem is not only a name; it is first and above all a rehgious principle" ("Annee sociologique", 1902, 119).

Lang admits that his "theory is not in accordance with any savage explanations of the origin of the totem" (Social Origins, 18S). Howlett writes: "It seems most improbable that any such nicknames would have been adopted and have given rise to Totemism, nor do I know of a single instance in which such nicknames have been adopted." Reinach holds that animal names are an effect, not a cause of To- temism (Cultes, Mythes, et Religions, I, 22). Tyler says the theory is not vouched for by sufficient evi- dence (Primitive Marriage, II, 214). Boas distin- guishes three classes of tribal and of clan names, e. g. collective forms of the name of the ancestor, names of region inhabited and names of honour. Miss Fletcher says that with the Wezhishta gens of the Amaha names are classified as nikie, i. e. per- taining to the gens, "dream", "fanciful" and "bor- rowed" names, and nicknames, and women never had more than one name which was of nikie class. Hill-Tout declares that the commonest of Indian names in British Columbia are not nicknames, but true prcenomina, mostly given to infants shortly after birth before any resemblance is apparent or possible.

(b) The Transmigration Theory, advocated by G. A. Wilkin, and also by Tvlor (Jour. Anth. Inst., XXVIII, 1899), regards the" totem as the bridge over the gap between a clan of men and a species of animals, so that they "become united in kin- ship and mutual alliance". In criticism it maybe said that the notion of transmigration is not primitive, for with Tylor Totemism is regarded as primitive. Again tiie belief in transmigration is found among peoples who show no trace of Totemism, while it is unknown to the African Baganda and to most if not all of the North American Indians whose Totem- ism is clearly marked. Hence Frazer holds that Totemism and transmigration are distinct and independent. Finally, transmigration may enter into phases of Totemism under the form of the rein- carnation of ancestors; this, however, is not the origi- nal element but a corrupted phase found only occa- sionally and hence a later development.

(c) The Economic Theory, proposed in accord with those anthropologists who hold that the starting- point of social organization was the necessity of pro- curing food, appears in two forms. Dr. A. C. Haddon maintains that totems originally were the animals or plants on which the local groups of people chiefly subsisted and after which they were named by the neighbouring groups ("Rep. of the British Assoc", Belfast, 1902; "Folk Lore", XIII, 393). But this theory fails to explain the existence of inanimate objects as totems. Again, Baldwin Spencer denies

such specialization of diet between the local groups (Northern Tribes of Central Australia, p. 767). The second form was advocated by Prof. Frazer, who, following Spencer and Gillen (Jour. Anth. Inst., XXVIII, 1899, 273), taught that Totemism is not so much a religious as an economic system, and held that it originated as a system of magic designed to supply a community with the necessities of life, especially food and drink. Thus each totem group performs magic ceremonies called inlichiuma for the multiplication of the totem-plant or animal. Hence the prime duty of a totem clan was to provide a supply of its totem-animal or plant for consumption by the rest of the tribe, and thus ensure a plentiful supply of food ("Fort. Rev.", April and May, 1899). Frazer afterwards rejected this theory as too complex, and says that probably the co-operative communities of totemic magicians in Australia are developments of Totemism rather than its germ (Totemism and Exogamy. IV, p. 57). In fact the economic theory does not account for the sense of kinship between man and animal, and the belief prevailing in places that the clan is descended from the animal.

(d) The External Soul Theory, earlier propounded by Prof. Frazer, i. e., the possibility of depositing the souls of living people for safety in external objects such as animals or plants, but not knowing which individual of the species is the receptacle of his soul, the savage spares the whole species from a fear of injuring unwittingly the particular individual with which his fate is bound up ("Golden Bough", II, London, 1890). Frazer rejected this theory on the ground that it was not confirmed by subsequent research.

(e) The Conception Theory is the third and last explanation of Frazer. He says Totemism has its source in the savage ignorance of paternity, and is a primitive explanation of conception and childbirth, viz. that conception is due to a spirit of an ancestor entering the body of a woman, that she associates it with the object which was nearest her when the child was first felt in the womb, and that this object is regarded as the deserted receptacle of the spirit. And since the spirits of people of one particular totem are beheved to congregate in one spot, and the natives know these spots, the totem of the child can easily be determined ("Totemism and Exogamy", IV, 57). In criticism we may say that the theory is based on the beliefs of the Arunta tribe in Austraha, that, while van Gennep holds to Arunta priniitiveness, A. Lang considers it a decadent sport (Secret of the Totem, appendix), that Spencer and Gillen testify to changes in Arunta Totemism, that it does not explain Totem- ism in its wide extent, and finally that these beliefs find another and a much better explanation.

(f) The Manitou, or Guardian Spirit, Theory, first - proposed by the Jesuit missionaries to North America in the seventeenth century and revived in our day by Dr. Franz Boas, Miss Alice Fletcher, Father Morice, Mr. Hill-Tout, and J. Owen Dorsay, teaches that the manitou of the individual has developed into the totem of the clan. This can be explained in two ways. First by real inheritance, e. g. the guardian spirit of an ancestor is transmitted to his descendants. Hence the clan totem is the hereditary manitou of a' family. Dr. Boas states that the guardian spirit of the North Pacific Coast becomes hereditary. Father Brun says that the Totemism of French West Africa is essen- tially familial in the sense of the Roman gens. A. Lang objects to the inheritance of the personal totem by the clan on the ground that mother descent is more primitive than paternal descent. But the objection a-ssumes that Totemism is primitive: a contention by no means established. Frazer says the clans would be stable and jiernianent even with mother descent, if the husband took up his abode with the wife's people or the wife remained at home