Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/870

 TOTEMISM

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TOTRMISM

manner. In the first case the human element pre- dominates and descent is reckoned by human genera- tion. Miss Fletcher assures us that the Omahas do not hold descent from the totem animals; and Father Brun says the same is true of the natives in West Sudan. Boas writes that the Kwatiutl Indians do not consider themselves to be descendants of the totem; they believe the totem came from an ancestor who had an adventure with an animal which he took as his totem and transmitted to his clan; and that the connexion between the totem and the clan has become so slight that it has degenerated into a crest. The Tlingit do not believe in descent from the totem, yet count the totem as their relative or protector, as e. g. Indians of the Wolf totem implore the wolves; "we are your relations, pray do not hurt us." Hence Powell's statement, that the totem of the clan is considered to be the progenitor or prototype of the clan, is not universally true. This also solves the difficulty experienced by Hill-Tout, who says that the Totemism of British Columbia appears to differ in important and characteristic features from the Totemism of peoples elsewhere.

In the second case, where the spirit-life is considered as absorbing the human life, the fact of human gener- ation is ignored and forgotten. Thus, e. g. among the Aruntes human paternity is unknown. They believe that conception is the entrance of the spirit of an ancestor into the body of a woman, and thus every child born is the reincarnation of an animal or plant ancestor. In the olden times the totemie ancestors were families or groups of families who lived in some definite part of the tribal territory. Some would be swans, others dogs, kangaroos, snakes, etc. They carried with them sacred stones called churinga, i. e. soul or spirit-life. Upon death the spirit-life would remain in the churinga and would haunt the place where these were. In the course of time all the camping-places, water-holes, large rocks, springs, hills, trees, etc., would be thronged with spirits of all kinds. The exact locahty of the.se ancestral spots, with the specific kind of spirits dwelling there, was known from oral tradition. In virtue of the spirit- life, the.se s])ots were considered as related to one another in the same way that human beings are related, e. g. a soakage may be the mother's brother of a certain hill, a rock may be the father of a particu- lar sand-hiU, a tree may be the brother of a sand-hole, etc. If in passing a particular spot a woman feels the quickening of the child, she ascribes it to the fact that an ancestral spirit of that spot has at that moment entered her body. The object, e. g. stone, piece of wood, etc., that met her eye at that moment is carefully taken as the churinga of the child and placed in the secret store-house of the tribe kept for that purpose. Thus the totem of the child will be the totem of the spot whence the churinga was taken. Hence there could be children of the same parents all possessing dilTerent totems.

In the third case, where both the spirit-life of the totem and the human life of the individual are recog- nized but in a confused manner, we find the ex-plana- tion of another class of beliefs and myths which have gathered around Totemism. Thus we can understand how the North American Indians, in explanation of their origin, can neglect the human so that in the remote past it is lost in the animal. Thus Indians of the Wolf totem say they are descended from wolves, of the Crane totem from cranes, of the Turtle totem from turtles, etc. So too we can see how they were led to believe that their ancestors were monstrosities endowed with Rujjerhuman powers, e. g. Salish tribes, or were transformed h\mian or semi-human, e. g. Ilrabunna or creatures partaking of both human and animal natures with power of transforming them- selves into animal or human shai)es at will, e. g. Northern AustraUan tribes, or of retransforming them-

selves, e. g. Iroquois (Hesitt, "Iroquois Co.smology" in "21st Am. Kep. of Bur. of Ethnol.", Washington, 1904, p. 219). On this hypothesis we can grasp the myths of mi.xed generation so universal among totemie peoples and see also why the Haides, in venerating the killer-whale, blend in their belief the actual animal and the demon Skana supposed to be embodied in it.

IV. Personal Totem, i. e. maniiou of Algon- quins, tu kinajek of Tlingit, augud of Torres Straits, sulia of British Columbia, bunjan of south-east Aus- tralia, ari of north-east Australia, onbarre of West Australia, alai and tamaniu of Melanesia, nyarong of Borneo, nagual of South America, ta7nanous of Twana Indians, is not hereditary; it is acquired by the individual and it is his own personal property, whereas the clan totem is considered the possession of the clan. It is obtained either accidentally, as when a savage believes that he owes his life to an animal which he immediately takes as his totem; or bestowed at birth, e. g. in Central America by the parents casting a horoscope; or bestowed on the youth by old wise men, e. g. Sioux; or regularly at the pu- berty ceremonies. On reaching tliis age the young Indian goes off alone to the forest and wanders for days without food except roots, etc. After a time when asleep he sees in a dream the animal which is to be his guardian. It or its spirit comes to him. Ever after he wears on his person the object seen, or some portion of it, which is known as his medicine. Catlin describes this in detail. The Salish word sulia, from ulia, i. e. to dream, indicates the ordinary method by which it is obtained. Boas says that with the Kwatiutl Indians the personal totem must be selected from the totems of the clan, hence the num- ber is limited.

V. Religious Aspect. — Totemism has both a religious and a social aspect. These aspects vary; thus with the interior Australian tribes the religious aspect is predominant; with the coastal tribes the social aspect prevails. Lord Avebury and Spencer hold that Totemism began as a social system only, and that the superstitious regard for the totem is an aftergrowth. A. Lang, failing to grasp the religious meaning of the totem, has helped to popularize this view. McLennan and Robertson Smith teach that the religious reverence for the totem was original. Father Morice says that Totemism among the Donda is essentially and exclusively connected with their religious system. Investigation into the nature of Totemism shows this to be the true opinion. Durk- heim holds the totem to be a god. This is a mistake. The respect paid to the totem is Uke that given to relatives or brothers; it is his friend and helper, not his superior. Frazer says Totemism has done little to foster the higher forms of religion, and Murillier does not admit the possibility of any transition from Totemism to any other stage of religious evolution.' McGee quotes Darsey, that among the Sioux totems were reverenced rather than worshipped. F'razer at first maintained the religious aspect of Totemism ("Totemism", F^dinburgh, 1887); now he denies this (Totemism and Exogamy, 1911, IV', 6). He says the key to the Totemism of Australian natives is furnished by the Intichiuma ceremonies; and as these ceremonies, peculiar to each totem gi'oup, are per- formed with spells and enchantments for the multipli- cation of the totem animal, therefore in its origin Totemism is simply an organized and co-operative system of magic i!e\-ised for economic i)urposes. The criticism is that this view is superficial and unsatisfac- tory, that investigations show the Australian savage fife to be saturated with the belief in sjiirits, e. g. the explanation of conce]>tion .and birth, and that whereas the Intichiuma ceremonies on the surface may .appear to be for the multijilicalion of tlie totem animal and thus secure a food supjily, yet if we study them in the background of the l)elief in spirits, their jiurposes more