Page:The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis II 1921 1.djvu/165

 THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHO-ANALYSIS VOLUME II JUNE 1921 PART 2 ORIGINAL ARTICLES PRIMITIVE MAN AND ENVIRONMENT by G. r6hEIM, Budapest. The problems that arise from the interaction ot primitive man and his environment are, speaking in general terms, the subject- matter of the science of anthropogeography. We do not intend to throw even a cursory glance at such a vast topic in this article; the question we are concerned with is, how these biolo- gical relations are reflected in the psychic life of the individual and society. At the very outset of our investigations our attention must be riveted on a very general, probably universalj aspect of primitive culture: we mean totemism.i Totemism is the belief in the exi- stence of a specific magico-religious connexion between a human group and a natural species. If we start from the assumption, as we are compelled to, that primitive beliefs, or indeed beliefs in general, although they may not represent a rendering of facts » The view of totemism advocated here is not completely new, as similar comments on this subject have been made by B. Anckermann: "Das Problem des Totemismus", KorresJ>ondensblatt fur Antkropologie, Ethnologic und Ur- gtschichte, 1910, S. 80; Id.: "Ausdrucks- und SpieltStigkeit als Grundlage des Totemismus", Anthropos, X/XI, S. 586; E. ReuterskiCId: Die Entstehung der Speisesacramente, 1912, S.'SO; Id.: Anthropos, 1914, S. 650; Grabner: An- tkropoi. 1915/16, S. 255; H. Werner: Die Ursprtlnge der Metapher, 1919, S. 216. This side ot totemism as well as other psychic attitudes which are condensed in this primitive phase of social and religious evolution will be discussed in my book on "Australian Totemism". "