Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 19.djvu/426

* TOTEMISM. 370 TOTEMISM. But while this theory explains certain forms of totemism, it fails to explain all, and here it must be admitted that the word totemism is not used either by Frazer or by others as if it stood for a well-defined conception. For a clan may have at the same time various totems; the totem, again, is not constant, but may be ex- changed for another; the sexes in the same clan are credited with possessing different totems; any one family in a clan may have its special totem ; any individual may have a private totem besides his clan totem; a totem may be no one group of objects, but be the odds and ends of any animal or vegetable group; the tribal totem m.-iy be divided, and each clan have as its totem a part; or, instead of a divided totem, there may be. besides the tribal totem, a number of 'hon- orific' totems; and finally, totems may be nat- ural phenomena, clouds, lightning, thunder, or even colors. These different sorts of totems are of course not found together. The 'honorific' totem, for example, is characteristic of some In- dians of the Northwest; the totem of odds and ends, such as the tails of animals and pieces of string, is found in Samoa; the cloud and light- ning totems, in Australia; and the color-totem, blue or red. among certain Indian tribes of the Middle West. Though these varieties seem to lack all co- herence, there has been claimed for totemism this common bond, that in all its varieties it at least conditions the matters of bed and board. That a totemist nuist marry outside of his totem group and must not eat of his totem (if, as in most cases, this is an animal or a vege- table) are the foundation stones of certain theories of totemism. But totemism can no long- er be said to bear this implication, for neither has the eating of the totem nor exogamy anything to do with the most primitive forms of totemism. The most striking fact in the totemism of the Australian, which is most primitive in type, is that it has nothing to do with regulating mar- riage, nor has the child necessarily either its mother's or its father's totem. Therefore, the totem is not a mark of blood-kinsliip. Accord- ing to Australian belief, all the spirits live in certain restricted localities, and a man's totem is determined by the locality in which the spirit enters his mother's body, conception being thus explained. Further, far from exogamy being the result of totemism, exogamy is by no means a totemic law. There is in some tribes no restric- tion on marriage within the tribal group, and in fact endogamy, or marriage within the tribal group, appears to have been the first rule. Not less important are the facts in regard to the relation between the totemist and his food. Here, as in many other cases, it is clear that the animal or plant first venerated by a savage is the food that preserves his life. The redskin does not eat maize because he regards it as his sacred ancestor, but it is sacred and his parent because he is dependent upon it for sustenance. Among the Australians it is the totem animal which was eaten by predilection in the original form of the institution. Just as utility deified the Hindu's cow and the Indian's maize, so the opos- sum was sanctified by the Australian who lived upon it, and as such it became his totem. For this reason the Australians have certain totem rites, the object of which was simply to increase the food supply. But, on the other hand, as the Waganda tribe in Africa spared certain animals because they were indigestible, so in Australia the men of the wildcat totem might eat wildcat on a certain occasion when it was strictly pro- hibited to those of that totem with whom it was likely to disagree, such as the aged. In this in- stance the. Australian eats his totem as far as health permits. The totem may be killed by those not belonging to the totem group, and the latter will even aid the alien to kill their own totem. In the course of time, however, the sacredness of the totem, as among the majority of the red- skins, becomes such as to prevent general slaugh- ter of the totem animal. Thus we find that, whereas the Australians of ancient days (as re- ported by tradition) might eat freely of the totem animal (or plant), the modern descendants of those primitive Australian totemists dare not do this so freely. Bvit even to-daj' the totem animal is not considered a kinsman whom it would be WTong to kill; the connection is rather spiritual, as indicated by the circumstance that it is among those triljes that we find rain and sun regarded as 'totems.' The explanation is in ac- cordance with the notion of conception as given above. The spirit of the man belongs to the same locality as the sjiirit of the rain or of the sun. The sun supply and the rain supply are aided by the same sort of rites as those instituted to in- crease the food supply. There is no question of blood-kinship, but of a brotherhood based largely on a locally limited interchange of spirits, a re- stricted metempsychosis. The blood of a kan- garoo man (one who belongs in the kangaroo totem) is not shed as a symbol of kinship and communion, but for the avowed jjurpose of frightening away other kangaroo spirits, that they may escape in their terror into female kangaroos and so increase the food supply. The whole .system is at bottom economic rather thau- religious. The historical explanation, as opposed to the theoretical mystical explanation of a primitive blood-communion with gods, shows that blood- communion and sacrifice of the totem are far from primitive traits, and offers an orderly and natural sequence in the totemist's evolution. Nor is there anything improbable in the totemist's changed attitude toward the totem at different points in the historical series. In the first place, we find actually existent tlicse two phases, one of food supply, the other of the sacred inviolable totem, in the" development of the Australians themselves. For had the latter phase been original, it is im- possible that any legends could have arisen to re- flect a phase in which a totem was the chief food of the community; and yet all the tribal legends represent the totem in tliis way. Moreover, the connecting link in the series is fortunately pre- served in the well-known account of Agathar- chides concerning the troglodytes of East Africa, who two thousand years ago pastured their herds there and lived upon them, drinking their milk and blood and occasionally eating the flesh of the cattle, but not very willingly, because "they re- garded the cattle as their parents, inasmuch as they got their sustenance from them." The institution of totemism, however, is not^ homogeneous, and different causes may have re- sulted at different times in totemism of different sorts which have a general similarity. Indiges- tion, as among the Waganda, may have resulted.