Page:Totem and Taboo (1919).djvu/187

Rh one of the earliest in the literature on the subject, I will now add a few excerpts from one of the latest summaries. In the “Elements of the Psychology of Races” which appeared in 1912, W. Wundt says: “The totem animal is considered the ancestral animal. ‘Totem’ is therefore both a group name and a birth name and in the latter aspect this name has at the same time a mythological meaning. But all these uses of the conception play into each other and the particular meanings may recede so that in some cases the totems have become almost a mere nomenclature of the tribal divisions, while in others the idea of the descent or else the cultic meaning of the totem remains in the foreground. . . . The conception of the totem determines the tribal arrangement and the tribal organization. These norms and their establishment in the belief and feelings of the members of the tribe account for the fact that originally the totem animal was certainly not considered merely a name for a group division but that it usually was considered the progenitor of the corresponding division. . . . This accounted for the fact that these animal ancestors enjoyed a cult. . . This animal cult expresses itself primarily in the attitude towards the totem animal, quite aside from special ceremonies and