TOTEMS AND TOTEMISM.
After treating of the nature of totems, I propose to explain the object
of totemism as a system, and to show its origin. I am not aware that
this has yet been attempted in an adequate manner, although the subject
has been referred to, as I shall have occasion to show, by several
writers of authority. The late Dr. J. F. M’Lennan, who first dealt with
the subject of totemism, which indeed he made his own, did not profess
to explain its origin, notwithstanding certain remarks bearing on this
question made in the course of his inquiries.
The first point to be considered is the nature of a “totem,” and this
is shown by the meaning of the name itself. The word is taken from the
language of the Ojibwas, a tribe of the widespread Algonkin stock,
living near Lake Superior, in North America. It signifies the symbol or
device of a gens or tribal division, that by which it is distinguished
from all other such divisions. The kind of objects used as totems by
the aborigines of North America may be seen from the names of the
gentes into which the Ojibwa tribe is divided. These are twenty-three
in number, and the totemic devices belonging to them comprise nine
quadrupeds (the chief of which are the Wolf, the Bear, the Beaver, and
the Turtle), eight birds, five fishes, and one reptile, the snake.
There are numerous other totems among the American tribes, and they
are not taken from the animal kingdom only. Thus, there are gentes
with vegetable totems, such as _Corn, Potatoe, Tobacco-Plant, and
Reed-Grass_. Natural objects, such as _Sun_, _Earth_, _Sand_, _Salt_,
_Sea_, _Snow_, _Ice_, _Water_, and _Rain_, give names to other tribal
divisions. Among natural phenomena, _Thunder_ is widely spread as the
name of a gens, while _Wind_ is used among the Creek Indians; and the
Omahas have a name meaning _Many Seasons_. _Medicine_, _Tent_, _Lodge_,
_Bonnet_, _Leggings_, and _Knife_, have given titles to other gentes,
and so also has _colour_. Thus, we have _Black_ and _Red_ Omahas, and
_Blue_ and _Red-Paint_ Cherokees. Names denoting qualities have been
taken by some gentes, such as _Beloved People_ of the Choctas; _Never
Laugh_, _Starving_, _Half-Dead_, _Meat_, _Fish-Eaters_, and _Conjurers_
of the Blackfeet; and the _Non-Chewing_ of the Delawares. How some of
those ideas could be represented pictorially as totems is not very
apparent, and Mr. Lewis Morgan very properly suggests, in relation to
some of the terms, that nicknames for gentes may have superseded the
original names; to which may be added that probably many of the totems
are of comparatively modern origin.
The natives of Australia make the same use of totems as the Americans.
The former have divisions of the tribe answering to the gentes of the
latter, distinguished by a common device or totem; and the Australian
totemic divisions are usually, like the American gentes, named after
animals. Thus, the Kamilaroi tribes have _Kangaroo_, _Opossum_,
_Iguana_, _Emu_, _Bandicoot_, and _Blacksnake_ totems. _Eaglehawk_
and _Crow_ are widely spread throughout Eastern Australia as names of
Class divisions. Totems taken from the vegetable kingdom appear to be
uncommon, as only two are mentioned in the Rev. Lorimer Fison’s work on
the Kamilaroi. The Rev. George Taplin names two others among the totems
of the South Australian tribes, each of which has a “tutelary genius,”
or “tribal symbol,” in the shape of some bird, beast, fish, reptile,
insect, or substance. The divisions of a tribe in Western Victoria
take their totems from natural features, such as _Water_, _Mountain_,
_Swamp_, and _River_, and in North-Western Victoria the totemic
divisions include _Hot-Wind_ and _Belonging-to-the-Sun_.
Although no such developed totemic system as that in use by the natives
of Australia and North America is known now to exist elsewhere, yet
there are traces of the use of totems by many other peoples. Thus,
among the Bechuanas of South Africa,[306] each tribe takes its name
from an animal or plant, and its members are known as “men of the
crocodile,” “men of the fish,” “men of the monkey,” “men of the
buffalo,” “men of the wild vine,” &c. The head of the family, which
holds the first rank in the tribe, receives the title of “great man”
of the animal whose name it bears, and no one belonging to the tribe
will eat the flesh, or clothe himself with the skin, of its protecting
animal, who is regarded as the father of the tribe. Many of the Arab
tribes take their names from animals, such as the Lion, the Panther,
the Wolf, the Bear, the Dog, the Fox, the Hyena, the Sheep, and
many others.[307] Professor Robertson Smith, who has endeavoured to
establish the existence of totemism among the early Arabs, states that
the totem animal was not used as ordinary food by those connected with
it. Again, some of the Kolarian tribes of India are divided into clans
named after animals, and we find the Heron, Hawk, Crow, and Eel clans
among the Oraon and Munda tribes of Chota-Nagpur.
A totem origin may probably be ascribed to the animal ancestry claimed
by a chief or his tribe. Thus, it is said by M. M. Valikhanof[308]
that “a characteristic feature in Central Asiatic traditions is the
derivation of their origin from some animal.” The Kastsché, or Tele
people, are said to have sprung from the marriage of a wolf and a
beautiful Hun Princess. The Tugas professed to be descended from
a she-wolf, and the Tufans, or Tibetans, from a dog. The Chinese
affirmed, moreover, that Balaché, the hereditary chief of the Mongol
Khans, was the son of a blue wolf[309] and a white hind. Traces
of the use of totems by the Chinese themselves are not wanting.
Their expression for the people is _Pih-sing_, meaning “the hundred
family names.” As a fact, there are about four hundred such names in
China, and the intermarriage of persons having the same family name
is absolutely forbidden. The importance of this prohibition will be
apparent when we come to consider the incidents of totemism. Mr. Robert
Hart states[310] that some of the Chinese surnames have reference to
animals, fruits, metals, natural objects, &c., such as Horse, Sheep,
Ox,[311] Fish, Bird, Flower, Rice, River, Water, Cloud, Gold, &c., &c.
He adds, “In some parts of the country large villages are met with, in
each of which there exists but one family name; thus, in one district
will be found, say, three villages, each containing two or three
thousand people, the one of the ‘Horse,’ the second of the ‘Sheep,’ and
the third of the ‘Ox’ family name.” According to the rule that a man
cannot marry a woman of his own family name, a ‘Horse’ cannot marry
a ‘Horse,’ but must marry a ‘Sheep,’ or an ‘Ox,’ and we may suppose
that these animals were originally the totems or devices of particular
family groups; in like manner, as the Wolf, the Bear, and the Beaver
are, among the American aborigines, totems of the groups of kin to
which the term gens is applied.
The former use of totems may probably be assumed also when animal names
are applied, not to tribal divisions, but to the tribes themselves,
as we have seen is the case with the Arabs. Thus, when the great Hindu
Epic,[312] in describing the adventures of Arjuna, one of the Pandavan
Princes, says that the Nagas or Serpents were defeated with the aid
of Peacocks, we must understand that a people known as Peacocks, from
their totemic device, defeated a people whose badge was a serpent. The
Peacock was indeed the heraldic device of the Tambouk Kings of Orissa.
Probably the existence of the _Singhs_ or Lions, the warrior caste of
the tribes of North-Western India, may be accounted for in the same
way. Dr. M’Lennan[313] refers to numerous facts to prove that many
animals, among others the Serpent, the Horse, the Bull, the Lion, the
Bear, the Dog, and the Goat gave names to ancient tribes, who used the
animals after whom they were called as badges. He goes further than
this, and supposes that all the ancient nations passed through a totem
stage, in which they had animals and plants for gods. This question,
however, we shall have occasion to refer to later on.
The nature of totems having been shown, the object of totemism as a
system has now to be explained. The Rev. George Taplin remarks that
each Narrinyeri tribe is regarded as a family, every member of which
is a blood relation, and the totem borne by the Australian tribe,
or rather tribal division, is thus the symbol of a family group, in
like manner as the American totem is the device of a gens. The first
question asked of a stranger by the Dieyerie tribe of Cooper’s Creek,
in Central Australia, is “Of what family (murdoo) are you?” Each
murdoo is distinguished by a special name, being that of some object
which, according to a tribal legend, may be animate or inanimate, such
as a dog, mouse, emu, iguana, rain, &c.[314] It is evident that the
Australian totemic device is equivalent to a family name, a name which
belongs to all the members of a particular group, and which cannot be
held by any person not belonging by birth or adoption to that group,
so that it is aptly termed by the Rev. Lorimer Fison[315] a “badge of
fraternity.” This badge answers to the “device of a gens,” as the token
of the American tribes is defined, and its possession by any person
is proof that he belongs to a particular gens or tribal division, and
that he is entitled or subject to all the rights, privileges, and
obligations of its members. Schoolcraft very properly terms the gens
the totemic institution, and as the rights, privileges, and obligations
of the gens are attached to the totem, a consideration of them will
throw much light on the subject of this paper.
According to Mr. Morgan,[316] the gens came into being upon three
principal conceptions, the bond of kin, a pure lineage through descent
in the female line, and non-intermarriage in the gens. Leaving out of
view for the present the question of descent, the other conceptions
give rise to obligations of great importance. The bond of kin assumes
the positive obligation of mutual help, defence, and redress of
injuries among the members of the gens; while the third conception
implies the negative obligation which prevents the intermarriage of
persons belonging to a common totem. The negative obligation is,
however, no less than the positive obligation, based on the conception
of kinship, and the totem device of the gens is, therefore, well
described as the badge of a fraternal group. The obligation of mutual
aid and defence implies the co-relative duty of doing nothing to injure
a fellow member of the gens, in accordance with which all individuals
of the same totem must treat each other as brethren. This applies not
only to human beings, but also to the totem objects, although these may
be killed and eaten by persons not belonging to the fraternal group,
by which they are regarded as sacred. Sir George Grey says,[317] in
relation to the _kobongs_ or totems of the Western Australians, “a
certain mysterious connection exists between the family and its kobong,
so that a member of the family will never kill an animal of the species
to which his kobong belongs, should he find it asleep; indeed, he
always kills it reluctantly, and never without affording it a chance
of escape.” He adds: “This arises from the family belief, that some
one individual of the species is their nearest friend, to kill whom
would be a great crime, and to be carefully avoided. Similarly a native
who has a vegetable for his kobong may not gather it under certain
circumstances, and at a particular period of the year.” So, also, the
aborigines of North America will not hunt, kill, or eat any animal of
the form of their own totem.
Where, therefore, we find particular animals forbidden for food to a
class of individuals we may assume that such animals have a totemic
character. Thus, Bosman relates[318] that, on the Gold Coast of Guinea,
each person “is forbidden the eating of one sort of flesh or other;
one eats no mutton, another no goats’-flesh, beef, swines’-flesh, wild
fowl, &c.” He points out that this restraint is not for a limited
time, but for the whole of life; and as a son never eats what his
father is restrained from, or a daughter that which her mother cannot
eat, the forbidden object partakes of the nature of a totem. It is
doubtful whether the Islanders of the Pacific ever possessed systematic
totemism, although traces of the use of totems may, perhaps, be found
in the names taken from plants met with in some of the islands, and
even in the word “Samoa,” which is said by the Rev. Wyatt Gill[319] to
mean “the family or clan of the Moa,” the Polynesian term for _fowl_.
The Samoans entertained ideas as to particular animals, such as the
eel, the shark, the turtle, the dog, the owl, and the lizard, similar
to the notions associated with the totems of other peoples. They
supposed those animals to be incarnations of household deities, and no
man dare injure or eat the animal which was the incarnation of his own
god, although he could eat freely of the incarnation of another man’s
god.[320]
Notions of the same kind were prevalent throughout the islands of
the Pacific.[321] Thus, the Fijians supposed every man to be under
the protection of a special god, who resided in or was symbolised
by some animal, or other natural object, such as a rat, a shark, a
hawk, a tree, &c. No one would eat the particular animal associated
with his own god;[322] which explains the fact that cannibalism was
not quite universal among the Fijians, as some gods were believed to
reside in human bodies. The heathen Fijians allow souls not only to
all mankind, but to animals and plants, and even to houses, canoes,
and all mechanical contrivances. As soon as their parents die they
are enrolled among the family gods, whose protecting care is firmly
believed in.[323] It is very probable that these gods, who answer to
the household deities of the Samoans, are regarded as being incarnate
in the sacred animals, &c., of the tribe, towards whom, as being
re-embodiments of deceased ancestors, they necessarily stand in a
fraternal relation.
These ideas show a close connection between animal-worship and
ancestor-worship, and they have an important bearing on the origin of
totemism. We have seen that the obligations of the totemic institution
are based on the conception of kinship. This is also essential to
ancestor-worship, which, like totemism, rests on the obligation of
mutual aid and protection. The worshippers make the offerings and
perform the rites required by their deceased ancestors, who in return
give their protection and assistance to their descendants. This mutual
obligation is associated with the superstitious regard for certain
animals and other objects. The venerated animals are not killed or
eaten by those who are connected with them by superstitious ties,
and they are supposed, on their part, to act as protectors to their
human allies, by whom they are viewed as guardian spirits. Catlin, the
American traveller, gives a vivid description of the mode in which
the Indian acquires such a guardian. He states[324] that every Indian
must “make mystery,” that is, obtain the protection of some mysterious
power which is supposed to be connected with what is known as the
mystery bag. When a boy has attained the age of 14 or 15 years, he
absents himself for several days from his father’s lodge, “lying on
the ground in some remote or secluded spot, crying to the Great Spirit,
and fasting the whole time. During this period of peril and abstinence,
when he falls asleep, the first animal, bird, or reptile of which he
dreams (or pretends to have dreamed, perhaps), he considers the Great
Spirit has designated for his mysterious protector through life. He
then returns home to his father’s lodge, and relates his success, and
after allaying his thirst and satisfying his appetite, he sallies forth
with weapons or traps until he can procure the animal or bird, the
skin of which he preserves entire, and ornaments it according to his
own fancy, and carries it with him through life, for good luck (as he
calls it): as his strength in battle, and in death his guardian spirit,
that is buried with him, and which is to conduct him safe to the
beautiful hunting grounds, which he contemplates in the world to come.”
In California it was thought that the Great Spirit sent, in a vision,
to every child of seven years of age, the appearance of some animal
to be its protector or guardian. The African fetish superstition is
of much the same character, as the fetish object is worshipped solely
that it may give the protecting aid which the Indian expects from his
animal guardian. Mr. Cruickshank says,[325] in relation to the natives
of the Gold Coast of Western Africa, that they believe “the Supreme
Being has bestowed upon a variety of objects, animate and inanimate,
the attributes of Deity, and that he directs every individual man in
his choice of his object of worship.... It may be a block, a stone,
a tree, a river, a lake, a mountain, a snake, an alligator, a bundle
of rags, or whatever the extravagent imagination of the idolater may
pitch upon.” Here, although the nature of the protecting influence is
apparently different from that which the Americans are supposed to
obtain, it is in reality the same. In either case it is a guardian
spirit, whether it is called a “mystery” animal or an object having the
attributes of Deity.
Dr. M’Lennan saw a necessary connection between totemism and
animal-worship, and he affirms[326] that the ancient nations passed,
in pre-historic times, “through the totem stage, having animals and
plants, and the heavenly bodies conceived as animals, for gods before
the anthropomorphic gods appeared.” By _totem_, Dr. M’Lennan evidently
understood merely the animal or plant friend or protector of the
family or tribe, and if it had any reference to _soul_ or _spirit_,
it is the soul or spirit of the animal or plant. He speaks[327] of
men “believing themselves to be of the serpent-breed derived from
serpent-ancestors,” and so of other animals. He does not see in the
totem any reference to the actual progenitor of the family, and he
could hardly do so in accordance with his view of the mental condition
of men in the totem stage, where “natural phenomena are ascribable
to the presence in animals, plants, and things, and in the forces of
nature, of such spirits prompting to action as men are conscious they
themselves possess.” Professor Robertson Smith accepts, in his work on
the early Arabs,[328] Dr. M’Lennan’s views on the subject of totemism
and animal-worship, and gives as one of the three points which supply
complete proof of early totemism in any race, “the prevalence of the
conception that the members of the stock are of the blood of the eponym
animal, or are sprung from a plant of the species chosen as totem.”
When Prof. Smith comes to consider this point, however, it appears that
among the Arabs certain animals were not eaten because “they were
thought to be men in another guise,” that is, they were not merely
animals but were men in disguise.[329] This is very different from the
animistic theory, which makes men trace their descent from animals or
plants, although these may be supposed to have the same kind of spirits
as their human descendants; but it is consistent with the doctrine of
transmigration to which we shall have soon to refer.
Dr. M’Lennan’s hypothesis may be tested by what we know of the
animal-worship of ancient Egypt, where some animals were universally
worshipped, while others were regarded with veneration only in
particular districts, of which they were the guardians, and by whose
inhabitants they were carefully protected. We have here the operation
of the idea of a special relation subsisting between certain persons
and particular animals, such as we have seen to exist in connection
with totemism; and that relationship must, according to Dr. M’Lennan’s
hypothesis that animal and plant gods were the earliest to be
worshipped, have depended on the animal descent of those persons.
This explanation may appear to find some support in M. Maspero’s
statement,[330] that all the sacred animals of Egypt were at first
adored in their animal character, and that afterwards they were
identified with the gods of whom ultimately they became the incarnation
or living tabernacle. It is very improbable, however, that the gods
would be identified with animals, unless such animals were already
regarded as divine, or as connected with the peoples of whom they were
the guardians—by virtue of such a special relationship as is thought
by the Pacific Islanders to subsist between certain persons and the
sacred animals in which their ancestors are incarnated. As a fact, the
worship of animals was established in ancient Egypt by a king of the
second dynasty.[331] Moreover, it has been shown by M. Pierret that
the Egyptian religion was essentially monotheistic, the different gods
represented on the monuments being merely symbols. “Their very form,”
says that writer, “proves that we cannot see in them real beings. A
god represented with the head of a bird or of a quadruped can have
only an allegorical character, in like manner as the lion with a human
head called a sphinx has never passed for a real animal. It is only
a question of hieroglyphics. The various personages of the Pantheon
represent the functions of the Supreme God, of the only and hidden God,
who preserves His identity and the fulness of His attributes under
each of His forms.” Dupuis, in his History of Religions,[332] refers
to the ancient opinion that the division of Egypt into thirty-six
nomes or provinces was in imitation of the thirty-six decans into
which the Zodiac was divided, each of which had its protector. The
heavenly guardians became the protecting deities of the Egyptian nomes
which took the names of the animals there revered as images of the
patron gods. That opinion is consistent with the view expressed by M.
Pierret as to the character of the Egyptian deities. Dr. M’Lennan
supposes,[333] however, that the heavenly bodies were conceived as gods
before the anthropomorphic gods appeared. He argues that, as there is
nothing in the grouping of the stars to suggest animal forms, and as
stars, when named, were given names that commanded respect, if not
veneration, “the animals whose names were transferred to the stars or
Stellar groups, were on earth highly, if not religiously, regarded,”
in support of which view he shows that nearly all the animals so
honoured were anciently worshipped as gods. It by no means follows,
however, that these animals were so worshipped before being transferred
to the heavens; and possibly this had nothing to do with any special
regard for such animals. Much depends on the origin and object of the
constellations. There is still great uncertainty on this point, but it
is probable that the signs of the Zodiac, at least, were supposed to
represent certain cosmical phenomena connected with the progress of the
seasons, or with day and night, half of the signs being diurnal and
masculine, and the other half being nocturnal and feminine.[334]
In a very suggestive work by Mr. Andrew Lang, it is said[335] that
Dr. M’Lennan gave up his hypothesis and ceased to have any view on
the origin of totemism, and that its origin and determining causes
are still unknown. Mr. Lang himself suggests a probable origin when
he says, “people united by contiguity, and by the blind sentiment
of kinship not yet brought into explicit consciousness, might mark
themselves by a badge, and might thence devise a name, and later
might invent a myth of their descent from the object which the badge
represented;” the meaning of which appears to be that, before blood
relationship was recognised, persons living together marked[336]
themselves to enable their common origin to be remembered. Mr. Lang
adds, however, that “the very nature of totemism shows that it took its
present shape at a time when men, animals, and plants were conceived
of as physically akin; when names were handed on through the female
line; when exogamy was the rule of marriage, and when the family
theoretically included all persons bearing the same family name, that
is, all who claimed kindred with the same plant, animal, or object,
whether the persons are really akin or not.” According to this view,
kinship was fully recognised when totemism was established; as descent
in the female line is based on that recognition, and exogamy was
the result of the objection entertained by the lower races to the
intermarriage of persons nearly related by blood or adoption. This
feeling could hardly be so strong when totemism took its present shape,
which is probably its original shape, if, when totems were invented,
kinship was not recognised. The very nature of the totem is the
conception of a special relation between men and certain animals and
plants, and it is this conception, together with that of the totem as a
protecting influence, which have to be explained.
According to Sir John Lubbock,[337] totemism is the stage of human
progress in which natural objects, trees, lakes, stones, animals, &c.,
are worshipped, and it is regarded as equivalent to _nature-worship_.
Totemism, again,[338] is the deification of classes, so that “the
Redskin who regards the bear, or the wolf, as his totem, feels that he
is in intimate, though mysterious, association with the whole species.”
The explanation given by Sir John Lubbock[339] of the phase of totemism
which relates to the worship of animals is, that it originated “from
the practice of naming, first individuals, and then their families,
after particular animals. A family, for instance, which was called
after the bear, would come to look on that animal first with interest,
then with respect, and at length with a sort of awe.” This does not
go far enough, however, as it is not shown why certain animals and
other objects are chosen as totems, or why such totems are not only
viewed with veneration but are regarded as friends and protectors. Dr.
E. B. Tylor well objects,[340] “as to animal-worship, when we find
men paying distinct and direct reverence to the lion, the bear, or
the crocodile, as mighty superhuman beings, or adoring other beasts,
birds, or reptiles as incarnations of spiritual deities, we can hardly
supersede such well-defined developments of animistic religion, by
seeking their origin in personal names of deceased ancestors, who
chanced to be called Lion, Bear, or Crocodile.”
The fundamental basis of totemism is undoubtedly to be found in that
phase of human thought in which spirits are supposed “to inhabit trees
and groves, and to move in the winds and stars,” and in which almost
every phase of nature is personified. But whether, as asserted by
Dr. M’Lennan,[341] “the animition hypothesis, held as a faith, is at
the root of all the mythologies,” or whether the ideas of animism,
as found expressed in totemism, have been derived from the doctrines
of the ancient religions, is a question. According to the religious
philosophy of antiquity, as expressed by Pythagoras, “the pure and
simple essence of the Deity, was the common source of all the forms
of nature, which, according to their various modifications, possess
different properties.” The Universe or Great Cause, animated and
intelligent, and subdivided into a multitude of partial causes likewise
intelligent, was divided also into two great parts, the one active and
the other passive. Of these parts, the active comprises the Heavens,
and the passive the Earth and the elements. In addition to this
division was another, that of principles, of which one, answering to
the active cause, was the principle of light or good, and the other,
answering to the passive cause, was the principle of darkness or
evil.[342] A very practical form of the ancient belief embodied in that
philosophical system was entertained by the early Scandinavians, who,
says Mallet,[343] supposed that “from the supreme divinity emanated an
infinity of inferior deities and spirits, of whom every visible part
of the universe was the residence and the temple, which intelligences
not only dwell in them, but also direct their operations. Each element
had its intelligence or proper deity; the Earth, the Water, the Fire,
the Air, the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars. It was contained also in the
trees, the forests, the rivers, the mountains, the rocks, the winds,
the thunder, the tempest, which therefore deserved religious worship.”
There is no reference here to the twofold division of nature, but it is
found in the analogous beliefs of early races. Thus, Lenormant, in his
work on “Chaldean Magic and Sorcery,”[344] when comparing the Finnish
and Accadian Mythologies, speaks of their having “the same principle
of the personification of natural phenomena, objects, and classes of
beings belonging to the animated world.” An idea of dualism, however,
pervaded this system, which supposed that there was “a bad as well
as a good spirit attached to each celestial body, each element, each
phenomenon, each object, and each being,” which were ever trying to
supplant each other.[345] Thus, both Accadians and Finns “recognised
two worlds at enmity with each other; that of the gods together with
the propitious spirits, and that of the demons, respectively the
kingdom of light and that of darkness, the region of good and that of
evil.”[346]
At first sight these ideas have no special bearing on the subject
of totemism, but it is different when we consider certain notions
entertained by the Australian aborigines.
The Rev. Lorimer Fison remarks,[347] “the Australian totems have a
special value of their own. Some of them divide not mankind only, but
the whole universe, into what may almost be called gentile divisions.”
The natives of Port Mackay, in Queensland, allot everything in nature
into one or other of the two classes, Wateroo and Yungaroo, into
which their tribe is divided. The wind belongs to one and the rain
to the other. The Sun is Wateroo and the Moon is Yungaroo. The stars
are divided between them, and the division to which any star belongs
can be pointed out. The Mount Gambier tribe of South Australia has a
similar arrangement, but natural objects are allied with the totemic
subdivisions. Mr. Fison gives examples of this as supplied to him by
Mr. D. S. Stewart, from which it appears that rain, thunder, lightning,
winter, hail, clouds, &c., are associated with the crow totem, and
the stars, moon, &c., belong to the same totemic class as the black
cockatoo; while the black, crestless cockatoo subdivision includes
the sun, summer, autumn, wind, &c. The native of South Australia thus
“looks upon the Universe as a Great Tribe, to one of whose divisions he
himself belongs; and all things, animate and inanimate, which belong to
his class, are parts of the body corporate whereof he himself is part.”
There is a curious parallelism between this system and the ancient
doctrine of the separation of the intelligent Universe into two great
divisions, the celestial and terrestrial, or that of light and that of
darkness. In the totemic system one great division includes the sun
and summer, answering to the realm of light, and the other division
comprises moon, stars, winter, thunder, clouds, rain, hail, answering
to the realm of darkness. The American aborigines also show traces of
the notion of the dual division of nature in their hero-myths, which,
according to Dr. Brinton,[348] are intended to express “the daily
struggle which is ever going on between Day and Night, between Light
and Darkness, between Storm and Sunshine.” It is not improbable that
the American totem system is based on the idea of duality. Although
the totem divisions or gentes are now so numerous, there is no reason
to believe that, as long since mentioned by Lafitau[349] in relation
to the Iroquois and Hurons, that they had at one time not more than
three gentes. Mr. Morgan states, indeed, that the Iroquois commenced
with two gentes, and it is possible that the original totems of all the
North Americans were only two in number. The Wolf and the Bear, which
probably answer to Light and Darkness,[350] are the only totems common
to all the great families of tribes of that area.
The dualism of the American mythology possesses the element of
antagonism between the powers of light and those of darkness, which
was met with in the ancient mythologies. The Australian dualism appears
to lose sight of that opposition, and to look upon the two great
divisions of nature represented by light and darkness as forming parts
of a great whole. This idea is not wanting, however, to one phase of
what Lenormant terms the “naturalistic pantheism” of ancient religions.
The French historian states[351] that, although the Magi “preserved the
dualistic form which the old Proto-Medic religion must have admitted,”
yet they considered the antagonism between the good and the bad spirits
to be only superficial, “for they regarded the representatives of
the two opposing principles as consubstantial, equal in power, and
emanating both from one and the same pre-existent principle.” Lenormant
finds traces of this notion in the old Accadian system, and he
affirms[352] that Magism goes further than the perception of a common
principle from which both the evil and the good principles emanated,
seeing that it did not bind itself to the worship of the latter, but
rendered equal homage to the two principles. This fact has an important
bearing on the worship of the Evil Being so prevalent among the lower
races, in combination with the simple recognition of the existence of a
Good Being.
What has been said throws great light on the fundamental ideas of
totemism, but it does not account for the notion of protection, which
forms the real practical feature of that system. This notion can,
however, be found in certain doctrines of the ancient Persian religion.
Dr. M’Lennan refers,[353] in support of his hypothesis, that animal
gods were prolongations of the totems, to the opinion said to have
been entertained by the Peruvians, that “there was not any beast or
bird upon the earth whose shape or image did not shine in the heavens,
by whose influence its similitude was generated on the earth, and
its species increased.” From this he assumes “that the celestial
beings were conceived to be in _the shape_ of the animals, and to
have special relations to their breed on the earth.” The Peruvian
notion is, however, rather a phase of the ancient belief, expressed
in the cosmogony of Zoroaster, that all things on earth had celestial
prototypes which emanated from the Deity. As Lenormant remarks,[354]
“stars, animals, men, angels themselves—in one word, every created
being had his Fravishi, who was invoked in prayers and sacrifices, and
was the invisible protector who watched untiringly over the being to
whom he was attached.” The Mazdian _fravishis_ answer to the personal
spirits of nature-worship, and, according to the Accadian Magical
Table, every man had “from the hour of his birth a special god attached
to him, who lived as his protector and his spiritual type.”[355] We
have here the idea of guardianship by a mysterious being which is so
important in connection with the totem, but there is no suggestion
that the _fravishi_ itself ever became embodied in a terrestrial form,
although there does not appear to be any reason why it should not do so.
We have, in the doctrine of transmigration of souls, however, a
sufficient explanation of the special association between a particular
totem and the members of the gens or family group to which it gives
name. According to that doctrine,[356] as stated in the Hindoo code,
known as the Laws of Menu (chap. xii.), “with whatever disposition of
mind a man shall perform in this life any act, religious or moral,
in a future body endued with the same quality, shall he receive
his retribution.” Numerous animals are named as proper for such
re-incarnation, and even vegetables and mineral substances appear
among them. Transmigration seems to have been considered by Oriental
teaching essential to the attainment of perfection by the human soul,
and the forms through which it is supposed to pass, include not only
beasts, birds, and fishes, but also trees, stones, and other inanimate
objects. The great Gautama himself is said to have passed through all
the existences of earth, air, and sea, as well as through all the
conditions of human life, before he became the Buddha. Dr. M’Lennan
says[357] it is of the essence of the doctrine of transmigration that
“everything has a soul or spirit, and that the spirits are mostly human
in the sense of having once been in human bodies.” We have here the key
to the problem of totemism, which receives its solution in the idea
that the totem is _the re-incarnated form of the legendary ancestor
of the gens or family group allied to the totem_. The belief that
the spirits of the dead do take on themselves animal forms is widely
spread.[358] The most remarkable example of this belief is that which
views certain snakes, not merely as re-incarnations of human souls,
but as re-embodiments of ancestors of the people by whom such snakes
are venerated. Serpent-worship is, indeed, closely connected with the
worship of ancestors. The followers of the serpent believed themselves
“to be of the serpent-breed, derived from a serpent ancestor,” and we
know that peoples have claimed to belong to the serpent race. Such a
claim, or that to a monkey relationship made by some of the dark tribes
of India, would be readily admitted by the savage mind, and it may be
explained on the principle that the legendary ancestor of the race is
supposed to have become re-incarnated in monkey or snake form, and that
monkeys or snakes as well as men are his descendants.
At the same time it is very probable that some savages do not
distinguish between the man and the animal incarnation, and that if
they think at all of the ancestor of the race, it is under the animal
form. It must be remembered, however, that what to us is a monkey or
a bear is to the uncultured mind an incarnate spirit, and it is this
spirit-existence which is referred to when men speak of their ancestors
as animals or plants. This explanation is applicable also to the case
where descent is claimed from one of the heavenly bodies. Particular
stars are often identified with persons who, distinguished while
on earth, are thought to be no less distinguished after death. The
spirit of the dead person thus becomes identified with the star. When,
therefore, a man or family claims the Sun or the Moon as an ancestor,
the spirit of the luminary is really referred to. In fact, to the lower
races the Sun and the Moon are great beings, and there is no apparent
reason to them why a great man should not be descended from the spirit
of the Sun or Moon, or after death be identified as that spirit.
Perhaps, when the Egyptian Monarch was called Pharaoh, he was thought
to be actually a descendant of Phra, the Sun.[359] Such may have been
the case also with the Incas and other royal families who have claimed
to be of solar descent. Whether the Sun was regarded as the great
ancestor of the race, or only as the re-embodiment of his spirit, it
would be an equally powerful totem, a remark which applies as well to
the Moon or other heavenly bodies. In ancient times the Solar and Lunar
races were very powerful in the East, and their representatives are
still to be found in India among the Rajpoots and Jats.[360] In ancient
philosophy, the Sun and the Moon would represent the two realms of
Light and Darkness, into which the visible Universe was divided, and
as totems they probably stood at first in the same relation to other
totems as those of the Australian primary classes stand to the totems
of the secondary groups or gentes. It is known that various animals
were anciently associated with the Sun or the Moon, or were venerated
as emblems of the Solar or Lunar Deity. Thus, the Lion, the Bull, the
Horse, the Elephant, the Monkey, the Ram, and the Eagle, with others,
were solar animals; while, among other animals, the Cow, the Hare, the
Dog, the Beaver, the Dove, and the Fish, were lunar animals.[361] An
example of the process by which certain creatures became associated
with those heavenly bodies is noted by Macrobius, who says of the Lion,
“this beast seems to derive his own nature from the Sun, being, in
force and heat, as superior to all other animals as the Sun is to the
Stars.” Another example, but of a different character, and taken from a
very different quarter, may be cited.
The Mount Gambier tribe of South Australia, as we have already seen,
divides everything in nature between two great classes, and although
Mr. Stewart, who is responsible for the information, could not find
any reason for the arrangement, it appears from his remarks that the
natives knew to which division any object belongs. Mr. Stewart asked
what division a bullock belongs to. The answer was, “It eats grass, it
is Bourtwerio.” He then said, “A Crayfish does not eat grass: Why is it
Bourtwerio?” but the only reply he could get was, “That is what our
fathers said it was.”[362]
We are now able to qualify the definition previously given of the totem
as a “badge of fraternity,” or the “symbol of a gens.” We see that the
totem is something more than a symbol or a badge. This description
might answer for the pictorial representation of the totem, but not
for the totem itself, which is regarded as having actual vitality as
the embodiment or re-incarnation of an ancestral spirit. Any object
is fitted for this spirit embodiment, and therefore totemism may be
looked upon, not as a phase of nature-worship, but as a combination of
this religion with ancestor-worship. The ancestral character of the
totem accounts for the association with it of the idea of protection,
which is based on the existence of a fraternal relationship between
the totem and all the individuals belonging to a particular group of
kin. The totem, as a badge or symbol, therefore represents the group of
individuals, dead or alive, towards whom a man stands in a fraternal
relation, and the protection of whom he is therefore entitled to, so
long as he performs all the obligations on his part which flow from the
existence of that relationship. The ideas embodied in the totem are no
doubt more ancient than totemism as a developed social institution.
This fact will furnish an answer to the objection that totemism is
known only to peoples of a low degree of culture, who can hardly be
supposed capable of rising to the conception of nature, as a whole, on
which that system is founded, or the idea of a relationship existing
between all the objects in nature.
Dr. Brinton[363] answers those who object that the cosmogonical
myth of the Algonkins is “too refined for those rude savages, or
that it smacks too much of reminiscences of old-world teachings,”
that “it is impossible to assign to it other than an indigenous and
spontaneous origin in some remote period of Algonkin tribal history.”
The same reply may be given in relation to the universal totemism of
the Australians, with the qualification that the tribal history of
this race would have to be carried back to a period when it was in
contact, on the Asiatic Continent, with peoples among whom originated
or developed the ideas on which totemism is based, if, indeed, they
did not belong with them to a common stock. The existence among the
natives of Australia and America of that system may have been due
to the establishment of the gentile institution on the basis of
female kinship, and the intermingling of the gentes or family groups,
owing to wives leaving their own kin on marriage to live among their
husband’s kin, as the result of the practice of exogamy. Some of the
Australian tribes have a legend according to which the use of totems
was introduced, by command of the Supreme Being, to put a stop to
consanguineous marriages. This shows that the totem was connected with
marriage and kinship, but, considering how universal is the objection
among savages to marriage between near relations, it is more than
probable that the legend was formed to explain an already existing
phenomenon, that of totemism. As the conditions of social life were
changed, totemism as a system would gradually become effete, and totems
would come to be regarded chiefly as curiosities of nomenclature.
The preference for kinship through males, in connection with the
tracing of descent, over kinship through females, combined with
the practice of wives leaving their own family to live among their
husband’s kin, would take from the totem one of its most important
uses, as all the members of a “family” would dwell together instead of
being, like the individuals belonging to the American or Australian
totems, intermingled in one group. Totems would then be useful chiefly
as ensigns, or as surnames to establish community of descent, and
therefore the evidence of marriage disability; as with the Chinese,
among whom no persons of the same family name can intermarry, however
distant may be the actual relationship. When the mere possession of
a common surname was no longer an absolute bar to intermarriage, and
kinship came to be traced equally through both parents, totemism ceased
to have any value, except so far as the study of its phenomena can
throw light on the constitution and habits of ancient society.
FOOTNOTES:
[303] A more remarkable case even than this was the appearance to
Professor De Wette of his own double.
[304] This was first published in “Anthropologia,” in 1875.
[305] See “Theosophy, Religion, and Occult Science” (1885), p. 236, _et
seq._
[306] Casalis’ “Les Basoutos,” p. 221. The Hottentots are said to have
given animal names, such as Horse, Lion, Sheep, Ass, &c., to their
children. Kolben’s “Cape of Good Hope,” p. 147.
[307] “Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia,” pp. 17,192, _et seq._
[308] Quoted by Dr. J. F. M’Lennan in the _Fortnightly Review_, vol.
vi., new series, p. 418.
[309] The “Genealogical Tree of the Turks” ascribes a wolf paternity
to the sons of the Princess Choyumna Khan (Miles’ Translation, p. 47).
Is there a totemic reference in the game of Kökburi, “green-wolf,”
practised by the Nomads of Central Asia in imitation of bride-racing?
Vambery’s “Travels in Central Asia,” p. 323.
[310] “Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity,” by Lewis H. Morgan, p.
424.
[311] These and nine other animals give names to the twelve years of
the Mogul calendar.
[312] Mahabharata.—Talbot Wheeler’s “History of India,” vol i., p. 412.
[313] _Fortnightly Review_, vol. vi., n. s., p. 563, _et seq._
[314] “The Native Tribes of South Australia,” p. 260.
[315] “Kamilaroi and Kurnai,” p. 166.
[316] “Ancient Society,” p. 69.
[317] “Travels in North-Western Australia,” vol. ii., p. 229.
[318] “Description of the Coast of Guinea,” p. 129.
[319] “Life in the Southern Isles,” p. 25.
[320] Turner’s “Nineteen Years in Polynesia,” p. 238.
[321] See Tylor’s “Primitive Culture,” vol. ii., p. 213.
[322] Wood’s “Natural History of Man,” vol. ii., pp. 271, 290.
[323] Seemann’s “Mission to Viti,” p. 391. On the temple at Dorey
in New Guinea are sculptured the representations of the crocodile
and serpent ancestors of some of the Dorean families. D’Estrey’s
“Papouasie,” p. 132.
[324] “Manners and Customs of the Indians,” vol. i., p. 36, and vol.
ii., 247.
[325] “Eighteen Years on the Gold Coast,” vol. ii., p. 128.
[326] _Fortnightly Review_, vol. vi., n. s., p. 408.
[327] Ditto, p. 569, and vol. vii., n. s., p. 214.
[328] “Kinship and Marriage,” p. 186, _et seq._
[329] “Kinship and Marriage,” p. 204.
[330] “Histoire Ancienne des Peuples de l’Orient,” 4th edition, p. 28.
[331] Lenormant, “Histoire Ancienne de l’Orient,” 9th edition, t. ii.,
p. 212, _et seq._
[332] “Origine de tous les Cultes,” t. i., p. 77.
[333] _Fortnightly Review_, vol. vi., n. s., p. 563.
[334] Dupuis _Op. cit._, t. iii., “De la Sphere,” p. 19.
[335] “Custom and Myth,” 2nd edition, p. 262.
[336] As to supposed use of the totem as a tattoo mark, see M’Lennan,
_loc. cit._, p. 418, and Smith’s “Kinship and Marriage in Early
Arabia,” p. 213, _et seq._
[337] “Origin of Civilisation,” 3rd edition, p. 199.
[338] Ditto, p. 327.
[339] Ditto, p. 253.
[340] “Primitive Culture,” vol. ii., p. 215.
[341] _Loc. cit._, p. 422.
[342] Dupuis “Abrégé de l’Origine,” pp. 71, 83.
[343] Ditto, p. 66.
[344] English edition, p. 250.
[345] Ditto, p. 145.
[346] Ditto, p. 255.
[347] _Op. cit._, p. 167, _et seq._
[348] “American Hero-Myths,” p. 65.
[349] “Les Mœurs des Sauvages,” t. i., 465.
[350] See Gubernatis’ “Zoological Mythology,” _passim_. Dr. Brinton
shows that the Great Rabbit of Algonkin Mythology is the Light
God.—_Op. cit._, p. 47.
[351] “Chaldean Magic,” p. 228.
[352] Ditto, p. 231.
[353] _Fortnightly Review_, vol. vii., n. s., p. 212.
[354] _Op. cit._, p. 199.
[355] This idea survives in the personal patron saints of the Greek
Church. The special god was of a peculiar character, “partaking of
the imperfections and foibles of human nature,” and, like the Mazdian
_fravishi_, it was part of the man’s soul. Lenormant says, however,
that in the Mazdian books, “the conception rose to a higher degree,
detaching itself from the materiality and imperfections of the
terrestrial nature.”
[356] See “Evolution of Morality,” vol. ii., p. 154, _et seq._
[357] _Loc. cit._, p. 423.
[358] See Tylor, _op. cit._, vol. ii., p. 6.
[359] Osburn’s “Egypt and Her Testimony to the Truth,” p. 2. The
God Amoun is said to address Sethos as “my beloved son, my lineal
descendant.”—Ditto, p. 49.
[360] Professor Robert Smith (_op. cit._, p. 17) refers to Arab tribes,
called “Children of the Sun” and “Children of the Moon.”
[361] See De Gubernatis, _op. cit._, _passim_. He states that the stag,
the bear, and some other animals represent the luminous appearances in
the darkness, rather than the moon itself.
[362] “Kamilaroi and Kurnai,” p. 169.
[363] _Op. cit._, p. 43.