1_0001

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Chopter ITolemic Beliefs

TIre Totem as Name and as EmblemOwlNo ro rrs NATI RE, our study will include two parts. Sinceevery religion is made up of intellectual coaceptions aad ritualpractices, we must deal successively with the beliefs and riteswhich compose the totemic religion. These two elements ofthe religious life are too closely coonected with each other torrllow of any radical separation.) In principie,

_the cult is de-rived from the beliefs, yet ir reacls upon rbem; the myth is fre-quently modtillbd after the rite in order to account for it, espe-cially when its sense is no longer apparent. On the other hrr.nd,there are beliefs 1v!r!q_b are clearly manifested- tinly thr-oughthe rilei-whictr iipreir if:em. So these two parts of orr unul-y-sis cannot fail to overlap. However, these two orders of facisare so different that it is indispensable to study them sepa-rately. And since it is impossible to understand anything abouta religion while unacquainted with the ideas upon which itrests, w'e must seek to become acquainted with these latter fustof all.

But it is nor.our intentien to retrace all the speculatioas.intou'hich the relieious thought, even of the Australians alone, hasrun..The things we wish.to,reach are the elemgntary qotioDs.et.the basis of the reli_eion, but there is no need of lollowingthem through all the development, sometimes very confused,w'hich the ntythological imagination of these peoples has giventhem. We sball make use of myths when they enable us to un-

121

122 / Elementary Forr.rs of Religious Lifederstand these fundamental ideas better, but u,e shall notmake my.thology itself the subject of our studies. In so far asthis is a '*'ork of art, it does not falt witl-^in the jurisdiction ofthe simple science of rerigions. AIso, the intelleciual evolutionfrom which it results is of too grear a complexiry to be studieJindirectly and from a foreign point of vie*. It constitutes ave.ry difficult problem which must be treared by itself, for it-self and with a method peculiar to itself.

. Among the beljefs upba which totemism rests, the most im-portaDt are naturally those concerning the totem; it is tvith

these that. we must begin.

IAt the basis of nearly all the Australian tribes we find agroup which holds a preponderating place in the collectivelife: this is the cian. Two issentiaf t.iiti cira.acterize it.

.

In the first place, the individuals u,ho "o-po." it considerthemselves

-united by a bond of kinship, tui ooe which is of avery special nature. This relationship Soes Dot come from thefact that they have definite urooJ'."n"ections with one an-other; they are reiarives from the -.r" i""iinat they nave thesame name. They are not fathers and mothers, sons or daugh_ters, uncles or nephews of one another in the sense which wenow give-these words; yet

_ttrey think of thernsetves as i".-i"ga single far.rily, which- is larle o, ,-ufi *torciing t" iir" Ji11:.o:o^::,"_f__the clan, merel-y beeause they are-collectivelyoesrgoated by the same word. When we say that they ,"g*fthemselves as a siugle family, *" ao ," U""u',rse they recognizeduties towards each other w*ch u." ;O""iilui with those whichhave always been incumbent upon Li"dr-;e;;""h duties as aid,vengeance, mourning, the obligation Dot to marry amoDg.themselves, etc.

By this fust characte-ristic, the craa does not di-ffer from theRoman gens or the Greek yirosly }..-tti, relationship alsocame- merely from the fact that ait the members of tnI g"",had the same name,l tbe nomen gentilicium. And in oDe sense,tb.e ge-ns is a cla.n; but it is a.vari*ety wUiln'.U""td not be coa_founded with the Australian gt.".r'fnis f.tter is a[iingrirn"aI This is tle defiaition_givea by

-Cicero: Centiles sa, qsi inter se eod.emnomine ilnt, (I"p. 0). (Tbose re of tle same ,;-;h; h'". tU. ,.-u-ili"among tlemselves.)1It may be said io a geaeral way tlat the cla is a family group, w-herekinslrip resuJts solely from a commoB name; it is in this seDse tbat t5e gcnsis a clau. But tle toiemic clm is a ;"ttt*;il ,ori'or-t# class tbus coqstitured.

The Elementary Beliefs / 123by the fact that its name is also the name of a determined sPe-cies of material things with which it believes that it has veryparticular relations, the nature of which we shall presently de-scribe; they are especially relations of kinship. The species ofthings which serves to designate the clan collectively is calledits totem. The totem of the cian is also that of each of itsmembers.

Each clan has its totem, which belongs to it alone; two dif-ferent clans of the -same trib-e cannot have the same. In fact,one is a member of 'a'clan merely-becauie he has a certainname. All who bear this name are members of it for that veryreason; in whatever manDer they may be spread over the tribalterritory, they all have the same relations of kinship with oneanother.3 Consequently, two groups having the same totem canonly be two sections of the same clao. Undoubtedly, it fre-quently happens that all of a clan does not reside in the samelocality, but has representatives in several different places.However, this Iack of a geographical basis does not cause itsunity to be the less keenly felt.

In regard to the word totem, we may say that it is the oneemployed by the Qj&ygy, an Alonquin tribe, to designate thesort of thing wtiSse name the;ian "bEars.{ Although this ex-pression is not at all Australian,s and is found only in one slnglesociety in America, ethnographers have de{initely adopted it,and use it to denote, in a geoeral way, the syste:n which weare describing. Schoolcraft was the first to extend the meaoingof the word thus and to speak of a "totemic system."o This ex-tension, of which there are examples eoough in ethnography,is not without inconveniences. It is oot normal for an institu-tion of this importance to bear a chance name, taken from astrictly local dialect, and bringiog to mind none of the distinc-tive characteristics of the thing it designates. But to-day thisway of employing the word is so universally accepted that it-

!Ia a ce:'tria seise,'these bocds of solidarity exteDd evea beyoud thefrontiers of the tribe. lVhen individuals of difierat tribes bave tbe sametotem, they have peculiar duties towards each otler. This fact is expresslystated fcr certain tribes of North America (see Frazer, Totem;fi and.-Etog-amg, lll, pp, 57, 81,..299, 356-357). fhe texts relati.ve to Australia are leisexplicit. However, it is probable tbat the probrlitiou of mariage betweeumembers of a single totem is inteEatioDal,

.. Morgan, Af,ciett Soqety, p. 165,6Io Australia the wolds employed di6er witi, the tribes. Ia ttre regioosobseryed b;. Grey, ttrey sa.id Kobotg; tbe Dieri sy Murd.u (Howitt, Nat. Tr.,p.9l); the Nuinyeri, Ngaitye (Talpin, in Cu, ll, p.214); ttre Wura-.munga, .\lungrii or Mungriii (tiu. Tr., p. 754), etc.

. ltdiaa Tribes ol tha Udted Srat6, IV, p. 86.

124 / Elementary Fornrs of Religious Lifewould be an excess of purism to rise against this usage.zIn a very large proportioo of the c-ases, the obje&s whichserve as totems belong eitirer to. the animal or th;

""g"t"Ul"kingdom, but especially to the former. Inanimare tt i"ts-aiJmuch more rarery emplol'ed. out of more than 500 to-temicnames.collected by Hou,iu among the tribes of south-easternAustralia, there are scarcely forty-which are not the names ofplants or animals; th.ery a1e the clouds, rain, hail, f.;.;, 1;;moon, the sun, the wind, tbe autumn, the summer, the winter,certain stars, thunder, fire, smoke, *ut"a o. the sea. It is no-ticeable how small a piace is given to celestial bodies-a;d,more generally, to the gre.at coimic phenomena, which u,eredestined to so great a fortuae in latei .igior,, 4"";i;;*;Among all the clans of s,hich Howitt speafs, tn..e o,.." oJ1,trvo which had the moon as totem,s iwo the sun,s three astar,1o three the thunder,rr two the iightriog.., The rain is asingle exception; it, on tbe contrary, is"very frequent.rsThese are the totems which can be spoken of as normal.But totemism has its abnormalitie, u, *"it. It sometime. frufpens that the totem is not a whole object, but the part of a'n:li"_"!. This fact app_ears rzther rarely in Australia;l4 Howinclles oBly,one example.15 However, it may well be that this isrouno wlth a certain frequeocy in the tribls where the totemicgroups are excessively subdivided; it might be said that thetotems had to break themselves up in ord?r to be able to fur-

z T.tis fortune of the wqyd is thc more regrettable since we do not evakDow rmctly how it *,as mitt6- So-. -oiiG*ritm, others tood4in, otdodzim, or ododam t.u" rr"rui,-ilit?, ;.'i;. i:; is tbe meaiog of ttreword detemined exactlv. A.cT1djlg -t. tnJ i.p-i oiitlu Arrt obseruer of ttreOjibway, f, Lons. the word rrro--aoig."t.J-Ge-p-t."tiog geaiu, the in-divid,,er totem, of which we.nu-rpiiTii.***iEtl.u,

"n. iv) ud not thetotem of the clu. But the accou*s-"a.tb;;;;'i;;ers Eay eucuy.the coa-trary (oa this point, see Frcc, f*misiirid.-E;;;"^v, III, pp. 49_52).erbe wotjobaturc (o. r2t) ;Je;;;;,.f ti]"iisl.8 Tte same.

roThe lVolgal (p. f02), the lVo4icbalck and ttre Bundik.ttrhe trrurubuna (o. itz), :t," w;iiiii"iii;: "d" Bundik.11 Tbe Buandik and tbe yfu::o tp.-if-dl.-it;;;"i" rerurked that sII the*amples come from onlf, ffve tribs--,-!;,ii!t:1'":'.?T,l.T:islT:ru*f i?,!I"p.",i";,il..t?;" jJi:Jare . tbe bmm era n s. cold yii.t111

_

a*i*r., .

#., "iiir,i,ris; .;;;.. ;L;:, ;'.;ochre, reslo, salt u.ater. the eveniag "t*, " !tor.. tIrZ r*, water, tie whirl_u.ind, tbe wird and hait-stoses (\-;. rrl, ;.';;i: Eil r*""r, Totemism and.Exogamg, I, pp. 353-254),:t Frazer (Totemin, pp. r.O aDd 1.3-).cites a rather luge oumber of casesand puts tlem in a snecial

.group r-hich fr" *fil'"pi;t_rotcru, but tlese aretaken from tribes u.trere totimisl . Er";iir"li'"r.i',' ,."u * ia Samoa ort}re tribes of Bengal.

rr Hov'it! Nat. fr., p. 107.

The Elementary Beliefs / LzSnish names to these nLlmerous divisions. This is rvhat seems tohave ta-ken place among rhe Arunta and the Loritja. Strehlowhas collected 44, totents in these two societies, of which manyare not an aninral species, but some particular organ of thlanimal of the-species, such as the tail br stomach o-f uo opor-sum, the fat of the kangaroo, etc.ro

We have seen that normally the totem is not an individual,but a species or a variety: it is not such and such a kangarooor crow, but the kangaroo or crow in general. Somet'imes,however, it is a particuiar object. First of u-tt, thi, i, ,"""..uiiiythe case when the thing serving as totem is unique in its ciasias the sun, the moon, such or iuch a constellatibn, etc. It alsohappens that clans take their names from certain geographicalirregularities or depressions of the land, from a lerlain ant-hrll, etc. It is true that we have only a small number of ex_arnples of this in Australia; but Strehl,ow does mention some.lzBut the very causes which have given rise to these abnormaltotems show that they are of a relitively recent origin. In fact,what has made certain geographi""t fJuiu.., of the land be-come totems is that a mythical ancesior is supposed to havestopped there or to have performed some act df f.i. f"g""du.ylife there.l8 But at the,sime time, these ancestors are repre-sented in the myths as themselves belonging to clans which hadperlectly regular totems, that is to say, ones taken from thea.nimal or vegetable kingdoms. Thgreigre, the totemic Damesthus commemoratinq the acts and perioiaa"CAr.of -tfr!r.ihero-estannot ue priilltlve; ti:ev ueio"Jio'u ro.,.r., of totemismth-at.r-s already derived and deviated. I-t is euen permissibld tc,ask if the.meteorological totems have not a simiiar origia; forthe sun, the mooh and the stars arc frequently iaentifild withthe ancesrors of the mytholo_eical epoch.i

Sometinres, but no less exceptionally, it is an ancestor or agroup of ancestors which serves as totem directiy. In this case,the clan takes its name, Doi from a thing or a species of reaithin-es, but from a pureiy mi,thical being-. Spenper and Gillenhad already mentioned two or three toteris of this sort. Among

rnSee thc tables collected by.Strehlow, op. cit., II, pp...6I-72 (cf. III, pp.xiii-xvii). It is remskable tbat'tbese rr"gL.iir.v'iri.L;'ui. i.t." ,]i"i"liJ"ivfrom anim:rl totems.1?Strehlow, II,.pp. 59 and 72.1s For e.ranrple, me of tltese totems is a cave *b"r" ao apcestor of ttre\\'ild Cat totem restcd; another ii ; :;fi";r;;;; griiery *r,icu m ancestorof.th- Nlouse ctao dug, etc, (ibid., p. Zii: - "-- '-"_^r0.Vct.-Tr., pp. 56IE. Strehlow,-ii, p. 71, note 2. Howirt, Nct. Tr-, pp.426 E.; On Ausrratian ttedicinc it"", i.e.l.,'xni, ;; 53; Funhet ioti"-i^tha Austtuliat Clcss Syslcms,

.1.a.f ., XVitt, op. ba'el'

126 / Elementary Forms of Religious Lifethe Warramunga and among the TjingiUi there are clans q,hichbear the name of an ancestor n"med rhaballa o,ir" ...rnr'iJbe gaiety incarnate,30 Another Warramunga clan U.ur, -tir!nanre of a huge fab.u_lous

.

serpent named Woitroquu, lro.iwhich the clan considers itself descended.sl \\r" o'*" ;;;.;similar facts to Strehlow.23 In any case, it is easy "no.,gh-';;see what probably took place. Under ttre influence of Aierie

c_auses and by the very development of mythological thoughlthe collective and impersonar totem becime effaced bef-orecertain mlthical personages who advanced to the nr.t ,"Jand became totems tbemselves.

Flowsoever interesting these di-fferent irregularities may be,they contain nothing which forces us to moOify our aennitioaoi a totem. They are not, as has sometim.s b."o believed,xsdifierent varieties of totems which are more or less irreducibleinto each other or into the normal totem, such as we have de-fined-it. They are merely secondary anA sometimes even aber-rant forms of a single notion which is much mcre general, andthere is every ground for beiieving it the more prfritiue.

The manner in which the name is acquired is more impor_tant.for the organization and recruiting of the clan than forreligioo; it belongs ro the sociology of i.he famity ratUii tfraato religious sociology.!{ So '*,e shiir confine ourserves to indi-cating summarily the most essential.principles whicb. ."g"f*"the matter.

In the difierent trlbes, tirree di.ffereat systems are in use.11 a great number, or-it might

"rren b'e said, in the greater

number of rhe 5o"i",ies, the chiid takes the totem of its riother,s Tb.aballl_meaas 'laughing. boy," acmrd.ing to the translation of Spenceraad Cilles. Tbe members of tbe ilaa wni.U1-er tili or*" tLi.rt ttry fr"*him laugtring in tbe rrcks u,hich are li, i*iJ.*"Jfvor. fr., ii.- i}i,;Ii,226 note).- Accorri ihg to a olllr- giveo oa p. 422, there *as ao initial groupof my't-b.ical T'Iraballa (cf. n- 208).-The

.t.o-"f -t1."'X"il, ..f"U-gro; ;;',;-;Speoer ^ncl GiIIen-say, seems to t" "f-iU",**1".ijivrr. Tr., p,207).5 No. Tt., pp, 226 S.

.=.Strehlox', lI, pp. 7I f..He mentions a totem of the Loritja and. .A,luta*,hich is very close to the sertr)ent Wo**q."r-ii ii-tie totem of a mythicalq ater-5nal

1The Elementary Beliefs / L27by right of birth: this is what happens among the Dieri andthe Urabunna of the ceDtre of Southero Australia; the Wotjo-baluk and the Gournditch-IvIara of Victoria; the Kamiiaroi,the Wiradjuri, the -vVonghibon and the Euahlayi of New SouthWales; and the !\/akelbura, the Pitta-Pitta and the Kurnanda-buri of Queensland, to mention only the most importantDames. In this case, owing to a law of exogamy, the mother isnecessarily of a different totem from her husband, and on theother hand, as she lives in his community, the members of asingle totem are necessarily dispersed in di.ffereat localities ac-cording to the chances of their marriages. As a result, thetotemic group lacks a territorial base.

Elsewhere the .totem is transmitted in the paternal line. In

this case, if the child remains with his fatber, the local groupis largely made up of people belouging to a single totem; onlythe married women there represent foreign totems. In otherwords, each locality has its particular totem. Up until recenttimes, this scheme of organization was found in Australia onlyamong the tribes where totemism was in decadence, such astbe Narrinyeri, where the totem has almost no religious char-acter at all any more.25 It was therefore possible to believethat there was a close connection befweea the totemic systemand descent in tbe uterine line. But Spencer and Giilen haveobserved, in the Dorthern part of central Australia, a wholegroup of tribes rvhere the totemic reli_eion is still oractised butwhere the transmission of the totem is in the paternal line:these are the Warramunga, the Quanji, the Umbia, the Bia-bin-ea, the Mara and the Anu1a.26

Finally, a third combination is the one observed among theArunta and Loritja. Here the totem of the child is not neces-sarill' either that of the mother or thar of the father; it is thatof a mythical ancestor who came, by' processes which the ob-servers recount in dift'erent ways,2? and mysteriously fecun-dated the nrother at the moment of conception. A specialprocess makes it possible to.iearn which ancestor it was and to

rsSee Taplia, The liarrin7ei Tibe, in Cw. II, pp, 211f.; Horvitt, Nat.Tr., p. 131.. 5Ior. Tr., pp; 163,. I.69, I70, 172. It is to be noted tl:at in all tlese

tribes, ercept the \[ara aod tbe Anu]a, the trusmission of tbe totem i:o t]epatcroal liae is oaly a geoeral rule, which bas exception-$.' x Accordirg to Speocer ud'GiLleo (Nat. Tr., pp. 123 fi,),'the sorll of 'theancestor becomes reiDcamate ia the body of tle mother ud becomes thesoul of the cbild; accordilg to Strehlow (U, pp. 5I E.), the couception,tlrough being tie work of ttre aDcestor, des Dot imply agy reiacmatioa; butin neither ilterpretatioo does the totem of tle cbild Decessuily depend upoatlrat of tbe paletrts.

I28 ,/ Elementary Forms of Religious Lifer'hich totem.ic group. he_ belonged.:s But since it u,as cnlvchance which deternrined thar ihi, un."rio; ;;;;r;;-,;'uanear the morher, rather^tha..; anorher, the totem of the child isthus found to depend finally ,p"" i"r*itous circ,.rmsrances.?e

-Outside of and above the totems of clans there are totemsof .phratries u,hich, though

"o, Jin.-ring-lrom the former iaDature, must none the less be distinguislied from them..

A phratry is a group of clans *hi;t-;;;;nited to each otherby. parricular bonds of fraternirl,. O.alo".lfy ,h. i;;i;i;;tribe is divided into t*,o phratries'bet*een u,frich the differentclans are distributed. of course there aie some tribes wherethis organization has disappeared, U"t ""lrytning leads us tobelieve that it was once general.' In any case, there are Dotribes in Ausiralia u,here -the

"rrnU"r-oi pn ui.i", ii ;;;";!l,an trvo.,Now in nearly all the cases where tbe phratries have a namen,hose- meaning has beea established, tUis-name is that of ananimal; it ,r,ould therefore seem tUai it-lr-u totem. This hasbeen wetl demonstrareg i:_:.,.;;"t ;;;L'[y a. Lang.Bo Thus,among the Gournditch (Victoria), the plratries are calledIfuokitch and Kaputch; the former'"f ii" iords designates theg'hite cockatoo and the latter tne Utact cofkatoo.3r The sameexpressions are found again among the Buandik and the w;rj*baluk.32 Among the Wuiunje.ri, tn-e na"res Jmployea are Bunjiland Waang, which desigrrit. tL" eagte-nawl( aad the crow.33The words Mukwara uoi Kilp"r.

"r? *"a for the same pur-pose in a large number of triles of New iouth Wales;.l in"ydesignate the same birds.ss It is also in" "ugf"-nuu,k and thecrorv which trave givea their names to the two pbratries of the

5 Nat. Tr., p. I33; StrehJow, II, p. 53.E It is in larse part th. locaii$'pligle !r.e motler believes that sbe coo-ceived rvhich detemiEes the totem .f tt.-.tiia.tiJ ,o,"*, as we sha.ll see-bas its centre and t-he aucestors pr.far"Uiv -t..q-.lot the places seniag scentres for their respecrir.e totems.^ fl" t.ii_'"i-ifr? child is tbe;efore t-batxI"-h, !'J?"rr to the prace *r,ur"- .tu ioii"-,1"i";':: that she conceived. Asus should generatly be in the. y.i.ciriry ;4G.";j;;;hich serves as totemiccentre for her husband. ti,"-

"tla- "#"rf ;:;J:i; #uo* ta" totem of hisiither. It is undoubted.ly this,s.h.icb explain*s *:hy ifr""gr.^t.r part of tbe i!-babitants of a siven lmalitv beloD.g_-to_-tbe same, toi"L t"or. Ir., p. 9).$ T,rc Sccrcr of the Totcin,.,pp. I5s fi. Cr.-iirlriIi.ri.*r.,, Kamitaroi and..t:y]1,xr!?i'l*:*,,r1'1','.':":-;a'"h;'ik'":""io8'o-,rlo-*,-x;'ir,[",Howrtt, Nar. fr., p. I24.s Hoq,itt, pp, l2l, I23, I34; Cw, III, p. 46I.s Hoq.itt, p. 126.& Horvitt, pp. 9g fi.$ Cun, ll, p. 165; Brough Smyth, l, p. 423; Howit! op. cit., p. .i!g.

The. Elementary Beliefs / L2gNgarigo and the Wolgal.:lo Among the Kuinmurbura, it is thewhite cockaroo and iu. ..o*.ir'ir""i other examples mightbe cited. Thus we are led to reg";;-;f" phrarry as an ancientclan which bas been oirmembEieJ; tL u"tr.rut clans_are theproduct of this disme-mberm."i ,"J'tii ,olidarity wbich unitesthem is a souvenir of th.i;;;;;;;""""ni,y.r, It is true that incertain rribes, the pbratries ;"-t;;;;; f,^u. .p."iat names, as itseems; in orhers where these ,;;;-";;;, tbeir meaning is nolonger known, even to the members. nui tfr.r" is oothing sur-prising iu this. The phratriei ;;;;;;,;t"ly a primitive insritu_tion, for they are everywhere

^; ;;;;;';f regression; their de-scendants the clans niu" prrrea;;;; irst ,uok. So it is butnatural that the names which th"y-iJe sUouIO have beeneffaced from memory Iiule ty-rir,rir*iJ" they were no longeruoderstood; for they must b;long i" "

ui.y archaic languageno longer in use. Thjs is p.ou.J U-y i-frJt"", that in many caseswhere we know the animal *h;;";;;ihe pbratry bears, rheword designatine this "nirnui io-iie*"*r"r, language is verydiffereot from th-e one employeJ h;;.;"Betweea the totem.of 'tUJ

,-d; and the totems of theclans tbere exists a sort of ,.frti* oiiGl'rdination. In fact. inprinciple each clan U.ro"grlo'o;"""J""rry one phratry; it isvery exceptional that it hai repres"oiutiu.-, io tl. "In", pili"try.This is not mec *i,h,,3,

"[ .*;;;;;;;oi..r,",o cenrrar tribes,notably the Arunta;r,) also even *.h;;;, ;;,rg to disturbing in_fluences, overlaDoinss_ of this ,oon"rl1"f.en place, the greatpart of the ciar,'is ,o-ctuaeOentir;,, ffi;; oDe or the other of:l: ,yg Broups of the.triue; onri "'rili,, minority is to telound io the orher one.{r .As a i"i" Ih"",ine two pbratries do

I il";:T;"'*, ?,i; tjo.S.tiit other -;";;;, ,,!i.,,",rr:,o,,r" Tribcs of euccnst.and, p. l39.rvorrld bc

"..;r;;;';; #y'-o.ot givea rln suppoit of tr.ii-i,l,i'.t'rr".rir, but it

I I r;', l*; ; ;;-':; -$$ i?;* I,t'""L :Hi} : f :' :: "r.t : i ;il f iii fi ":ij;;,,,|;lll

;,jrii jii*,*3::"i:;,_,.1;X, *;, :::,":it: rr r ph r.,r a mon *h ",r\ t,)tem. Bur here,r,. oiij-or-tn. .r.i.-oi",.ir-;.;n;:",;ir^";i".I-;.?l!:rl.Ifr,l

.tlrc s.r're ta-g- ".. "l;'.1

:' 't, de:rgnoted by tbe .. r,,,,:t illiiiil{:.{#:t -1" }1n''. op"'-iii ol ro':l' url:/3ra' ManT cases[;i:i.1q":ili'.$:;.{}""",i}:it",;":,ii5tH;"Lt=lii:tiii:",srntDmatioo gi?en b, Sf

"t:ru-rl.- "^..-;;-':':].]eues ot pelicans as totem;,9!:1;ry',,ri;:#;t"ri'mffi i:'.,1;#:',#Lt:"",'?ii"i:,,ft:",

.. tn connectioo with thirhe Annde sr"rrir-gr]"i1 i'ji. li"totll'ir'e. our memoir o\ Le Totcmisme, iD

130 / Elementary Forms of Religious Lifenot overlap each other; consequentl),, the list of totems g,hichan

.individuai may have is predetermined by the phratry towhich he belongs. In other words, rhe phratry is liki a spiciescf which the clans are varieties. We iiratt presently see thatthis comparison is not purely metaphorical.

In adciition to the phratries and clans, another secondarygroup is frequently met with in Australian societies, s,hich isnot without a certain individuaiity: these are the matrimonialclasses.

By this name they designate cerrain subdivisions of thephratry, u,hose number varies with the tribe: there are some-times trvo and sometimes four per phratry.a2 Their recruitingand operation are regulated by the two foilowing principles.In the flrst piace, each eeneration in a phratry belongs to dif-ferent clans from the immediately preceding one. Thus, u,henthere are only fivo classes per phratry, they necessarily alter-nate with each otber every generation. The children mal:c upthe class of which their parents are Dot members; but grand-children are of the same class as their grandparents. Thus,among the Kamilaroi, the Kupathin phrairy hals tu,o classes,Ippai and Kum'oo; the Dilby phratry, t\r,o otbers r,r,bicb arecalled N{urri and Kubbi. As descent is in the uterine line, thechild is in the phratry of its mother; if she is a Kupathin, thechild will be one also. But if she is of the Ippai class, he wijlbe a Kumbo; if the child is a girl, her children will again be inthe Ippai class. Likewise, the children of the women of theIr{urri class will be in the Kubbi class, and the ehildren of theKubbi women u,ill be Murri again. When there are fourclasses per phratry, instead of two, thE system is naturallymore complex, but the principle is the same. The four classesform two couples of two classes each, and these two classesalternate rvith each other every generation in the manner justindicated. Secondly, the members of one class can ln piin-ciplers marry into only one of the classes of the other phiatry.

43 On the questioa of Australiau. matrimooial classes in generdl, see ourmemoir oa La Prohibition de I'inceste, iD t:ne Annde Soc., I-, pp. g S., andespecially for the tribs s,ith eight classes, L'Otganrsation maitlmoniale dessoci-A6s Australiernes, io Ann6c Soc.,.VIII, pp. 11g-142._

.

jfhis principle is not maintained every*,bere s.ith aa equal strictness.In the central tribes of eight classes not.b)y, beside the clais u.ith *,hichmarriage is regularly pemitted, there is anotlrer g.ith u.hich a sort of sec_o_ndary concubinage is allorved (Spencer and Gil.len, Nor. Tr., p. l2Oj. tt isthe same *ith certain t:il.es of four classes, Eacb class has a -cioice betweeathe tu'o classes of the other phratry. Tb.is is ttre case u,itb tUe X"Ui tsluMathews, ir Curr, llf, p. 162),

The ElementarY BeUefs / L3I-The Ippai must marry into the Kubbi class and the Murri intothe K;bo class. It is because this organization profoundlyaffects matrimonial relations tbat u.e give tbe group the nameof matrimonial class.

Now it may be asked whether these classes do not some-times have totems l-ike the phratries and clans'

rni'questiooisraisedbythefaccthatincertaintribesofQueeosland, each mat-rimooial class has dietetic restrictioostiat are peculiar to it. The individuals who compose it rnustaUstain fiom eating the flesh of certain animals which theothers may coqsume freely.4{ Are these animals not totems?

But dieietic restrictions are not the characteristic marks oftotemis m. Lbe-. I9-!e*!q

-it- Lgrygg--tust-9 f , 3-!1, lqd' -the n, as . weshall see. at e'ni6fem*. Now ilGe societies of which we just;;;u", tbd;6 ;; *;-o matrimoaial classes which bear the nameoi uo'aoi*"I or plant, or which have e! emblem'as Of courseiiit potiiUr" thaithese restrictioos are indirectly derived fromi;a;;il. It might be supposed that the animals which theseinterdictions prolect w"te bo"" the totems of clans which havetjr"" Jit"ppelred, while the matrimonial classes remained' Itit-"".,"i" ii"t tn"y have a force of endurance wbich the clansdo not have. Tben these interdictioos, deprived of their origi-nal field, may have spread tlemselves out over the entire class'since there were no other SrouPs to which they could be at-tached. But it is clear that if thii re-sulation was born of totem-it-, iit"pt.teots ooly an emfeebled and denatured form of it'{6

qS*Rotb,Ethnologicalstudi*amdgt^eNodh.west-CentralQumlandar-ri*ii, pr. io c.;-f"r*-"iiiuZt -i

'o* Alstrclian InDes' 'l'A'I" XIII(1884), pp. 302 fi.

5 Neverthelas, EoEe tribes are cited sirere tfrc- matrimoaial clsses beartlu

".-".?-""li"ri. ot pi*Li-Ur is tle crse witb the Kabi (Mathew' Ioo

Represdtatice Tribes, p, iSOl-tl" uit* obseryed b:z Ms' Bates (The lt{at';;;; i.;'t ud Cusims-oi'it* w"t' 'i't:trulian Aborigiaes' in victotionCi'oiripn;,rol larul, xXlrr-rxiv, p' 47 , aod perhaps in tlvo tribes ob-;;:d;; i;h;. g;t t!,.t; i;"rt ;; ver.; rare-md their significance badlvestablished. Also, it is..[-;";;;;-that'the classes' as we]l r tbe senalgroups, shou.ld so-.ti*us ;;;;t tf,t oanes of animals' ThLs exceptiond'e.rtensioo of tbe totemic denomioaLioos !o ao way modifies ou conceptiou oftctenisa.4 Perhaps tbe same exploatioa is appiic:lrle . to certain other tribes of t.lleSoutb-Eist ud tbe B*tt *Utii-ll *'" tit r believe the iajomers of Ho*itt'L",".rit-ti*r"u,

"i*r."a ;;-;;:; -"'ti-o-'"r clqss are to be found' This is

;;';;t;';;; tr,e.rvimaiui-tl"'ivuttti"t" and the Buta-Nluna on tte;iil;--Iu;* iFlo*itt, NaI'7L,Jn' zro' :2I;. 226)" However' the ewid-encecoltected is suspect' t""otd"iog io-ii" o*o ainissioo"In fact' it appean fro'B

, the lists wbich he bx dram-uf,'tbat'Ealr totems ue fou4d equalJv ia t}retwo classes of tie sme Pbmt4r''"ir..

"iii-'.*i *ui"u-* p'opot"' afts. Frazer (Totcmin ani Ezogamu'

pp. 531 fi.), raises """ "G"ityl r"'

priociple' each clas and consequentlyeacb totem' i, ,.pr"r"otto E-tlliy it tr't r-" classes of a single phratry' siD:;;"f ',i;'J"iJJJ-r. tut.i-o,i chir&ea ad tle stber tbat of the pareDts

132 ,/ Elementary Forms of Religious LifeAII that has been said of the totem in Australian societies is

equally applicable ro the Indian tribes of North America. Theonl), difference is that among these latter, the totemic orqani_zation has a strictness of outline and a stability *,hich are" notfound in Australia. The Australian clans are not only .verynumerous, but in a single tribe their number is almost un-limited. Observers cite some of them as examples, but \^,ithoute.ver.succeeding in giving us a complete list. This is becausethe list is never definitely terminated. The same process of dis-membernrent rx,hich b_roke uo rhe original phrairies and givebirth to clans properly so-cilled stiil continues u,ithin ti'eselatter; as a result of this progressive crumbling, a clan fre_quently has only a very smill effective force.aT Ii'America, onthe contrary, the totemic system has better defined forms. Al-though the tribes there are considerably larger on the average,tbe clans are less numerous. A single trib-e rarely lus mJrethan a dozen of them,es and freque-ntly less; each of them istherefore a much more importani group. But above all, their"_1Tb..,i. fixed; they know their eiact^number, and ttrey tetiIt to us.4o

This difference is due to the superiority of their social econ_omy. From the moment when ttfose trides were observed forthe_ first time, the social groups were ,ii""gfy attached i. ,fr;:::!^ii1g:nsequ.ently bJtter'aht" to resisitte decentrarizingrorces which assailed'them. At the same time, the society hajtoo keen a sent-inient of its unity to remain uriconscious of it_self and-of the parts out of which it was composed. The ex_ample of America thus enables us to explain eren Uett.i thlorganization at the base of the clans. de would take a mis_taken view, if we judged this only on the present conditions infl:-^-l'n.l the fomer get-th-eir totems. so *r,." iilliIIIIGI"Ilfthe totemic inteldictions u.hich survivJ iU".iJ--b""" remained io bothmatrimoDial classes. while iv(;hen^- ^^,-a. +L:_ r.d- in the ^ac]ual cases citcd, each cls t o" ii, "-r"i\\:h.91 ce c^om e s t hi s' am"i" Jr

"ii"" i -fi;

";;;;':i, d:" ft J:H.J i.,;:,:.'?southem Queensland) allows us to se- how it may bavs come about. In thistribe, the childreo have rhe totem of thei. ^other,1ut jt is particularizedby some distinctive mark. Ii t},"--"ii.i'u., ii?"fii"r. eagte_]rau.k as tote*,the child has the u'hite u"gt.-t,r*tf-G-o*.il1 ;;r."it, p. rng). This appearsto be.the beginaing of a iendency-f;i;;'i.i;; -ti',aifierenti"te themsetvesaccording to the matrimonial clasres.

- t -"

.{ tribe of only a feu, hundred. members frequenily tras Effy or sixtvcrans, or e*en many more. on t$s point, ;";-D";61;;;a-rri.,irl ;; ;;;i_;:!"rl'i:f: ptimitioes dc ctw;fiiaiioi,-ri-it''

*iiiii sociotosique, vor. \'r.

'6 Except among the pueb_lo -I-ndian-s of the Souttr-U/est, rvhere they aomore numerous. See Hodce.- pr cb_lo Indion Ct""", i" _]-.; ca\ Anthropologisa,lst series, \rol. IX, pp. B{5 ff.. It may

"l*r.r-i;".;1.d s.hether ir.l g..i""pisl:ich have these totems are clans ;; ,;b_;i;r;- -'^'.5ee tbe trbles arranged by Morgan, Ancient Socicry, pp. I53_).gS.

The ElementarY Beliefs / 133nu:,trr'lia. In fact, it is in a state of change and dissolutiontlrcrc, which is not at all normal; it is much rather the productof a degeneration wbich we see, due botb to the natural decayof tirrre and the disorganizing erlect of the whites. To be sure,it is hardly probable that the AustraliaD clans ever had thetlimensioni and solid structure of the Americao ones' Butthere must have been a time when the distance between themwas less cousiderable than it is to-day, for the American socie-ties would never have succeeded in makiog so solid a structureif the clans bad always been of so fluid and inconsistent a Da-ture,

This greater stability has even enabled the archaic system ofphratriei to maintain itself in America with a clearness and aielief no longer to be found in Australia. We have just seenthat iD the latter contineot the phratry is everywhere in a stateof decadence; very frequently it is nothing more than ananonymous group; when it has a name, this is either no longerunderstood, or in auy case, it cannot mean a Sreat deal to thenative, since it is borrowed from a foreign language, or fromone no longer spoken. Thus we have been able to infer the ex'istence of totems for phratries only from a few survivals,which, for the most part, are so slightly marked that they haveescaped the attention of many observers. In certain parts ofAmirica, on the contrary, this institution has retained itsprimitive importance. The tribes of the North-west coast, theTtintit and the Haida especially, have now attained a rela-tively advanced civilization; yet they are divided into twophratries which are subdivided into a certaio number of clans:ihe phratries of the Crow and the Wolf among the Tlinkit,sof the Eagle and tbe Crow among the Haida.51 And this divi-sion is not merely nominal; it corresponds to ao ever-existingstate of tribal customs and is deeply marked with the triballife. The moral distance separating the clans is very slight incomparison with that separating the phratries.s2 The name ofcach is not a word whose sense is forgotten or only vaguelyknown; it is a totem in the full sense of the term; they haveall its essential atiributes, such as will be described below'53

'r4 Klause, Die Tlinkit-Indianer,'p, 112; Swanton' Social Cof,dition, Bcliel-sand L;nguirtic Relationship ol the Tlingit Indians' b XXVlth Rep', p' 308'

cr Swanton. Contributio$ to the.Ethnology ol the Htidp, p' 62-!: "The disiinition betrveen the two cllns is absolute ia every respect'''says Swanton, p.68; he giwes the oame clan to uhat we caJl phratries' Thetrvo phratries, he says elswbere, are like trvo foreign Datioos iD their relatioosto each other.

B Among the Haida at least, the totem of the real claos i-s altered morethaa tiat of the phratries. !o fact, usage pemils 3 ciaa to seu or give away