TOTEMISM IN THE EVOLUTION OF THEOLOGY. 395 

 TOTEMISM IN THE EVOLUTION OF THEOLOGY.* 



By Mrs. CLAKA KEMPTON BAENUM. 



THE tliouglitful student of universal history can plainly see, 

 under the clear light afforded by modern research, that the 

 line of continuity from the lowest savagery, to the highest civili- 

 zation is unbroken ; the vast interval between the two extremes 

 being filled by " the series of advances through which the marvel- 

 ous and complicated mechanism of refined societies has issued 

 from the savage condition in which the first men long lived." 



Anthropologists study closely the myths, customs, and tradi- 

 tions of uncivilized tribes of our own time, as they are thought 

 to present the most reliable ideas of ancient peoples when they 

 were in a similar stage of mental development. 



This method commends itself to that large class of cultured 

 minds, trained in the doctrine of evolution, who believe that, in 

 examining things present, they have data from which to reason 

 in regard to what has been ; there being no necessity for imagin- 

 ing other causes than those now in action to account for the past 

 in either the physical or psychical world. 



The savage regards all Nature as a combination of distinct 

 intelligent personalities. He draws no line of separation between 

 himself and material things, but thinks every object upon which 

 his eyes rest is endowed with life akin to his own. He even 

 believes that the sky, wind, sun, and dawn are persons, "with 

 human parts and passions." He looks upon the lower animals 

 as more powerful than himself, and therefore worships many of 

 them as divine and creative. This crude personalism has well 

 been termed the distinctive philosophy of primitive culture. 



Totem is a word introduced into our literature by an Indian 

 interpreter of the last century, but it is only within recent years 

 that totemism has been studied scientifically. It prevails almost 

 universally among the aborigines of Australia at the present time. 

 It is also found among savage tribes in North and South America, 

 as well as among peoples in the same primitive stage of culture 

 all over the world. The totem is never an isolated object like a 

 fetich, but always a class, such as species of plants or animals — 

 usually the latter — which certain stocks of men worship, and 

 from whom they consider themselves descended. The clans take 

 the name of their animal deity, such as Wolf, Bear, Serpent, 

 Raven, and Fox. The stock name is generally traced through the 

 female line, and no man is allowed to marry a woman who has 

 descended from the same animal ancestor. 



* Suggested by reading A Washington Bible Class, by Gail Hamilton. 



