4 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
ered to be the progenitor or prototype of the clan. The people of the 
Wolf clan claim to have descended from the wolf; the people of the 
Eagle clan, from the eagle ; the people of the Wind clan, from the 
wind; and the people of the Sun clan, from the sun.” * 
“Tt was customary for each clan to adopt a tutelar god. All of 
the tribes were polytheistic, and had a great variety of deities, the 
most important of which were animal gods. Thus, in one tribe the bear 
might be the tutelar god or totem of the clan, in another the wolf, in 
another the spider, in another the eagle, in another the heron, and so 
on. Sometimes there was a corn tutelar deity, a rain tutelar deity, or 
a sun tutelar deity. But as most tribes were mainly zoûtheistic, animal 
gods were usually selected as tutelar deities or totems. The tutelar 
god always gave the name to the clan. This is totemism.” * 
It will be seen from the definitions of these writers that the most 
characteristic feature of totemism is the belief that the members of a 
totem are consanguineally related to each other through a common 
descent from their totem prototypes. Now this feature, as I shall 
presently show, is wholly wanting to the totemic systems of this coast. 
Our tribes do not regard themselves as related to or descended from 
their totem prototypes, nor, in the case of the northern clan totems, 
from a common ancestor. 
The origin of totemism * is not certainly known, and none of the 
theories advanced thus far have proved satisfactory. According to 
Herbert Spencer, it may be found (1) in the primitive custom of naming 
children after natural objects from some accidental circumstance or 
fanciful resemblance, or in nicknaming later in life; (2) in the con- 
founding or misinterpretation of such metaphorical names or nick- 
names with the real objects; that is, confusing these objects with their 
ancestors of the same name, and paying them the same reverence as 
they paid their ancestors. Lubbock inclines to the “ supposed resem- 
blance” theory. Tylor regards totemism rather as arising from the 
habit of the primitive mind of personifying all the objects of its 
material environment. McLennan has suggested that imitation of 
animal forms and habits and consequent nicknaming of neighbouring 

* Sociology; or, the Science of Institutions. J. W. Powell. ‘“ American 
Anthropologist,’ N.S. 1, 1899, pp. 697-8. 
* J. W. Powell, Johnson’s Universal Cyclopedia, Vol. IV., art. ‘“ Indians 
of North America.” New York, 1897. 
* The origin of the term itself is said to come from the word ote, root ot, 
of which the possessive form is otem, in the Ojibway dialect of the Algonkin 
Stock. By some authorities it is spelled toodaim or dodaim, whence totem. It 
apparently originally signified a person’s family or tribe, in a narrower 
sense, “ his belongings.’’ 
