76 EOYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



We have then a form of group-totemism for each stage of tribal 

 society. Under mother-right with descent exclusively in the female line, 

 we have what is commonly termed in this country "clan" totemism. 

 Under father-right with descent exclusively in the male line, " gentile " 

 totemism, and in village society, like that obtaining among the Salish 

 tribes with descent on either or both sides of the house, we have still 

 another form of group totemism, which for lack of a better term I will 

 provisionally call " Kin '' totemism. The sqoiaqi totem, already 

 alluded to and described by me in my report to the Committee of the 

 Ethnological Survey of Canada on the Halkomelem division of the 

 Salish, is an illustration of this form. This totem is said to have origin- 

 ated in the adventure of some woman with some lake "spirits," and by 

 her marriage and that of her descendants has spread over all the 

 Halkomelem tribes, and its members are now numbered by hundreds. 

 I can perceive no difference between this sqoiaqi brotherhood or kin- 

 group and the clan groups of the northern Indians, except that in the 

 latter case the group is theoretically composed of consanguineal relatives 

 on one side of the house only, and in the former of the relatives on both 

 sides of the house, affinitive ties being counted as well as consanguineous 

 ones. 



But to return to Mr. Lang's primiary objection, that the evolution of 

 the group totem cannot proceed from the personal, individual totem be- 

 cause in the more primitive forms of society where totemism originated 

 " male ancestors do not found houses or clan names," descent being on 

 the female side. As Mr. Lang has laid so much stress upon this argu- 

 ment and is able apart from it to appreciate the force of the evidence for 

 the American point of view, if it can be clearly shown that his objection 

 ha-s no basis in fact, that 'his conception lof the laws of inheritance under 

 matriarchy is faulty, consistency must needs make him a convert to the 

 American view. The singular error into which Mr. Lang has fallen is 

 in overlooking the fact that male property and rights are as hereditable 

 under mother-right as under father-right, the only difference being that 

 in the latter case the transmission is directly from the father to his off- 

 spring, and in the former indirectly from the maternal uncle to his 

 sister's ohildren. What is there to prevent a man of ability under 

 matriarchy from " founding a family," that is acquiring an individual 

 totem which by his personal success and prosperity is looked upon as a 

 powerful helper and therefore worthy of regard and reverence? Under 

 mother-right the head of the clan, is invariably a man, the elder male 



includes the relations of both parents usually for six generations. Every 

 tribe is composed of a greater or less number of these families, just as the 

 tribes where clan and gentile orf.anization prevails are composed of a greater 

 or less number of clans or gomtes. 



