78 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



AVriting in the Fortniglttly Review for April and May of 1899, 

 under the heading of " The origin of Totemism," he remarks : " It 

 may he w^ll to begin by reminding the reader that a totem is a class of 

 natural phenomena or material objects — most commonly ,a species of 

 animals Oir plants — between which and himself the savage believes that 

 a certain intimate relation exists. The exact nature of the relation is 

 not easy to ascertain; various explanations of it have been suggested, 

 but none has yet won general acceiptance.^ ^^-Tiatever it may be, it 

 generally leads the savage to abstain from killing or eating his totem, if 

 his totem happens to be a speoies of animals or plants. Further, the 

 group of persons who are kin to any particular totem by this mysterious 

 tie commonly bear the name of the totem, believe themselves to be of 

 one blood and strictly refuse to sanction the marriage or cohabitation 

 of members of the group with each other. This prohibition to marry 

 within the group, is now generally called by the name of Exogamy. 

 Thus totemism has commonly been treated as a primitive system, both 

 of religion and of society. As a system of religion, it embraces the 

 mystic union of the savages with his totem; as a system of society, it 

 comprises the relations in which men and women of the same totem 

 stand to eaich other, and to the members of other totemic groups. 

 And corresponding to these two sides of the system are two rough-and- 

 ready tests oD canons of totemism; first, the rule that a man may not 

 kill OT eat his totem animal or plant; and second, the rule that he may 

 not marry or cohabit with a woman of the same totem. Whether the 

 two sides: — the religious and the social — have always co-existed or are 

 essentially independent, is a question which has been variously 

 auiswered. Some writers — for example. Sir John Lubbock and Mr. 

 Herbert Spencer, have held that totemism bega.n as a system of society 

 only, and that the superstitious regard for the totem developed later 

 through a simple process of misunderstanding. Others, including J. F. 

 McLennan and Eobertson Smith, were of opinion that the religious 

 reverence for the totem is original, and must, at least, have preceded 

 the introduction of Exogamy." 



Now, on examining this view O'f totemism, we perceive that it differs 

 from that given by Major Powell in several important features. First, 

 great stress is laid upon the fact that a totem is always one of a class of 

 objects and never an individual object; and herein Dr. Frazer distin- 

 guishes between a " fetich " and a " totem." That this distinction is 

 more fanciful than real we have seen; we may, therefore, set it aside at 

 once as not being an essential element of totemism. And secondly 



^ These remarks I need hardly point out after what has been said respect- 

 ing the unity of American opinion on totemism apply only to the European 

 schools. 



