82 KOYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



There the " division of labour " seems to have been specialized. This 

 would appear to be tho only distinction between them and the cere- 

 monies or rituals of ;our American " medicine " or " religious " 

 societies. In all other respect they appear to correspond. 



Now, in this country we do not regard the practices of " medicine " 

 or " magic" societies or totem groups, as the sum total of totemism, but 

 only, as T have pointed out, as one feature of it, and that probably the 

 latest in evolution; and the chief objection in my mind against regarding 

 the Intichiuma and similar ceremonies as the basis " and original mean- 

 ing and purpose of totemism," is that this explanation of it does not go 

 to the root of the matter, but still leaves us to show how the several clans 

 or groups acquired this magic or religious power over the totem object. 

 In short, while it gives us a plausible raison d'être for totemism, it fails 

 entirely to tell us how it originated, or why it is the totem group is com- 

 monly called by the name of the totem-object. 



Moreover, totemism rightly considered is not a set of practices or 

 ceremonies, but clearly a belief, which is the efficient cause of these 

 practices. Hence to attempt to judge totemism by " canons " and 

 *' tests," is to regard the form or expression of the doctrine rather than 

 the informing principle or concept which underlies and prompts it, 

 to take the shell for the kernel, and to open the door to endless differ- 

 ences of opinion. For although the underlying principle of totemism 

 is one and the same everywhere, its outward expressions lor manifesta- 

 tions are as numerous almost as the tribes among whom it is found. 

 The only p'O&sible way by which we can arrive at harmony of view 

 in the matter is in the recoignition of the psychic side or aspect of 

 totemism as its really esisential feature. When we have done this then 

 we may profitably go on to study and examine the different local ex- 

 pressions of the doctrine and note the various forms they assume in the 

 different stages of social evolution. 



Dr. A. C. Haddon is the next exponent of totemism whose views 

 we must consider. In his presidential address before the Anthropo- 

 logical section of the B. A. A, S. at the Belfast meeting of last year, he 

 rtmarks : " Totemism as Dr. Frazer and as I understand it in its fully 

 developed condition implies the division of a people into several totem 



kins each of which has one, or sometimes more than one, totem. 



The totem is usually a species of animal, som'etimes a species of plant, 

 occasionally a natural object or phenomenon very rarely a manufactured 

 object. Totemism also involves the rule of exogamy, forbidding mar- 

 riage within the kin, and necessitating inter-marriage between the kins. 

 It is essentially connected with the matriarchal stage of culture (mother- 

 right), though it passes over into the patriarchal stage (father-right). 

 The totems are regarded as kinsfolk and protectors and benefactors of 

 the kinsmen, who respect them and abstain from killing and eating 



