Section F. * *' /^j 



ANTHROPOLOGY AND PHILOLOGY. 



ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT, 

 R. PARKINSON, Ralum, Bismarck Archipelago. 



TOTEMISM IN MELANESIA, AND ITS POSSIBLE OEIGIN. 



The word " totem," now well knoM^n to ethnologists, was originally 

 connected with certain institutions and customs of the North American 

 Indians ; and when similar institutions and customs were subsequently 

 found amongst races of other parts of the world, the word totem was 

 adopted as a general designation. 



The highly interesting and important works of Spencer and Gillen, 

 as well as of Dr. Howitt, treating upon the customs of Australian abori- 

 gines, give a detailed account of totem as we find it in a highly developed 

 form, not only amongst the tribes of Central Australia, but throughout 

 the continent. Their graphic descriptions have caused an interesting 

 controversy respecting the origin and meaning of the institutions which 

 the ethnologists of to-day signify by the term totem. 



I think I will be able to add a few facts to what already has been 

 said in regard to this matter, but before I reach this point it will be 

 necessary to lay before you the results of my observations upon the 

 distribution of totem amongst the various more or less mixed races of 

 the Pacific. These observations cover the islands situated between 

 the Philippines and Moluccas in the west to the Hawaiian islands in 

 the east, and from the Carolines in the north to the Polynesian islands 

 in the south. It has fallen to my fortune to make my observations 

 on the spot ; and there is not a group of any importance within the 

 limits I have mentioned that I have not visited, and in which I have 

 not had an opportunity to gather reliable information. 



Arriving in New Britain nearly 25 years ago, I soon found that tlie 

 natives of the N.E. Gazelle Peninsula, where I settled, had a peculiar 

 custom. They were, and are still, divided into two great sections, 

 but neither bears a distinctive name. They speak of these sections as 

 belonging to tawewet and to tadiat, that is, translated, " we " and 

 " they " or " them." We are not permitted to marry any woman 

 belonging to Us, but We can marry women belonging to Them. Just 

 so. They cannot marry any woman belonging to Them, but are per- 

 mitted to intermarry with Us. Children belong to the section of the 

 mother ; thus. We claim all children as belonging to Us if born by a 

 woman belonging to Our section, and in the same way do They. 



In the islands of the Duke of York group, situated between the 

 Gazelle Peninsula and New Ireland, we find a similar dual division ; 

 o 



