ORIGIN OF TOTEMISM 409' 



own person she then took the necessary steps to fix the totem of 

 her child. This action is also quite consistent with native ideas- 

 and modes of thought. It recognises the part played by the male 

 and also the part played by the spirits, as it is only the spirit of 

 the kangaroo or emu child which is supposed to enter the woman ;. 

 and it is, I think, a more reasonable supposition than that of 

 complete ignorance of the part played by the male, which is re- 

 garded as being the origin of totemism. 



Dr. Frazer finds the " missing link " between the Central 

 Australian beliefs and " absolutely primitive totemism " in the 

 beliefs and customs of the people of the Banks Islands, as described 

 by Dr. Rivers. These people, it is said, identify themselves with 

 certain animals or fruits, and believe that they partake of the 

 qualities and character of those animals or fruits, and refuse to- 

 eat them on the grounds that in doing so they would practically 

 be eating themselves. Dr. Frazer says (Vol. 4, p. 59) :— " The reason 

 they give for holding this belief and observing this conduct is that 

 their mothers were impregnated by the entrance into their womb 

 of spirit animals or spirit fruit, and that they themselves are 

 nothing but the particular animal or plant which effected a 

 lodgment in their mother and in due time was born into the world 

 with a superficial and deceptive resemblance to a human being. 

 This is not called totemism, but nevertheless it appears to be- 

 totemism in all its pristine simplicity. Theoretically it is an 

 explanation of childbirth resting on a belief that conception can 

 take place without cohabitation ; practically, it is respect paid 

 to species of animals, plants, or other natural objects on the 

 ground of their assumed identity with human beings." If this 

 is " totemism in all its pristine simplicity," it is evident that 

 ignorance of the part played by the male is not the ultimate source 

 of totemism, for Dr. Rivers states (Vol. 2, pp. 90-91) :— " I could not 

 find out what interval usually elapses between the disappearance 

 of the animal and the birth of the child, but this does not seem 

 to be regarded as a matter of importance, for it was clear that 

 this belief was not accompanied by any ignorance of the physical 

 role of the human father, and that the father played the same 

 part in conception." This is quite in accord with the opinion 

 which I have already expressed. 



The arguments for the conceptional theory as being the origin 

 of totemism would have greater force if they could be confined 

 to the question of the origin of totemism among the Arunta and 

 kindred tribes, but in discussing the subject of the origin of a 

 custom which is so widely observed as totemism, all arguments used 

 must not only explain the origin of the custom among peoples 

 in limited areas and living in very peculiar and primitive con- 

 ditions, but must also be applicable to the whole of the totemic 

 peoples. The conceptional theory of the origin of totemism 

 rests on the assumption that primitive peoples do not know that 

 the intercourse of the sexes is the cause of offspring and that they 



