518 TSIMSHIAX MYTHOLOGY [eth. ANN. 31 



activities wit li exogamy or endogamy. The problem is how this con- 

 dition arose. 



The recognition of kinship groups, and with it of exogamy, is a 

 universal phenomenon. Totemism is not. It is admissible to judge 

 the antiquity of an ethnic phenomenon by its universality. The use 

 of stone, fire, language, is exceedingly old, and it is now universal. 

 On this basis it is justifiable to assume that exogamy also is very old. 

 The alternative assumption, that a phenomenon of universal occur- 

 rence is due to a psychic necessity that leads to it regularly, can be 

 made for the kinship group, not for the other cases. 



When exogamy existed in a small community, certain conditions 

 must have arisen with the enlargement of the group. The size of the 

 incest group may either have expanded with the enlargement of the 

 group, or individuals may have passed out of it, so that the group 

 itself remained small. In those cases in which, perhaps owing to the 

 ever-recurring breaking-up of the tribes into smaller units, cohesion 

 was very slight, the exogamic group may always have remained 

 restricted to the kinship group in the narrow sense of the term, so that 

 there must always have been a large number of small co-ordinate 

 independent family groups. A condition of this type, which is 

 exemplified by the Eskimo, could never lead to totemism. 



On the other hand, when the tribe had greater cohesion, the 

 consciousness of blood relationsliip may well have extended over a 

 longer period; and if the idea of incest remained associated with the 

 whole group, a certain pressure must soon have residted from the 

 desire to recognize at once an individual as belonging to the incest 

 group. This may be accomplished by the extension of the significance 

 of terms of relationship, by means of which the members of the incest 

 group may be distinguished from the rest of the tribe. Many systems 

 of relationship include such a classification of relatives; but with 

 increasing size of habitat or tribe, this form must also lead to the 

 passing of individuals of unknown relationship out of the incest group. 



The assignment of an individual to the incest group is easiest when 

 the whole group is given some mark of recognition. As soon as this 

 existed, it became possible to retain the incest or exogamic group, 

 even when the family relationship of each individual was no longer 

 traceable. It is not necessary that such an assignment should be 

 made by naming the group. Common characteristics, like a ritual or 

 symbols belonging to the whole group, would serve the same purpose. 



It will readily be seen that here the elements of totemic organization 

 are given. Wherever unilateral descent prevails, either paternal or 

 maternal, it must also follow that the number of distinct exogamic 

 groups would be small, since the extinction of lines of male or female 

 descent brings it about that there is a continual reduction of distinct 

 units, unless this tendency is counteracted by new accessions or by 



