OcToBER 2, 1902 | 
NATURE 561 
Messrs. Whittaker and Co.’s announcemen's are :—‘‘ Experi- 
ments with Vacuum Tubes,” by Sir David Salomons; ‘‘ Hints 
to Automobilists,” translated from the French of Baudry de 
Saunier by C. V. Biggs; ‘‘ Practical Chemistry on the Heuristic 
Method,” by Dr. W. C. Harris ; ‘‘ Elementary Practical Optics,” 
by T. H. Blakesley; ‘‘ Electric Traction,” by J. H. Rider ; 
“Electrical Engineers’ Pocket-book,” by Kenelm Edgcumbe ; 
** Electric Lighting and Power Distribution,” by W. Perren 
Maycock, vol. ii.; ‘‘ Mechanical Refrigeration,” by H. Williams ; 
“*Telephone Lines and Methods of constructing Them,” by 
W. C. Owen; ‘‘ Friction and its Reduction by Means ‘of Oils, 
Bearings and Lubrication,” by G. U. Wheeler. 
THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION AT BELFAST. 
SECTION H. 
ANTHROPOLOGY. 
OPENING AppRESsS By A. C, Happon, M.A.,Sc.D., F.R.S., 
M.R.I.A., PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. 
So much has been written of late on totemism that I feel some 
diffidence in burdening still further the literature of the subject. 
But I may plead a slight claim on your attention, as I happen 
to be an unworthy member of the Crocodile kin of the Western 
tribe of Torres Straits, and I have been recognised as such in 
another island than the one where I changed names with 
Maino, the chief of Tutu, and thereby became a member of 
his kin. 
I do not intend to discuss the many theories about totemism, 
as this would occupy too much time; nor can I profess to be 
able to throw much light upon the problems connected with it ; 
but I chiefly desire to place before you the main issues in as 
clear a manner as may be, and I venture to offer for your con- 
sideration one way in and some ways out of totemism. 
A few years ago M. Marillier wrote (‘‘Rev. de 1l’Hist. des 
Religions,” xxxvi. 1897, pp. 368, 369), that ‘‘totemism is one 
of the rare forms of culture: it is incapable of evolution and 
transformation, and is intelligible only in its relations with 
certain types of social organisation. When these disappear it 
also disappears. Totemism in its complete development is 
antagonistic alike to transformation or progress.” In due course 
I shall describe how one people at least is emerging from totem- 
ism. At the outset I wish it to be distinctly understood that 
I do not regard this as the only way out ; doubtless there have 
been several transformations, but a record of what appears to 
be taking place appeals more to most students than a guess as 
to what may have happened. 
What is most needed at the present time is fresh investigation 
in the field. Those who are familiar with the literature of the 
subject are only too well aware of the imperfection of the avail- 
able records. There are several reasons which account for this. 
Some of the customs and beliefs associated with totemism have a 
sacred significance, and the average savage is too reverent to 
speak lightly of what touches him so deeply. Natives cannot 
explain their mysteries any more than the adherents of more 
civilised religions can fully explain theirs. Further, they par- 
ticularly dislike the unsympathetic attitude of most inquirers, 
and nothing shuts up a native more effectually than the fear of 
ridicule. 
Language is another difficulty. Even supposing the white 
man has acquired the language, the vocabulary of the native is 
not sufficiently full or precise to explain those distinctions which 
appeal to us, but which are immaterial to him. 
Granting the willingness of the native to communicate his 
ideas, and that the hindrance of language has been overcome, 
there remains the difficulty of the native understanding what it 
is the white man wishes to learn. If there is a practically 
insuperable difficulty in the investigator putting himself into 
the mental attitude of the savage, there is also the reciprocal 
source of error. 
“Oh, East is East, and West is West, 
And never the twain shall meet.” 
If Kipling is right for the civilised Oriental, how about those 
of lower stages of culture and more primitive modes of thought ? 
We must not overlook the fact that the majority of white men 
who mix with primitive folk are either untrained observers or 
thcir training is such that it renders them yet more unsympathetic 
—one might say antagonistic—to the native point of view. The 
NO. 1718, VoL. 66] 
ignorance and prejudice of the white man are great hindrances 
to the understanding of native thought. 
When students at home sift, tabulate and compare the avail- 
able records they get a wider view of the problems concerned 
than the investigator in the field is apt to attain. Generalisa- 
tions and suggestions crystallise out which may or may not be 
true, but which require further evidence to test them. So the 
student asks for fresh observations and sends the investigator 
back to his field. 
The term ‘‘totemic” has been used to cover so many customs 
and beliefs that it is necessary to define the connotation which 
is here employed. 
It appears from Major J. W. Powell's recent account of 
totemism (4Zanz, 1902, No. 75) that the Algonkin use of the term 
“totem ”’ is so wide as to include the representation of the animal 
that is honoured (but he does not state that the animal itself is 
called a totem), the clay with which the person was painted, the 
name of the clan,! and that of the gens,” the tribal name, the 
names of shamanistic societies, the new name assumed at puberty, 
as well as the name of the object from which the individual 
named. He distinctly states, ‘‘ We use the term ‘ totemism’ to 
signify the system and doctrine of naming.’ I must confess to 
feeling a little bewildered by this terminology, and I venture 
to think it will not prove of much service in advancing our 
knowledge. It looks as if there had been some misunderstand- 
ing, or that the Algonkins employed the word ‘‘ totem” to cover 
several different ideas because they had not definite terms with 
which to express them. Major Powell’s definitions practically 
exclude those cults which are practised in various parts of the 
world, and which by the common consent of other writers are 
described as totemic. 
Prof. E. B. Tylor has given (A/az, 1902, No. 1; cf. Journ. 
Anthrop. Inst., xxviii. 1898, p. 138) the following clear exposi- 
tion of his interpretation of the American evidence: “It is a 
pity that the word ‘totem’ came over to Europe from the 
Ojibwas through an English interpreter who was so ignorant as 
to confuse it with the Indian hunter’s patron genius, his #zazztz, 
or ‘medicine.’ The one is no more like the other than a coat 
of arms is like a saint’s picture. Those who knew the Algonkin 
tribes better made it clear that totems were the animal signs, or, 
as it were, crests, distinguishing exogamous clans ; that is, clans 
bound to marry out of, not into, their own clan. But the original 
sin of the mistake of Long the interpreter has held on ever since, 
bringing the intelligible institution of the totem clan into such 
confusion that it has become possible to write about ‘sex 
totems’ and ‘individual totems,’ each of which terms is a 
self-contradiction. . . . Totems are the signs of intermarrying 
clans.” 
A reviewer in ‘*L’Année Sociologique,” ii. 1899, says 
(p. 202): ‘*One must avoid giving to a genus the name of a 
species. [t will be said these are merely verbal quibbles; but 
does not the progress of a science consist in the improvement of 
its nomenclature and in the classification of its concepts?” 
Totemism, as Dr. Frazer and as I understand it, in its fully 
developed condition implies the division of a people into several 
totem kins (or, as they are usually termed, totem clans), each 
of which has one, or sometimes more than one, totem. The 
totem is usually a species of animal, sometimes a species of 
plant, occasionally a natural object or phenomenon, very rarely 
a manufactured object. Totemism also involves the rule of 
exogamy, forbidding marriage within the kin, and necessitating 
intermarriage 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 or benefactors of the kinsmen, 
who respect them and abstain from killing and eating them. 
There is thus a recognition of mutual rights and obligations 
between the members of the kin and their totem. The totem 
is the crest, or symbol of the kin. 
Sometimes all the kins are classified into two or more groups ; 
for example, in Mabuiag, in Torres Straits, there is a dual 
grouping of the kins, the totems of which are respectively land 
and water animals; and in speaking of the latter group my 
informant volunteered the remark, ‘‘ They all belong to the 
water; they are all friends.”” On the mainland of New Guinea 
also I found that one group of the totems ‘‘stop ashore,” while 
the other ‘‘stop in water.” When no member of a group of 
kins in a community can marry another member of that same 
1 A group that reckons descent only through the mother, 
2 A group that reckons descent only through the father. 
