TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION H. 739 



insuperable difficulty iu the investigator puttinj^ 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 their training is such that it 

 renders them yet more unsympathetic — one might say antagonistic — to the native 

 point of view. The 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 available records, they 

 get a wider view of the problems concerned than the investigator in the field is 

 apt to attain. Generalisations 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 hack 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 ' 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 is 

 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 misunderstanding, 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. 



Professor E. B. Tyler has given * the following clear exposition of his inter- 

 pretation 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 manitu, 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'Ann^e Sociologique,' ii. 1899, says (p. 202) : ' One must avoid 

 giving to a genus the name of a species. It 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 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 



' Man, 1902, No. 75. 



^ A group that reckons descent only through the mother, 



' A group that reckons descent only through the father. 



* Man, 1902, No. 1 ; of. Journ. Antliroj). Inst., xxviii. 1898, p. 138. 



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