TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION H. 745 



after the ordinary social organisation in class divisions and totems had become 

 extinct.' Mr. Howitt spealis of these as * abnormal totems,' and Dr. Frazer '■ 

 calls them ' sex totems.' As it appears most desirable to distinguish between 

 this cult, which is confined to Australia, and true totemism I propose, in default 

 of a distinctive native term, to call these reverenced animals ' animal brethren.' 

 Although the natives do not appear to distinguish nominally between these 

 animal brethren and ordinary totems, it does not follow they are to be considered 

 as the same. I am calling attention to an analogous confusion of terms in the 

 totemism of Torres Straits. 



I must now pass on to a further consideration of true totemism as understood 

 by Tylor, Frazer, Lang, Hartland, Jevons, Durkheim, and others, as it is impossible 

 •within the limits of an Address to give an account of all the varieties of pseudo- 

 totemism. 



A Suggestion concerning the Origin of Totemism. 



I tate this opportimity to hazard a suggestion for a possible origin of one 

 aspect of totemism. Primitive human groups, judging from analogy, could never 

 have been large, and the individuals comprising each group must have been closely 

 related. In favourable areas each group would have a tendency to occupy a 

 restricted range owing to the disagreeable results which arose from encroaching 

 on the territory over which another group wandered. Thus it would inevitably 

 come about that a certain animal or plant, or group of animals or plants, would be 

 more abundant in the territory of one group than in that of another. To take a 

 clear example, the shore-folk and the river-folk would live mainly on different 

 food from each other and both would have other specialities than fell to the lot 

 of the jungle-folk. The groups that lived on the seashore would doubtless have 

 some natural vegetable products to supplement their animal diet, but the supply 

 would probably be limited alike in quantity and variety. Even they would 

 scarcely have unlimited range of a shore line, and there would be one group of 

 shore-folk that had a speciality in crabs, another would have shell-beds, while a 

 third would own sandy shores which were frequented by turtle. A similar natural 

 grouping would occur among the jungle-folk : sago flourishes in swampy land, 

 certain animals frequent grassy plains, others inhabit the dense scrub, bamboos 

 grow in one locality, various kinds of fruit trees thrive best in different soils ; the 

 coastal plains, the foot hills, the mountains, each has its characteristic flora 

 and fauna. There is thus no difficulty in accounting for numerous small human 

 groups each of which would be largely dependent upon a distinctive food supply 

 the superfluity of which could be bartered - for the superfluities of other groups. 

 These specialities were not confined to food alone ; for example, the shore-folk 

 would exchange the shells they collected for the feathers obtained from the 

 jungle-folk. 



It may be objected that in the great prairies and steppes of America, Eurasia, 

 and Australia the natural products are very uniform ; but these areas are not 

 thickly populated, and in most eases they probably were only inhabited when the 

 pressure of population in the localities with more varied features forced migration 

 into the open. Certainly these were never the primitive homes of man. 



In a recent paper read before the Folklore Society, Mr. Andrew Lang put 

 forward the hypothesis that while each primitive human group called itself ' the 

 men ' they named the surrounding groups from the names of animals or plants, and 

 hence arose totemism. The idea that there was an intimate connection between 

 the group and the object from which they were nicknamed would soon be 

 developed, and myths of origin would spring up to account for the name. Mr. 

 Lang's theory, still unpublished, regards totem names as given from without for a 

 variety of reasons, amongst which, I understand, he includes my own suggestion. 



' Totemism, p. 51 ; The Golden Bovgli, iii. p. 416. 



- It may be objected that the idea of barter is by no means primitive ; but as I 

 believe that sociability was a fundamental characteristic of primitive man I can see 

 no reason why it should not have occurred quite early in a rudimentary sort of way. 



