746 REPORT— 1902. 



His conjecture is based on the similar names, or sobriquets, of villages in the 

 folklore, or blasoji populaire, of France and England, which, again, is almost 

 identical with the extant names of Eed Indian totem kindred now counting 

 descent in the male line. Similar phenomena occur in Melanesia with female kin. 

 Mr. Lang is rather indifferent to the causes of the name-giving so long as the 

 name-giving comes from without and applies to groups, not to individuals. 



To return to my suggestion. Among the shore-folk the group that lived mainly 

 on crabs and occasionally traded in crabs might well he spoken of as ' the crab-men ' 

 by all the groups with whom they came in direct or indirect contact. The same 

 would hold good for the group that dealt in clams or in turtle, and reciprocally 

 there might be sago-men, bamboo-men, and so forth. It is obvious that men who 

 persistently collected or hunted a particular group of animals would understand 

 the habits of those animals better than other people, and a personal regard for 

 these animals would naturally arise. Thus from the very beginning there would 

 be a distinct relationship between a group of individuals and a group of animals 

 or plants, a relationship that primitively was based, not on even the most 

 elementary of psychic concepts, but on the most deeply seated and urgent of 

 human claims, hunger. 



There is scarcely any need to point out that the association of human groups 

 with fearsome animals would arise by analogy very early. Hence tiger-man and 

 crocodile-man would restrain the ravages of those beasts (Dr. Frazer * describes 

 this as the negative or remedial side of totemic magic) ; but I take it this was 

 not as primitive as the nutritive alliances. The relation between groups of men 

 and the elements has a purely economic basis ; for example, rain is rarely required 

 for itself, but as a means for the increase of vegetable food ; similarly the fisher- 

 man wants a wind to enable him to get to and from his fishing grounds. 



The next phase is reached when man arrived at elementary metaphysical con- 

 ceptions and endeavoured by sympathetic or symbolic magic to increase his food 

 supply. Naturally the food or product that each group would endeavour to 

 multiply would be the speciality or specialities of that group, and for this practice 

 we now have demonstrative evidence. Though this may be an early phase of 

 totemism I do not consider it the earliest : it can scarcely be the origin of totemism, 

 but it doubtless helped to establish and organise the system. 



The essential difference between the view advocated by Dr. Frazer,- and that 

 here suggested is, that according to him totemism ' is primarily an organised and 

 co-operative system of magic designed to secure for the members of the community, 

 on the one hand, a plentiful supply of all the commodities of which they stand in 

 need, and, on the other hand, immunity from all the perils and dangers to which 

 man is exposed in his struggle with nature. Each totem group, on this theory, 

 was charged with the superintendence and control of some department of nature 

 from which it took its name, and with which it sought, as far as possible, to 

 identify itself.' Whereas I suggest that the association between a group of men 

 and a species of animals or plants was the natural result of local causes, and that 

 departments of nature were not ' assigned to a particular group ' of men. I think 

 it is scarcely probable ' that in very ancient times communities of men should have 

 organised themselves more or less deliberately for the purpose of attaining objects 

 so natural by means that seemed to them so simple and easy.' I suspect that if 

 there was any deliberate organisation it was in order to regulate already existing 

 practices. 



To us it might appear that these magical practices could be undertaken by 

 anyone, but this does not seem to have been an early conception. A.S far as we 

 can penetrate the mind of existing backward man there is a definite acknow- 

 ledgment of the limit of his own powers. The members of one group can perform 

 a certain number of actions ; there are others that they cannot undertake. One 

 group of men, for example, may ensure the abundance of a certain kind of 

 animal, but another will have power over the rain. An interesting example of 

 this limitation is afforded at Port Moresby, in British New Guinea, where the 



> FoHni.gMly Eevlew, 1899, p. 835. = Loc. cit., 1899, p. 835. 



