PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 715 



added, ' even the yearly list of new anthropological literature is enough to form a 

 pamphlet, and each capital of Europe has its anthropological society in full work. 

 So far from any finality in anthropological investigation, each new line of argu- 

 ment but opens the way to others behind, while those lines tend as plainly as 

 in the sciences of stricter weight and measure toward the meeting ground of 

 all sciences in the unity of Nature.' 



Since these words were written there has been a never-ceasing supply of 

 fresh literature, which is well represented in the publications of the present year. 

 Every contributor to this science must now be a specialist, because he can with 

 advantage occupy only one tiny corner of the field of humanity ; and even then 

 he is never free from a feeling of anxiety lest his humble contribution may 

 have been anticipated by some indefatigable foreign scholar. In short, the 

 attempt to give a general exposition of the sciences devoted to the study of 

 mankind has been replaced by the monograph. Of such studies designed to 

 co-ordinate and interpret the facts collected by workers in the field we welcome 

 two contributions of special importance. 



Professor J. G. Frazer has given us a monumental treatise on totemism and 

 exogamy, in which, relying largely on new Australian evidence and that col- 

 lected from Melanesia by Dr. Haddon and his colleagues, Dr. Kivers and 

 Dr. Seligmann, he endeavours to prove that totemism originated in a primitive 

 explanation of the mysteries of conception and childbirth. As contributing causes 

 ho discusses the influence of dreams and the theory of the external soul, the 

 latter being occasionally found connected with totemism ; and he points out that 

 one function of a totem clan was to provide by methods of mimetic or sympathetic 

 magic a supply of the totem plant or animal on which the existence of the 

 community depends, this function being not metaphysical or based on philan- 

 thropic impulse, but on a cool but erroneous calculation of economic interest. 

 He has also cleared the ground by dissociating totemism from exogamy, the latter, 

 as an institution of social life, being, he believes, later in order of time than 

 totemism, and having in some cases accidentally modified the totemic system 

 while in others it has left that system entirely unaffected. The law of exogamy 

 is, in his opinion, based mainly on a desire to prevent the union of near relations, 

 and on the resulting belief in the sterilising effects of incest upon women in general 

 and edible animals and plants. In dealing with totemism as a factor in the 

 evolution of religion he gives us a much-needed warning that' it does not. 

 necessarily develop, first into the worship of sacred animals and plants, and 

 afterwards into the cult of anthropomorphic deities with sacred plants and 

 annuals for their attributes. In the stage of pure totemism totems are in no 

 sense deities, that is to say, they are not propitiated by prayer and sacrifice; 

 and it is only in Polynesia and Melanesia that there are any indications of a 

 stage of religion evolved from totemism, a conclusion which demolishes much 

 ingenious speculation. It is hardly to be expected that in a field covered by the 

 wrecks of many controversies these views will meet with universal acceptance. 

 But the candour with which he discards many of his own theories, and the 

 infinite labour and learning devoted to the preparation of his elaborate digest, 

 deserve our hearty recognition. 



In his treatise on 'Primitive Paternity,' Mr. E. S. Hartland deals with the 

 problems connected with the relations of the sexes in archaic society. Mother- 

 right he finds to be due not so much to the difficulty of identifying the father 

 as to ignorance of physiological facts ; and he supposes that the transition from 

 mother-right to father-right originated not from a recognition of the physical 

 conditions of paternity, but from considerations connected wth the devolution of 

 property ; as Professor Frazer states the case, it arises from a general increase 

 in material prosperity leading to the growth of private wealth. 



We also record the steady progress of the great ' Encyclopaedia of Religion 

 and Ethics,' under the editorship of Dr. J. Hastings, which promises to provide 

 an admirable digest of the results of recent advances in the fields of comparative 

 religion and ethnology. 



Tt is now admitted by all students of classical literature that the material 

 collected from the lower races is an indispensable aid to the interpretation of *hc 

 myths, beliefs, and culture of the Greeks and Romans. Most of our universities 

 provide instruction of this kind ; and Oxford has opened its doors to a special 



