32 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION TL. 
the cross-cousin marriage. All the forms of marriage which would be the 
natural result of monopoly of the young women by the old men are thus now 
known to accompany the gerontocracy of Australia. 
2. Varieties of Totemism in Australia. By A. R. Brown. 
For the purposes of this paper totemism is defined as a special magico-religious 
relation between an individual or a social group, on the one hand, and a class 
of natural objects, generally a species of animal or plant, on the other. 
Considering first of all the nature of the totemic group we can distinguish the 
following different kinds of totemism in Australia :— 
(1) Clan totemism with female descent. The totemic group is a body of rela- 
tives who form a clan. Every child belongs to the same totemic group as his 
mother. This form of totemism is found in many tribes in the eastern part of 
Australia, such as the Kamilaroi. 
(2) Clan totemism with male descent. The totemic group is a body of rela: 
tives. A child belongs to the same group as his father. This form of totemism 
seems to exist in widely scattered regions of Australia; for example, in the 
Kariera tribe of Western Australia, in some of the tribes of the Northern 
Territory, in the Narinyeri tribe of South Australia, and perhaps in some tribes 
of Victoria and the southern part of New South Wales. 
(3) Local group totemism. The totemic group is a body of persons living in 
the same place and collectively owning and occupying a definite portion of the 
tribal territory. The group is not a clan and is not exogamous. A child belongs 
to the same local and totemic group as his father. This form of totemism is 
found in the Burduna tribe of Western Australia, and in a number of neighbour- 
ing tribes. 
(4) Cult society totemism. The totemic group is a body of persons who are 
all qualified to take part in a certain cult. The best known example of such 
totemism is that found in the Aranda tribe of Central Australia. 
(5) Totemism of the dual division. The tribe is divided into two parts or 
moieties, and each part is associated with some species of natural object, as 
eaglehawk and crow in some tribes. 
(6) Lotemism of relationship divisions. The totemic groups are the four 
sections or the eight sub-sections into which the tribe is divided by the system 
of relationship. One variety of this form of totemism is found in the Pita-pita 
and other tribes of Western Queensland. Another variety is found in the 
Mungarai and Punaba and other tribes of the Northern Territory and Western 
Australia. A third variety is found in the tribes at the head of the Gascoyne 
and Ashburton Rivers in Western Australia. 
(7) Sex totemism. The tribe is divided into two parts, males and females, 
all the males having’ a special relation to one species of bird or plant, while all the 
females have a similar relation to a different species. 
(8) Personal totemism. The individual has a special and purely personal 
relation to some one or more species of natural objects. In the best-known form, 
that of the Yualai tribe of New South Wales, only medicine-men and women 
with special magical powers have personal totems. 
Considering now the nature of the relation between the group or the person 
and its or his totem, we may distinguish three main kinds of totemism according 
as we find (1) a definite positive ritual associated with the totem, (2) a negative 
ritual, or (3) no organised ritual at all. 
Two main types of positive ritual have so far been described. One of these I 
propose to speak of as the Talu cult, from the name of the ceremonies in a 
number of tribes of Western Australia. Each totem has a special spot sacred to 
it, which we may call the ‘totem centre.’ At this spot members of the totemic 
group perform ceremonies that are believed to result in an increase in the 
numbers of the totemic species. A totemic cult of this type is found over a 
large part of Western Australia, over a part of the Northern Territory, and in 
South Australia in the Arabana and Dieri tribes. It is found associated with 
clan totemism with male descent, with local group totemism, and with cult 
society totemism. 
Another type of totemic cult I propose to speak of by the name Thuthu, by 
