1900.] Avnual Address. 51 



tlie f^roiip with each other. This prohibition to marry within the group 

 is now genernlly called by the name of Exogamy. Tlius, Toteraism has 

 commonl}' been treated as a primitive S3 stem both of religion and of 

 society. Asa system of relio^ion it embraces the mystic union of tlie 

 savage with his totem ; as a system of sooiety it comprises tlie rehvtions 

 in which men and women of the same totem stand to each other and 

 to the members of other totemic groups. And corresponditig to these 

 two sides of the system are two roui<h-aud-ready tests or canons of 

 Totemism : first, the rule that a man may not kill or eat his totem 

 animal or plant; and second, the rule that he may not mnrry or cohabit 

 with a woman of the same totem. Whether the two sides — the religious 

 and the social — have always co- existed or are essentially independent, 

 is a question which has been variously answered. Some writers — for 

 example, Sir John Lubbock and Mi*. Herbert Spencer — have held that 

 Totemism began as a system of society only, and that the superstitious 

 regard for the totem developed later, through a simple process of 

 misunderstanding. Others, including J. F. M'Lennan and Robertson 

 Smith, were of opinion that the religious reverence for the totem is 

 original, and must, at least, have preceded the introduction of 

 Exogamy." 



The system of totems prevailing in Central Australia is so far 

 paralled to that known in India that it includes not only animals and 

 plants but also a number of objects animate and inanimate. Thus 

 while the Australians have " totems of the wind, the sun, the evening 

 star^ file, water, cloud and so on" we find among our Dravidians in 

 India the month of June, Wednesday in every week, the moon, tlie 

 rainbow, the constellation Pleiades figuring as totems among a number 

 of names which include [uetty well the entire flora and fauna of the 

 country where tlie tribe is settled. But while among the Australians 

 the religious aspect of the totem is relatively more prominent than the 

 social, in India the position is reversed ; the social side of the system is 

 very much alive while the religious side has fallen into disuse. It is 

 the religious side on which Mr. Frazer lays stress, and he explains 

 totemism as " primarily an organised and cooperative 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." 

 In other words totemism is a primitive Commissariat and General 

 Providence Department which at a later stage took over the business 

 of regulating marriage. The evidence for this proposition is derived 

 from the magical ceremonies called Intichiuma in which the members 



