The Secret of the Totem

APPENDIX
SOME AMERICAN THEORIES OF TOTEMISM

With some American theories of the origin of totemism, I find it extremely difficult to deal. They ought not to be neglected, that were disrespectful to the valued labours of the school of the American "Bureau of Ethnology." But the expositions are scattered in numerous Reports, and are scarcely focussed with distinctness. Again, the terminology of American inquirers, the technical words which they use, differ from those which we employ. That fact would be unimportant if they employed their technical terms consistently. Unluckily this is not their practice. The terms "clan," "gens," and "phratry" are by them used with bewildering inconsistency, and are often interchangeable. When "clan" or gens, means, now (i) a collection of gentes, or (2) of families, or (3) of phratries, and again (4) "clan" means a totem kin with female descent; and again (5) a village community; while a phratry may be (1) an exogamous moiety of a tribe, or (2) a "family," or (3) a magical society; and a gens may be (1) a clan, or (2) a "family," or (3) an aggregate of families, or (4) a totem kin with male descent, or (5) a magical society, while "tribal" and "sub-tribal divisions" are vaguely spoken of – the European student is apt to be puzzled! All these varieties of terminology occur too frequently in the otherwise most praiseworthy works of some of the American School of Anthropologists. I had collected the examples, but to give them at length would occupy considerable space, and the facts are only too apparent to every reader.²⁶²

Once more, and this point is of essential importance, the recent writers on totemism in America dwell mainly on the institution as found among the tribes of the north-west coast of the States and of British Columbia. These tribes are so advanced in material civilisation that they dwell in village settlements. They have a system of credit which looks like a satirical parody of the credit system of the civilised world. In some tribes there is a regular organisation by ranks, noblesse depending on ancestral wealth.

It seems sanguine to look for the origins of totemism among tribes so advanced in material culture. The origin of totemism lies far behind the lowest savagery of Australia. It is found in a more primitive form among the southern and eastern than in most of the north-western American tribes, but the north-western are chiefly studied, for example, by Mr. Hill-Tout, and by Dr. Boas. A new difficulty is caused by the alleged intermixture of tribes in very different states of social organisation. That intermixture, if I understand Mr. Hill-Tout, causes some borrowing of institutions among tribes of different languages, and different degrees of culture, in the west of British Columbia and the adjacent territories. We find, in the north, the primitive Australian type of organisation (Thlinket tribe), with phratries, totems, and descent in the female line. South of these are the Kwakiutl, with descent wavering in a curious fashion between the male and female systems. Further south are the Salish tribes, who have evolved something like the modern family, reckoning on both sides of the house. I, with Mr. McGee of the United States Bureau of Ethnology, suppose the Kwakiutl to be moving from the female to the male line of descent. In the opinions of Mr. Hill-Tout and Dr. Boas, they are moving from the advanced Salish to the primitive Thlinket system, under the influence of their primitive neighbours. It is not for me to decide this question. But it is unprecedented to find tribes with male reverting to female reckoning of descent

Next, Mr. Hill-Tout employs "totem" in various senses. As totems he reckons (1) the sacred animals of the tribe; (2) of the religious or magical societies (containing persons of many totems of descent); (3) of the individual and (4) the hereditary totems of the kin. All these, our author says, are, by their original concept, Guardian Spirits. All such protective animals, plants, or other objects, which patronise and give names to individuals, or kins, or tribes, or societies, are "totems," in the opinion of the late Major Powell, and the "American School," and are essentially "guardian spirits." All are derived by the American theory²⁶³ from the manitu, or guardian, of some individual to whom the animal or other object has been revealed in an inspired dream or otherwise. The object became hereditary in the family of that man, descended to his offspring, or, in early societies with reckoning in the female line, to the offspring of his sisters (this is Mr. Hill-Tout's theory), and so became the hereditary totem of a kin, while men of various totem kins unite in religious societies with society "totems" suggested by dreams. These communities may or may not be exogamous, they may even be endogamous. By the friends of this theory the association of exogamy with hereditary kin-totemism is regarded as "accidental," rather than essential.

Using the word "totem" in this wide sense, or in these many senses, which are not ours, it is plain that a man and woman who chance to have the same "personal totem," (i) or belong to the same religious society with its "totem," (i) or to the same local tribe with its "totem," (3) may marry, and, by this way of looking at the matter, "totems" do permit marriage within the totem, and are not exogamous. But we, for our part (like Mr. E. B. Tylor, and M. Van Gennep²⁶⁴), call none of these personal, tribal, or society sacred animals "totems." That term we reserve for the hereditary totem of the exogamous kin. Thus it is not easy, it is almost impossible, for us to argue with Mr. Hill-Tout, as we and he use the term "totem" in utterly different senses.

On his theory there are all sorts of "totems," belonging to individuals and to various kinds of associations. The totems hereditary in the kins when they are exogamous, are exogamous (on Mr. Hill-Tout's theory) because the kins, in certain cases, made a treaty of alliance and intermarriage with other kins for purely political purposes. They might have made such treaties, and become exogamous, though they had no totems, no name-giving animals; and they might have had name-giving animals, and yet not made such treaties involving exogamy. Thus totemic exogamy is, on this theory, a mere accident: the totem has nothing to do with the exogamous rule.

Mr. Hill-Tout writes to me, "The totem groups are exogamous not because of their common totem, but because of blood relationship. It is the blood-tie²⁶⁵ that bans marriage within the totem group, not the common totem. That exogamy and the totem group with female descent go together is accidental, and follows from the fact that the totem group is always, in Indian theory at least, blood related. Where I believe you err is in regarding exogamy as the essential feature of totemism. I cannot so regard it. To me it is secondary, and becomes the bar to marriage only because it marks kinship by blood, which is the real bar, however it may have arisen, and from whatever causes."

Here I am obliged to differ from Mr. Hill-Tout. I know no instance in which a tribe with female kin (the most primitive confessedly), and with hereditary totems, is not exogamous. Exogamy, then, if an accident, must be called an inseparable accident of totemism, with female descent, till cases to the contrary are proved to exist. Mr. Hill-Tout cites the Arunta case: totems among the Arunta are not exogamous. But of that argument we have disposed (see Chapter IV.), and it need no longer trouble us.

Again, it is not possible to agree with Mr. Hill-Tout when he writes, "It is the blood-tie that bars marriage within the totem group, not the common totem." The totem does not by its law prevent marriages of blood kin. A man, as far as totem law goes, may marry his daughter by blood, a brother may marry his sister on the father's side (with female descent), and a man may not marry a woman from a thousand miles away if she is of his totem, though she is not of his blood. It is not the real blood-tie itself, but the blood-tie as defined and sanctioned by the totem, that is not to be violated by marriage within it.

To return to the theory that totems are tutelary spirits in animal or other natural forms. A man may have a spirit guardian in animal form, that is his "totem," on the theory. He may transmit it to his descendants, and then it is their "totem"; or his sisters may adopt it, and hand it down in the female line, and then it is the totem of his nephews and nieces for ever; or the man may not transmit it at all. Usually, it is manifest, he did not transmit it; for there must have been countless species of animal protectors of individuals, but tribes in America have very few totems. If a man does transmit his animal protector, his descendants, lineal or collateral, may become exogamous, on the theory, by making other kins treaties of intermarriage to secure political alliances; or they may not, just as taste or chance direct. All the while, every "totem" of every sort, hereditary or not, is, on this theory, a guardian spirit. That spiritual entity is the essence of totemism, exogamy is an accident – according to Mr. Hill-Tout.

Such is his theory. It is, perhaps, the result of studying the North-West American Sulia, or "personal totem" answering to the nyarongs of Borneo, the naguals of the Southern American tribes, the yunbeai of the Euahlayi of New South Wales, and the "Bush Souls" of West Africa. All of these are, as the Ibans of Borneo imply in the term nyarong, "spirit helpers," in animal or material form. Some tribes call genuine totems by one name, but call animal familiars of an individual by another name. Budjan, among the Wiradjuri, stands both for a man's totem, and for the animal familiar which, rduring apparently hypnotic suggestion," he receives on being initiated.²⁶⁶ Among the Ibans (but not among the few Australian tribes which have yunbeai), the spirit helper may befriend the great-grandchildren of its original protégé.²⁶⁷

But in no case recorded does this nyarong become the hereditary totem of an exogamous kin.

The "spirit helper" does not do that, nor am I aware, on the other hand, that the hereditary totem of an exogamous kin is ever, or anywhere, regarded as a "tutelary spirit." No such idea has ever been found in Australia. Again, if I understand Dr. Boas, among his north-western tribes, such as the Thlinket, who have female descent and hereditary exogamous totems, the totem is no more regarded as a tutelary spirit than it is among the Australians. Of the Kwakiutl he says, "The manitu" (that is, the individual's tutelary spirit) "was acquired by a mythical ancestor, and the connection has become so slight, in many cases, that the tutelary genius of the clan has degenerated into a crest."

That the "crest" or totem mark was originally a "tutelary genius" among the Thlinket, seems to be merely the hypothesis of Dr. Boas. Even among the Kwakiutl, in their transitional state, the totem mark now is "in many cases a crest." "This degeneration" (from spirit to crest), our author writes, "I take to be due to the influence of the northern totemism," such as that of the Thlinket.²⁶⁸ Thus the Thlinket, totemic on Australian primitive lines, do not regard their hereditary exogamous totems as "tutelary spirits."²⁶⁹ No more do the Australians, nor the many American totemists who claim descent from the animal which is their totem.²⁷⁰

The tutelary spirit and the true totem, in my opinion, are utterly different things. The American theory that all things (their name is legion) called "totems" by the American School are, in origin and essence, tutelary spirits, is thus countered by the fact that the Australian tribes do not regard their hereditary totems as such; nor do many American tribes, even when they are familiar with the idea of the tutelary spirits of individuals. The Euahlayi, in Australia for instance, call tutelary spirits yunbeai; hereditary totems they call by a separate name, Dhe.²⁷¹

The theory that the hereditary totem of the exogamous kin is the "spirit helper" or "tutelary genius," acquired by and transmitted by an actual ancestor, cannot be proved, for many reasons. We know plenty of tribes in which the individual has a "spirit helper," we know none in which he bequeaths it as the totem of an exogamous kin.

Again we find, (1) in Australia, tribes with hereditary totems, but with no "personal totems," as far as our knowledge goes. Whence, then, came Australian hereditary totems? Next, (2) we find tribes with both hereditary and "personal totems," but the "personal totems" are never hereditable. The "spirit helpers," where they do occur in Australia, are either the familiars of wizards (like the witch's cat or hare), or are given by wizards to others.²⁷² Next, (3) we find, in Africa and elsewhere, tribes with "personal totems," but with no hereditary totems. Why not? For these reasons, the theory that hereditary kin-totems are personal tutelary spirits become hereditary, seems a highly improbable conjecture. If it were right, genuine totemism, with exogamy, might arise in any savage society where "personal totems" flourish. But we never find totemism, with exogamy, just coming into existence.

To sum up the discussion as far as it has gone, Mr. Hill-Tout had maintained (1) that the concept of a ghostly helper is the basis of all his varieties of so-called "totems." I have replied that the idea of a tutelary spirit makes no part of the Australian, or usually of the American "concepts" about the hereditary totems. This is matter of certainty.

Mr. Hill-Tout next argues that hereditary totems are only "personal totems" become hereditary, which may happen, he says, in almost any stage of savage society. I have replied, "not plus the totemic law of exogamy," and he has answered (3) that the law is casual, and may or may not accompany a system of totemic kindred, instancing the Arunta, as a negative example. In answer, I have shown that the Arunta case is not to the point, that it is an isolated "sport."

I have also remarked frequently, in previous works, that under the primitive method of reckoning descent in the female line, an individual male cannot bequeath his personal protective animal as a kin-name to his descendants, so that the hereditary totem of the kin cannot have originated in that way. Mr. Hill-Tout answers that it can, and does, originate in that way – a male founder of a family can, and does, found it by bequeathing his personal protective animal to the descendants of his sisters, so that it henceforth passes in the female line. I quote his reply to my contention that this is not found to occur.²⁷³

"The main objection brought against this view of the matter by Mr. Andrew Lang and others is that the personal totem is not transmissible or hereditable. But is not this objection contrary to the facts of the case? We have abundant evidence to show that the personal totem is transmissible and hereditable. Even among tribes like the Thompson, where it was the custom for every one of both sexes to acquire a guardian spirit at the period of puberty, we find the totem is in some instances hereditable. Teit says, in his detailed account of the guardian spirits of the Thompson Indians, that 'the totems of the shamans²⁷⁴ are sometimes inherited directly from the parents'; and among those tribes where individual totemism is not so prevalent, as, for instance, among the coast tribes of British Columbia, the personal totem of a chief or other prominent individual, more particularly if that totem has been acquired by means other than the usual dream or vision, such as a personal encounter with the object in the forest or in the mountains, is commonly inherited and owned by his or her posterity. It is but a few weeks ago that I made a special inquiry into this subject among some of the Halkomelem tribes of the Lower Fraser. 'Dr. George,' a noted shaman²⁷⁵ of the Tcil'Qe'Ek, related to me the manner in which his grandfather had acquired their family totem,²⁷⁶ the Bear; and made it perfectly clear that the Bear had been ever since the totem of all his grandfather's descendants. The important totem of the Sqoiàqî²⁷⁷ which has members in a dozen different tribes of the coast and Lower Fraser Salish, is another case in point. It matters little to us how the first possessor of the totem acquired it. We may utterly disregard the account of its origin as given by the Indians themselves, the main fact for us is, that between a certain object or being and a body of people, certain mysterious relations have been established, identical with those existing between the individual and his personal totem; and that these people trace their descent from and are the lineal descendants of the man or woman who first acquired the totem. Here is evidence direct and ample of the hereditability of the individual totem, and American data abound in it."

All these things occur under the system of male kinship. Even if the "personal totem" of a chief or shaman is adopted by his offspring, it does not affect my argument, nor are the bearers of the badge thus inherited said to constitute an exogamous kin.²⁷⁸ If they do not, the affair is not, in my sense, "totemic" at all. We should be dealing not with totemism but with heraldry, as when a man of the name of Lion obtains a lion as his crest, and transmits it to his family. Meanwhile I do not see "evidence direct and ample," or a shred of evidence, that a man's familiar animal is borrowed by his sisters, and handed on to their children.

Next, as to that point, Mr. Hill-Tout writes:²⁷⁹—

"To return to Mr. Lang's primary objection, that the evolution of the group totem cannot proceed from the personal, individual totem because in the more primitive forms of society where totemism originated "male ancestors do not found houses or clan names," descent being on the female side. As Mr. Lang has laid so much stress upon this argument, and is able apart from it to appreciate the force of the evidence for the American point of view, if it can be clearly shown that his objection has no basis in fact, that his conception of the laws of inheritance under matriarchy is faulty, consistency must needs make him a convert to the American view. The singular error into which Mr. Lang has fallen is in overlooking the fact that male property and rights are as hereditable under mother-right as under father-right, the only difference being that in the latter case the transmission is directly from the father to his offspring, and in the former indirectly from the maternal uncle to his sister's children. What is there to prevent a man of ability under matriarchy from 'founding a family,' that is, acquiring an individual totem which by his personal success and prosperity is looked upon as a powerful helper, and therefore worthy of regard and reverence? Under mother-right the head of the clan is invariably a man, the elder male relative on the maternal side; and the clan name is not so much the property of the woman as of her elder brother or her conventional 'father,' that is, her maternal uncle. The 'fathers' of the group, that is, the maternal uncles, are just as much the heads and I founders of houses' and clans in the matriarchal state as under the more advanced state of patriarchal rule. And that they do found family and group totems the evidence from our northern coast tribes makes clear beyond the shadow of a doubt.

"The oft-quoted case of the Bear totem among the Tsimshians is a case in point, and this is but one of scores that could be cited. The origin of this totem came about in the following manner: 'A man was out hunting and met a black bear who took him to his home and taught him many useful things. After a lengthy stay with the bear the man returned home. All the people became afraid of him, he looked and acted so like a bear. Some one took him in hand and rubbed him with magic herbs and he became a man again. Thereafter whenever he went hunting his friend the bear helped him. He built a house and painted the bear on the front of it, and his sister made a dancing blanket, the design of which represented a bear. Thereafter the descendants of his sister used the bear for their crest, and were known as the Bear clan.'²⁸⁰

"Who was the 'founder of the family' here, and the source of the clan totem? Clearly and indubitably the many and so it invariably was, as the study of the myths accounting for the clan totems plainly shows.²⁸¹ It matters not, I may point out, that these myths may have been created since the formation of the clans to account for their origin, the point for us is that the man was regarded by the natives as the 'founder' of the family and clan. The founders of families and totem-crests are as invariably men under matriarchy as under patriarchy, the essential difference only between the two states in this regard being that under one the descent is through the 'conventional father,' under the other through the 'real or ostensible father.' Such being the case, Mr. Lang's chief argument falls to the ground, and the position taken by American students as to the origin of group-totems is as sound as before."

Now where, outside the region of myth, is there proof that Mr. Hill-Tout's processes ever do occur?

Mr. Hill-Tout argues that the founder of the totem kin is "invariably the man, as the study of the myths accounting for the clan totems plainly shows." But myths have no historical authority, and many of these myths show the very opposite: in them a beast or other creature begets the "clan."²⁸² To be sure, Mr. Hill-Tout says nothing about these myths, or about scores of familiar American myths²⁸³ to the very same effect.

Again, as mythical evidence is worthless, Mr. Hill-Tout argues that "the man was regarded by the natives themselves as the 'founder' of the family or clan." Yes, in some myths, but not in those which Mr. Hill-Tout overlooks.

That the natives in some myths regard the man as founder of a totem kin under female descent proves nothing at all. Does the Tsimshian Bear myth prove that the natives themselves turn into Bears, and become men again? Does it even prove that such an occurrence, to-day, would now seem normal to them? Nothing is proved, except that in myth-making the natives think that this metamorphosis may have occurred in the past. In the same way – when myth-making – they think that a man might convey his badge to his sisters, to be hereditary in the female line. To prove his case, Mr. Hill-Tout must show that men actually do thus convey their personal protective animals and badges into the female line. To that evidence I shall bow.

If I reasoned like our author, I might argue, "The South African tribes say that their totems (siboko) arose in nicknames given to them on account of known historical incidents, therefore my conjecture that totems thus arose, in group names given from without, is corroborated by the natives themselves, who testify thus to the actuality of that mode of getting tribal names and siboko."²⁸⁴

But I, at least, cannot argue thus! The process (my process) does not and cannot occur in South African conditions, where tribes of an advanced culture have sacred protective animals. The natives have merely hit on my own conjecture, as to the remote germ of totemic names, and applied it where the process never occurs. The Tsimshians, in the same way, are familiar with the adoption of protective animals by male individuals. They are also familiar with the descent of the kin-totem through females. Like the famous writer on Chinese Metaphysics, the Tsimshians "combine their information." A man, they say, became a bear, and became a man again. He took the Bear for his badge; and to account for the transmission of the badge through women, the Tsimshians add that his sister also took and transmitted the Bear cognisance, as a hereditary totem. They think this could be done, exactly as the Bakwena think that their tribal protective animal, the Crocodile, the Baboon, or another, could arise in a nickname, given recently. It could not do so, the process is no longer possible, the explanation in this case is false, and does not help my theory of the origin of totemism. In the same way the Bear myth does not help Mr. Hill-Tout's theory, unless he can prove that sisters do actually take and transmit to their descendants, as exogamous totems, the sulia or individual protective animal of their brothers. Of this process I do not observe that Mr. Hill-Tout gives a single verifiable example.

As to this argument, Mr. Hill-Tout writes to me, "I cannot accept your criticism on the poor evidence of the Tsimshian accounts of the origin of their totem kins. You could not take such a view, I think, if you had personal, first-hand knowledge of the Indian mind. Your objections apply to 'classic myths,' but not to the accounts of tribes who are still in the totemic stage."

I fail to understand the distinction. It is now universally recognised that most myths, "classic" or savage (the classic being survivals of savage myths), are mere fanciful hypotheses framed to account for unexplained facts. Moreover, I am discussing and comparing the myths of various savage races, I am not speaking of "classic myths." Savages have anticipated us in every one of our hypotheses as to the origin of totemism, but, of course, they state their hypotheses in the shape of myths, of stories told to account for the facts. Some Australian myths favour Mr. Howitt's hypothesis, others favour that of Mr. Spencer, one flatters that of Dr. Haddon, one African myth is the fore-runner of my theory, and a myth of the Tsimshians anticipates the idea of Mr. Hill-Tout. But all these myths are equally valueless as historical evidence.

As to heritage under female kin, which I am said not to understand, no man reckoning by female kin has hitherto been said to inherit his totem from his maternal uncle! A man inherits his totem from his mother only, and inherits it if he has no maternal uncles, and never had. If a man has a manitu, a nagual, a yunbeai, a nyarong, or "personal totem," his sister does not take it from him and hand it to her children, or, if this ever occurs, I say once more, we need proof of it. A man may inherit "property and rights" from his maternal uncles under female kin. But I speak of the totem name, which a man undeniably does not inherit from his maternal uncle, while there is no proof offered that a woman ever takes such a name from her brother, and hands it on to her children. So I repeat that, under the system of reckoning in the female line, "male ancestors do not found houses or clan names," or are not proved to do so.

It is apparent, probably, that a theory of totemism derived in great part from the myths and customs of a few advanced tribes, dwelling in village communities, and sometimes in possession of the modern family, with male kin, is based on facts which are not germane to the matter. The origin of totemism must be sought in tribes of much more backward culture, and of the confessedly "more primitive" type of organisation with female descent To disprove Mr. Hill-Tout's theory is of course impossible. There may have been a time when "personal totems" were as common among the Australians as they are now rare. There may have been a time when an Australian man's sisters adopted, and transmitted, his "personal totem," though that is no longer done to our knowledge. It may have chanced that stocks, being provided, on Mr. Hill-Tout's plan, with tutelary spirits of animal names descending in the female line, made marriage treaties, and so became exogamous. Then we should have explained totemism, perhaps, but a considerable number of missing facts must be discovered and reported before this explanation can be accepted.

Mr. Hill-Tout's scheme, I presume, would work out thus: there are sets of human beings, A, B, C, D, E, F. In all of these every man acquires an animal, plant, or other friendly object. Their sisters adopt it as a name, and hand it on to their children. The stocks are now named after the familiar animals, as Grouse, Trout, Deer, Turtle, Buffalo, Salmon, and hundreds more. They have hitherto, I presume, married as they please, anyhow. But stocks Grouse and Deer think, "We shall be stronger if we give our women to each other, and never let a Grouse marry a Grouse, or a Deer a Deer." They make this pact, the other stocks, Salmon, Turtle, Buffalo, &c., come into it, ranging themselves under Deer or Grouse, and now Deer and Grouse are phratries in a tribe with the other animals as heads of totem kins in the phratries. The animals themselves go on being tutelary spirits, and are highly respected.

This scheme (whether Mr. Hill-Tout would arrange it just thus or not) works perfectly well. It explains the origin of exogamy – not by an inexplicable moral reform, and bisection of the horde, but as the result of a political alliance. It explains the origin of totemism by a theory of animal-shaped tutelary spirits taken on by sisters from brothers, and bequeathed by the sisters when they become mothers to their children. It explains the origin of phratries, and of totem kins in the phratries. It works out all along the line – if only one knew that very low savages deliberately made political alliances; and if all low savages had animal-shaped tutelary spirits; and if these were known to be adopted from brothers by sisters, and by sisters bequeathed, for an eternal possession, to their children; and if these transactions, once achieved, were never repeated in each line of female descent – no sister in the next generation taking on her brother's personal tutelary animal, and bequeathing it to her children for ever. Finally, if savages in general did regard their hereditary totems as tutelary spirits, the sketch which I make on Mr. Hill-Tout's lines would leave nothing to be desired. But we do not know any of these desirable facts.