Notes and queries on anthropology / edited for the Council of the Anthropological Institute by John George Garson, M.D. and Charles Hercules Read, F.S.A.

Date:
1892
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Notes and queries on anthropology / edited for the Council of the Anthropological Institute by John George Garson, M.D. and Charles Hercules Read, F.S.A. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by University of Bristol Library. The original may be consulted at University of Bristol Library.

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    Besides totems proper (i.e., animals, plants, &c., revered by a whole tribe), there are also what may be called personal totems and sex totems. Thus, besides the totem of his clan, a man may have a private totem of his own ; if he is of the Wolf clan, he may have snakes for his personal totem. In Australia, besides the clan totem and personal totem, each sex has, in some tribes, a totem, the men calling themselves by the name of a particular bird and refusing to injure any bird of that species, and the women doing the same with another sort of bird. 1. Are the natives divided into tribes, clans, or castes ] Enumerate these tribes, clans, or castes, with their subdivisions, as far as you can ascertain them. 2. Do the members of each tribe, clan, or caste, &c., revere any species of natural objects, as a particular kind of animal or plant, &c. 1 If so, in what way do they show their respect for the animal, plant, &c. 1 Are they forbidden to kill and eat it ? What do they do on meeting one of the sacred animals, &c. ? How do they treat its dead body when they find one 1 What do they think would happen to them if they were to act disrespectfully to it; as, for instance, if they killed and ate the animal or plant ? Enumerate all tlie kinds of animals, plants, &c., thus revered by the tribes or clans. 3. Do all the members of each tribe, clan, &c., call themselves by the name of tlie totem (sacred animal or plant, &c.) ? If they do, how is each individual distinguished] Are individuals called after parts of the sacred animal, as the tail, shoulder, tongue, &c. ? Sometimes the clan is named after one kind of animal, but reveres an animal of a different species. Where this happens, in what relation do these two kinds of animal, or plant, &c., stand to the tribe and to each other ? 4 What stories do the natives tell of the totem (sacred animal, plant, &c.) of the tribe I How do they explain its sanctity 1 Do they think that they are descended from it? 5. May a man marry a women of the same totem as him- self, or may he not ] Thus, if he is a Wolf, may he marry a Wolf ? If he may not marry a women of Lis own totem, is M