RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Comparative Religion
totems, " the sex-, individual-, and clan-totem." There is but one, the clan-totem; the " sex- and individual-totem" belong in a totally different realm, do not affect kinship or descent or society, and have but one thing in common with clantotem, viz. : that neither is eaten. The totem tie is like the family name: a man becomes a Brown, Jones, or Robinson by being born into the family; similarly, a man is born into the wolf, bear, or beaver clan. But whether a particular Brown shall be named William or Clarence or some other " Christian " name is fortuitous; similarly whether the " individual-totem " shall be wolf or oak depends on what the individual sees in his puberty watch or chooses under advice. The two things are discrete. With these fundamental characteristics go certain vital accompaniments. First, relationship- is usually traced through the mother; second, marriage is prohibited between members of the same totem gens. Husband and wife are of different blood and are not made kin by marriage. The totem bond overrides what is now blood-relationship; half-brother and sister not of uterine relationship may marry, they are of different gens (cf. II Sam. xiii. 13 and Gen. xii. 13, xx. 2, Abraham and Sarah were probably half-brother and sister) . And, finally, to all members of any totem gens the corresponding animal species is sacrosanct.
Totemism is a human institution, subject therefore to the changes of advancing civilization. In one place it may appear in its bloom, in another only the vestiges may remain. Thus in North America and in Australia it appears complete, only its vestiges are discernible among the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and Hindus. It passes through several stages, each of which reveals a relationship to the institution in its prime. The salient evidences of the former existence of totemism in any place are: (1) the tradition of the sacredness of an animal species, (2) a clan name the same as that of an animal or plant species, (3) a place name derived from a clan name, (4) an animal epithet given locally to a deity, (5) images of an animal associated with a deity, (6) an animal used as a badge or mark, (7) myths accounting for the place of the animal in the cult.
The origin of totemism can be only conjectured; but granted the truth of the hypothesis put forward to explain the origin, every subsequent stage can be fully accounted for on the basis of known
laws. The accepted explanation is 4- Its Sup- that the institution arose under aniposed mistic conceptions of existence. In Origin, the struggle for life man sought allies.
The supposedly superior quality of some animals or plants made them seem desirable in that relationship and the pact was made. In later stages the notion of kinship and then of descent entered as explanations of the fact once imagined as real. Meanwhile the living and the dead animal were treated as was the living or dead human; m Egypt corpses of both were mummified, in Greece they were buried or burned. But from sacredness to godship was but a stage, the individual became deity— so with the cat, bull, crocodile, etc., in Egypt, and in Greece the horse, mouse,
snake, ram, even the lobster. But thought grew more anthropomorphic, and the animal head was placed on a human body (so in Greece and Egypt). Next the animal came to represent deity, and finally was simply sacred to him. The relationship of totemism to religion is thus in part revealed, though there are other connections. That out of this came in part zoolatry, idolatry, and even polytheism is demonstrable.
Totemism had a ritual which affected the crises of life. As an infant born a Christian must be baptized, perhaps confirmed, before the fulness of his birthright is his, and as at marriage and death the Church has its functions, so with totemism.
At birth the totem mark is tattooed 5. Its Rit- or painted on the infant or the totem
ual; the formula is repeated. Before being Mysteries, admitted to rank as a brave the neophyte undergoes ordeals, while even at marriage appropriate rites occur and at death the member may be laid in a grave shaped like the totem. Of all these ceremonies the most important is the initiation in the " mysteries " of the tribe, a fact only recently discovered. Evident in many cases is the connection of these mysteries with the power of reproduction, in itself no less a mystery to civilized man than to the savage. The use of the phallic emblems is proved in many cases. The initiation takes place at puberty. Each sex has its ceremonial from which the other is barred. The initiations take place in secluded spots, often at night, and a well-understood signal is displayed or the " bull-roarer " is employed to warn away the profane. The neophyte is instructed in the privileges and duties of adulthood and submits to severe ordeals. The dance, having religious purport, is among the accompaniments, and not seldom there is a mimic death, burial, and resurrection, implying ethical or eschatological reference.
The usual method of entrance into a totem clan is then by birth and initiation. But since the conception of the tie was that of a common blood flowing in the veins of the clan, it was conceived that this fact could be artificially pro-
6. Blood- duced. To make a man not a brother
Brother- take that relationship it was neceshood. sary that the blood of each should flow in the other's veins. Accordingly, if an individual wished to become a member of another clan, blood was drawn from his veins and transferred to the body of one or more of the clan, while he absorbed blood from some member of the same. This was done by making incisions, often in the arms, and putting the bleeding parts together; transfusion was supposed to take place. Or each sucked blood from the other's wound, or the blood of both was mingled with a medium and both partook of the mixture; or a sacrificial animal was slain and both partook of the blood, a common fluid thus flowing in the veins of both.
c. Primitive Relig-ion in the Ethical Sphere: Taboo (Polynesian, "strongly marked") denotes whatever is probibited under severe (supernatural) penalties. In primitive life it controls the entire life of the adult. It governs " his food and drink, his marriage and social relations, the disposition
Oomparative Religrion