The secret of the totem by Andrew Lang Author:Andrew Lang Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II METHOD OF INQUIRY Method of inquiry—Errors to be avoided—Origin of totemism not to be looked for among the "sports" of socially advanced tribes—No... more »r among tribes of male reckoning of descent—Nor in the myths explanatory of origin of totemism—Myths of origin of heraldic bearings compared— Tribes in state of ancestor-worship: their totemic myths cannot be true —Case of Bantu myths (African)—Their myth implies ancestor-worship —Another African myth derives tribal totems from tribal nicknames— No totemic myths are of any historic value—The use of conjecture— Every theory must start from conjecture—Two possible conjectures as to earliest men gregarious (the horde), or lonely sire, female mates, and offspring—Five possible conjectures as to the animal names of kinships in relation to early society and exogamy—Theory of the author; of Professor Spencer ; of Dr. Durkheim ; of Mr. Hill-Tout; of Mr. Howitt—Note on McLennan's theory of exogamy. We have now given the essential facts in the problem of early society as it exists in various forms among the most isolated and pristine peoples extant. It has been shown that the sets of seniority (classes), the exogamous moieties (phratries), and the kinships in each tribe bear names which, when translated, are usually found to denote animals. Especially the names of the totem, kindreds, and of the totems, are commonly names of animals or plants. If we can discover why this is so, we are near the discovery of the origin of totemism. Meanwhile we offer some remarks as to the method to be pursued in the search for a theory which will colligate all the facts in the case, and explain the origin of totemic society. In the first place certain needful warnings must be given, certain reefs which usuallywreck efforts to construct a satisfact...« less