Totemism Author:James George Frazer 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: must always be carried to the funeral pyre and burned by men of another totem,1 and the presents distributed on these occasions by the representatives of the dec... more »eased must always be made to meii of a different clan.2 Here we must revert to the religious side of totemism, in order to consider some facts which have emerged from the study of its social aspect. We have seen that some phratries, both in America and Australia, bear the names of animals ;3 and in the case of the Thlinkets and Mohegans we have seen reason to believe that the animals which give their names to the phratries were once clan totems. The same seems to hold of the names of the Australian phratries, Eaglehawk, Crow, and Seal, or at least of the two former. For Eaglehawk and Crow are clan totems in other tribes, and are, besides, important figures in Australian mythology. Eaglehawk and Crow, as names of phratries, " extended over a large part of Victoria and over the greater part of the extreme west of New South Wales."4 They are clan totems of the Dieri in South Australia.6 the Mukjarawaint in western Victoria,6 and the Ta-ta-thi and the Keramin tribes in New South Wales.7 The eaglchawk is besides a clan totem of the Kamilaroi in New South Wales,s the Mycoolon in Queensland,9 the Barinji in New South Wales,10 and the Kuinmurbtira in Queensland.11 The crow is further a clan totem of the Turra tribe,12 and the Mount Gambier tribe in South Australia,13 the Kunandabiiri in Queensland,14 and 1 Holmberg, op. cit., 324. 5 Krause, Die Tlinkit-Indianer, 223. 3 As among the Chickasas, Thlinkets, and Mohegans in America; and the Turra, Ngarego, and Theddora tribes in Australia (see above, pp. 61 sq., 05). The subphratries of the Kiabara also bear animal names. See above, p. 67. 4 J. A. I., xiii. 437, n. 1;...« less