condition of mind in which no hard and fast line was drawn between man and animate and inanimate nature. The discovery of the wide distribution of the social arrangements based on this belief is entirely due to Mr. J. F. M'Lennan, the author of Primitive Marriage. Mr. M'Lennan's essays (The Worship of Plants and Animals, Totems and Totemism) were published in the Fortnightly Review, 1869–71. Any follower in the footsteps of Mr. M'Lennan has it in his power to add a little evidence to that originally set forth, and perhaps to sift the somewhat uncritical authorities adduced.
The name "Totemism" or "Totamism" was first applied at the end of the last century by Long[1] to the Red Indian custom which acknowledges human kinship with animals. This institution had already been recognised among the Iroquois by Lafitau,[2] and by other observers. As to the word "totem," Mr. Max Müller[3] quotes an opinion that the interpreters, missionaries, Government inspectors, and others who apply the name totem to the Indian "family mark" must have been ignorant of the Indian languages, for there is in them no such word as totem. The right word, it appears, is otem; but as "totemism" has the advantage of possessing the ground, we prefer to say "totemism" rather than "otemism." The facts are the same, whatever name we give them. As Mr. Müller says himself,[4] "every warrior has his crest,
- ↑ Voyages and Travels, 1791
- ↑ Mœeurs des Sauvages (1724), p. 461.
- ↑ Academy, December 15, 1883.
- ↑ Selected Essays (1881), ii. 376.
