portant publication by two investigators of the inhabitants of Central Australia.[1]
Spencer and Gillen describe a series of peculiar institutions, customs, and opinions of a group of tribes, the so-called Arunta nation, and Frazer subscribes to their opinion that these peculiarities are to be looked upon as characteristics of a primary state and that they can explain the first and real meaning of totemism.
In the Arunta tribe itself (a part of the Arunta nation) these peculiarities are as follows:
1. They have the division into totem clans but the totem is not hereditary but is individually determined (as will be shown later).
2. The totem clans are not exogamous, and the marriage restrictions are brought about by a highly developed division into marriage classes which have nothing to do with the totems.
3. The function of the totem clan consists of carrying out a ceremony which in a subtle magic manner brings about an increase of the edible totem. (This ceremony is called Intichiuma.)
4. The Aruntas have a peculiar theory about conception and re-birth. They assume that the spirits of the dead who belonged to their totem wait for their re-birth in definite localities and
- ↑ “The Native Tribes of Central Australia” by Baldwin Spencer and H. J. Gillen, London, 1891.
