INFANTILE RECURRENCE OF TOTEMISM
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totemism; in the second case it would be a consequence of it.[1]
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Into this darkness psychoanalytic experience throws one single ray of light.
The relation of the child to animals has much in common with that of primitive man. The child does not yet show any trace of the pride which afterwards moves the adult civilized man to set a sharp dividing line between his own nature and that of all other animals. The child unhesitatingly attributes full equality to animals; he probably feels himself more closely related to the animal than to the undoubtedly mysterious adult, in the freedom with which he acknowledges his needs.
- ↑ “If it be granted that exogamy existed in practice, on the lines of Mr. Darwin’s theory, before the totem beliefs lent to the practice a sacred sanction, our task is relatively easy. The first practical rule would be that of the jealous sire: “No males to touch the females in my camp,” with expulsion of adolescent sons. In efflux of time that rule, become habitual, would be, “No marriages within the local group.” Next let the local groups receive names such as Emus, Crows, Opossums, Snipes, and the rule becomes, “No marriage within the local group of animal name; no Snipe to marry a Snipe.” But, if the primal groups were not exogamous they would become so as soon as totemic myths and taboos were developed out of the animal, vegetable, and other names of small local groups.” “Secret of the Totem,” p. 143. (The italics above are mine).—In his last expression on the subject, (“Folklore,” December, 1911) Andrew Lang states, however, that he has given up the derivation of exogamy out of the “general totemic” taboo.
