of to-day, that the Aruntas are free to eat the totem and to marry within it, easily explain themselves to us as wish phantasies which are projected into the past, like the myths of the Golden Age.
γ) The Psychological Theories
Frazer’s first psychological theories, formed before his acquaintance with the observations of Spencer and Gillen, were based upon the belief in an “outward soul.”[1] The totem was meant to represent a safe place of refuge where the soul is deposited in order to avoid the dangers which threaten it. After primitive man had housed his soul in his totem he himself became invulnerable and he naturally took care himself not to harm the bearer of his soul. But as he did not know which individual of the species in question was the bearer of his soul he was concerned in sparing the whole species. Frazer himself later gave up this derivation of totemism from the belief in souls.
When he became acquainted with the observations of Spencer and Gillen he set up the other social theory which has just been stated, but he himself then saw that the motive from which he had derived totemism was altogether too “rational” and that he had assumed a social organi-
- ↑ “The Golden Bough,” II, p. 332.
