the Mongols, in Korea, in Siberia, among the Esquimaux, the Redskins, various South American tribes, in Australia, Tasmania,. Fiji, and New Zealand, in Africa among Negroes and Kaffirs, and in Arabia, Circassia, Greece, and various parts of Europe.
The widespread and indeed almost universal occurrence of this interesting custom cannot, I think, be accounted for unless my suggestion is adopted. Marriage by capture must surely have been a stern reality, before it was so widely adopted as a marriage custom.
Totemism.—My suggestion was,[1] and is, "that if a group was led by a man who had been named after an animal, the members of the group took the same name; if the leader was a Lion or a Kangaroo, the group came to call themselves Lions or Kangaroos, and to assume some mysterious relation with the animal whose name they bore."
To this Mr. Lang objects that "Lord Avebury's theory of totemism is, as far as I can see, a combination of two contradictory hypotheses; thus it needs drastic modifications before it can be discussed with any profit. Moreover it does not explain the existence of totem-kins within each phratry whose members may not marry each other. No man or woman, say, of Frog totem, in phratry Crow, may marry a member of Crow, Snipe, Duck, Carpet Snake, Frog, or any other totem, within their own phratry. It does not appear that Lord Avebury tries to explain the origin of this arrangement."[2]
I must admit that in my earlier writings I have used the word family somewhat too laxly. But, as Mr. Lang expects me to deal with his present views only, so I may claim the same right, and his objection does not apply to my view as quoted above, in which I have repeated the opinion expressed in 1866, though it was not then, I admit, quite carefully worded.
As Mr. Lang truly says, in these discussions we are apt to misunderstand one another, and I confess I do not see why my suggestion, which was also practically Herbert Spencer's, is described as "a combination of two contradictory hypotheses."
Exogamy.—I have suggested that Exogamy was a consequence
- ↑ Marriage, Totemism, and Religion, p. 98.
- ↑ Folk-Lore, vol. xxii., p. 410.
