Page:Totem and Taboo (1919).djvu/25

of organization of an Australian tribe therefore looks as follows:

The twelve totem groups are brought under four subclasses and two main classes. All the divisions are exogamous.^[1] The subclass c forms an exogamous unit with e, and the subclass d with f. The success or the tendency of these arrangements is quite obvious; they serve as a further restriction on the marriage choice and on sexual freedom. If there were only these twelve totem groups—assuming the same number of people in each group—every member of a group would have ¹¹⁄₁₂ of all the women of the tribe to choose from. The existence of the two phratries reduces this number to ⁶⁄₁₂ or ¹⁄₂; a man of the totem a can only marry a woman from the groups 1 to 6. With the introduction of the two subclasses the selection sinks to ³⁄₁₂ or ¹⁄₄; a man of

1. The number of totems is arbitrarily chosen.