Chapter 12 TOTEMISM

§ 1. Meaning and Scope of Totemism

Of very much less importance in the history of culture than Animism or Magic, Totemism interests us by its strangeness. To be descended from a crocodile, or blood-brother to the crow, or "the same as a kangaroo" must be, we think, the grotesque notion of a lunatic. We never meet people who believe such a thing;