Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, July 1899: Volume LV, No. 3, July 1899Various
Religion
Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, July 1899: Volume LV, No. 3, July 1899
Various
Science -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals
The Emu men have their own ceremonies, equally elaborate and quite as
well adapted to promote the multiplication of emus as those of the
witchetty-grub men to produce an abundance of witchetty grubs. The
earnestness which is thrown into these ceremonies is beyond all
question; and it seems to be clear that each totemic group in turn
takes up its own burden of social responsibility: each has its duty to
the tribe as a whole, and performs it to the best of its ability.
Through their united efforts, as they firmly believe, the various
processes of Nature are maintained in satisfactory activity; the
succulent grub comes forth in due season and in reasonable quantity;
the emu, the kangaroo, the bandicoot, and other useful animals keep up
their numbers and continue to furnish food for the community; the
hakea flower and the manna of the mulga tree grow in normal abundance;
the winds blow; the streams flow; the clouds yield rain and the sun
goes on shining by day and the stars by night, with, on the whole, an
admirable regularity. A more satisfactory system it would really be
difficult to conceive. How absurd, not to say profane, it would be for
any one to suggest that ceremonies which were so abundantly justified
by results might without danger be omitted! Skepticism is indeed very
much out of place in certain stages of human development.
The interesting feature, however, as Mr. Frazer holds, in the
descriptions given by the two Australian writers we have named is the
proof they afford that totemism, instead of being an irrational,
unexplainable aberration of the nascent intellect of man, was really a
scheme for securing the greatest possible multiplicity of benefits for
the savage community. The whole tribe was divided into groups, and
each group undertook to look after some function of Nature and keep it
up to the mark. Here was a notable step in the direction of division
of labor. How it came about that the particular animal or plant which
was the totem of a group became wholly or partially _taboo_ to the
group is not very easily explained; but it seems not impossible that
some sense of tribal duty, gradually developed, kept those who were
credited with providing any particular food element from being
themselves greedy consumers of it. So far as that article was
concerned they may have felt themselves as sustaining somewhat the
character of hosts or entertainers of the tribe, and it may thus have
become the custom that they should either not partake at all of that
special thing, or partake of it only sparingly. If so, we find the
foundations already laid both of politeness and of morality. It is an
interesting question how far the notions which have been described
have died out of modern civilized society. That they are wholly
extinct it would be rash to affirm. There are many traces, indeed, of
the surviving influence of symbolism, and here and there lingering
tendencies toward a belief in magic are easily discoverable. Perhaps
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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