Introduction to the History of Religions: Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume IVToy, Crawford Howell
HistoryHistory
Introduction to the History of Religions: Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume IV
Toy, Crawford Howell
Mythology; Religion -- History; Religions -- History; Rites and ceremonies
+525+. Thus, for example, the contrast between the social system of
sterile Central Australia and that of certain tribes on the
comparatively fertile southeast coast is marked; the Kurnai have
practically no clan totemism. In the islands of Torres Straits and in
New Guinea agriculture marks a dividing line between stricter and looser
organizations based on regard for the totem. The agricultural Melanesian
and Polynesian tribes, with great regard for animal patrons, lay stress
on the family or on voluntary associations rather than on the clan. In
Africa the partially civilized peoples, such as the Baganda and adjacent
tribes in the east, and Yoruba, Dahomi, and Ashanti in the west, have
fairly well-developed religious organizations, in which totems play a
subordinate part. The customs of certain tribes in the south are
especially worthy of note: the pastoral Herrero have a double system of
clans, maternal and paternal, and their food restrictions are curiously
minute, relating to parts of animals or to their color; the Bakuana, who
are pastoral and agricultural, kill the clan eponymous animals, though
unwillingly, and appear not to regard them as ancestors. The non-Aryan
tribes of India have been so long in contact with Aryan civilization
that in many cases, as it seems, their original customs have been
obscured, but at present among such agricultural tribes as the Hos, the
Santhals, and the Khonds of Bengal, and some others, totemic
organizations are not prominent, and the Todas, with their buffalo-cult,
show no signs of totemism.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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