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
+571+. Totemic clanship, however, differed from ordinary human clanship
in that the nonhuman clan-brother was regarded as a specially powerful
being, endowed with the superhuman qualities with which all animals and
plants and certain other objects were credited. Regard for the totem
was, thus, part of the regard paid to nonhuman objects in general, only
emotionalized and intensified by the belief that the nonhuman group was
in a peculiar way allied to the human group. There was not only
unwillingness to injure the totem--there was fear that one would suffer
by such an act. The totem, it was believed, was able in its turn to
inflict injury; and this belief added an element of awe to the feeling
with which it was regarded.
+572+. In another respect, also, the totem shared the powers of other
nonhuman objects--it could aid its friends. The expectation of totemic
aid is, however, vague in the earlier stages of organization, that is,
in communities in which totemism proper is well-defined--it appears to
amount to little more than a feeling that things will go well if respect
is paid to the totem. In cases where there is more definite aid there is
always the question whether the aid is afforded by the totem in its
specific character of clan-brother or merely in its character of
nonhuman powerful thing. Omens, for example, are given by all natural
objects; when an object of this sort happens to be a totem, it is not
clear that its capacity of omen-giving belongs to it simply as totem.
+573+. There is similar uncertainty in the case of the Queensland
practice, when a man, on lying down at any time or rising in the
morning, whispers the name of the animal after which he is called or the
name of the animal belonging to his group-division, in the belief that
it will give him success in his affairs;[923] here the animal is not a
clan totem, and the evidence does not show that it has come from such a
totem--it may be a sacred animal that has somehow been brought into
special connection with the man or with his group. Personal guardians
that confer magical powers on a man do not here come into consideration.
+574+. The relation between totemism and the practice of magic appears
to be essentially one of coexistence in a community. The two belong to
the same stage of culture and the same order of ideas; but the fact that
each is found without the other shows that neither is dependent on the
other. Naturally they are sometimes combined, as sometimes happens in
North America and particularly in Central Australia (where every totemic
clan is charged with certain magical ceremonies); yet this close
alliance is rare. Magical practice rests on a conception of man's
relation to nature that is distinct from the conception of kinship
between a human clan and a nonhuman species or individual object.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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