The Elementary Forms of the Religious LifeDurkheim, Émile
Religion
The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life
Durkheim, Émile
Cults; Religion; Religion -- Philosophy; Rites and ceremonies; Totemism
In the Sun clan are the bandicoot, the moon, the kangaroo-rat, the black
and white magpies, the opossum, the _ng[)u]rt_ hawk, the gum-tree grub,
the wattle-tree grub, the planet Venus.
In the clan of the Warm Wind[436] are the grey-headed eagle-hawk, the
carpet snake, the smoker parrot, the shell parrot, the _murrakan_ hawk,
the _dikkomur_ snake, the ring-neck parrot, the _mirudai_ snake, the
shingle-back lizard.
If we remember that there are many other clans (Howitt names twelve and
Mathews fourteen and adds that his list is incomplete[437]), we will
understand how all the things in which the native takes an interest find
a natural place in these classifications.
Similar arrangements have been observed in the most diverse parts of
the Australian continent; in South Australia, in Victoria, and in New
South Wales (among the Euahlayi[438]); very clear traces of it are found
in the central tribes.[439] In Queensland, where the clans seem to have
disappeared and where the matrimonial classes are the only subdivisions
of the phratry, things are divided up among these classes. Thus, the
Wakelbura are divided into two phratries, Mallera and Wutaru; the
classes of the first are called Kurgilla and Banbe, those of the second,
Wungo and Obu. Now to the Banbe belong the opossum, the kangaroo, the
dog, honey of little bees, etc.; to the Wungo are attributed the emu,
the bandicoot, the black duck, the black snake, the brown snake; to the
Obu, the carpet snake, the honey of stinging bees, etc.; to the
Kurgilla, the porcupine, the turkey of the plains, water, rain, fire,
thunder, etc.[440]
This same organization is found among the Indians of North America. The
Zuñi have a system of classification which, in its essential lines, is
in all points comparable to the one we have just described. That of the
Omaha rests on the same principles as that of the Wotjobaluk.[441] An
echo of these same ideas survives even into the more advanced societies.
Among the Haida, all the gods and mythical beings who are placed in
charge of the different phenomena of nature are classified in one or the
other of the two phratries which make up the tribe just like men; some
are Eagles, the others, Crows.[442] Now the gods of things are only
another aspect of the things which they govern.[443] This mythological
classification is therefore merely another form of the preceding one. So
we may rest assured that this way of conceiving the world is independent
of all ethnic or geographic particularities; and at the same time it is
clearly seen to be closely united to the whole system of totemic
beliefs.
II
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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