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
They imply that all the things thus classed in a single clan or a single
phratry are closely related both to each other and to the thing serving
as the totem of this clan or phratry. When an Australian of the Port
Mackay tribe says that the sun, snakes, etc., are of the Yungaroo
phratry, he does not mean merely to apply a common, but none the less a
purely conventional, nomenclature to these different things; the word
has an objective signification for him. He believes that "alligators
really _are_ Yungaroo and that kangaroos are Wootaroo. The sun _is_
Yungaroo, the moon Wootaroo, and so on for the constellations, trees,
plants, etc."[453] An internal bond attaches them to the group in which
they are placed; they are regular members of it. It is said that they
belong to the group,[454] just exactly as the individual men make a part
of it; consequently, the same sort of a relation unites them to these
latter. Men regard the things in their clan as their relatives or
associates; they call them their friends and think that they are made
out of the same flesh as themselves.[455] Therefore, between the two
there are elective affinities and quite special relations of agreement.
Things and people have a common name, and in a certain way they
naturally understand each other and harmonize with one another. For
example, when a Wakelbura of the Mallera phratry is buried, the scaffold
upon which the body is exposed "must be made of the wood of some tree
belonging to the Mallera phratry."[456] The same is true for the
branches that cover the corpse. If the deceased is of the Banbe class, a
Banbe tree must be used. In this same tribe, a magician can use in his
art only those things which belong to his own phratry;[457] since the
others are strangers to him, he does not know how to make them obey him.
Thus a bond of mystic sympathy unites each individual to those beings,
whether living or not, which are associated with him; the result of this
is a belief in the possibility of deducing what he will do or what he
has done from what they are doing. Among these same Wakelbura, when a
man dreams that he has killed an animal belonging to a certain social
division, he expects to meet a man of this same division the next
day.[458] Inversely, the things attributed to a clan or phratry cannot
be used against the members of this clan or phratry. Among the
Wotjobaluk, each phratry has its own special trees. Now in hunting an
animal of the Gurogity phratry, only arms whose wood is taken from trees
of the other phratry may be used, and _vice versa_; otherwise the hunter
is sure to miss his aim.[459] The native is convinced that the arrow
would turn of itself and refuse, so to speak, to hit a kindred and
friendly animal.
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