Descrizione:
Since the publication of my book Totemz'sm and Exogamy in 1910, much fresh information on the subject has been collected in various parts of the world by many enquirers well fitted by their training and abilities to do justice to the theme. In this volume I have endeavoured to present to the reader a clear view of the principal results of their re searches, arranged in a roughly geographical order. Begin ning with Australia, the classical land of Totemism, I shall ask the reader to follow me through Melanesia to New Guinea, thence on to India and Africa. Finally we Shall end in America, from which our first knowledge of the name and institution of Totemz'sm was derived. The stream of new information has ?owed chie?y from Australia, hence I have been led to treat Australian evidence at much greater length than any other part of my subject, but not at greater length, I hope, than the importance of the new matter deserves; for it is to Australia, with its varied and very primitive forms of Totemism, that we must ultimately look, if we are ever to find a clue to the problem of the origin and meaning of the institution. |
