Among other efforts to show how the hereditary totem of a group might be derived from the special animal or plant friend of an individual male, may be noticed that of Messrs. Hose and McDougall.[34] The Ibans, or Sea Dyaks of Sarawak, are probably of Malay stock, and are 'a very imitative people,' of mixed, inconsistent, and extravagant beliefs. They have a god of agriculture, and, of course, are therefore remote from the primitive; being rice-farmers. They respect nyarongs, or 'spirit helpers,' though Mr. Hose lived among them for fourteen years without knowing what a nyarong is. 'It seems usually to be the spirit of some ancestor, or dead relative, but not always so....' The spirit first appears to an Iban in a dream, in human form, and the Iban, on awaking, looks for the nyarong in any casual beast, or quartz crystal, or queer root or creeper. So far the nyarong is a fetish. Only about two per cent, of men have nyarongs. If the thing be an animal, the Iban respects the other creatures of the species. 'In some cases the cult of a nyarong will spread through a whole family or household.' Australian individuals have also their secret animal friends, like nyarongs and naguals, but these are never hereditary. What is hereditary is the totem of the group, which may not be altered, or so seldom that it would be hard to find a modern example: though changes of totems may have occurred when, in the pristine 'treks' of the race, they reached regions of new fauna and flora.
'The children and grandchildren,' our authors go on, 'among the Ibans, will usually respect the species of animals to which a man's nyarong belongs, and perhaps sacrifice fowls or pigs to it occasionally.' Of course 'primitive' man has no domesticated animals, and does not sacrifice anything to anybody. 'If the great-grandchildren of a man behave well to his nyarong, it will often befriend them just as much as its original protégé.' It is not readily conceivable that, among very early men, and where the names of the dead are tabued, the wisest great-grandchild knows who his great-grandfather was. Still, though the great-grandfather was forgotten, his nyarong—it may be said—would be held in perpetual memory, and become the totem of a group. But this is not easily to be conceded, because there would be the competition of the nyarongs of each generation to crush the ancient nyarong; moreover the totem, in truly primitive times, is not inherited from fathers, but from mothers.
Our authors say that, in some cases, 'all the members of a man's family, and all his descendants, and, if he be a chief, all the members of the community over which he rules,' may come to share in the benefits of his nyarong, and in its rites. But all this of chiefs, and great-grandchildren of a known great-grandfather, all this occurring to-day among an imitative and agricultural people, with departmental deities, and domesticated animals, cannot give us a line to the origin of Totemism among houseless nomads, who tabu the memory of their dead, and, as a rule, probably reckoned descent on the female side, so that a man could not inherit his father's totem. We must try to see how really early men became totemic. Mr. Frazer observes, 'It is quite possible that, as some good authorities incline to believe, the clan totem has been developed out of the individual totem by inheritance,' and Miss Alice C. Fletcher we have cited as holding this process to be probable in North America.[35] All such theories are based on the beliefs and customs of modern savages advancing, like the American Indians of to-day, towards what is technically styled 'barbarism.' It was not in the state of barbarism, but in a savagery no longer extant, that totemism was evolved. Totemism derived from inheritance of a male ancestor's special 'spirit-helper' is checked by the essential conditions of people who are settled, agricultural, and given to reckoning descent in the male line. No more can be produced, in such a state, than 'abortive beginnings of Totemism.'[36] Exogamy is never reached on these lines, and Totemism is behind, not in front of, all such peoples. Totemism arose in the period of the group, not of the family-founding male ancestor.
Messrs. Hose and McDougall, it is to be noted, do not say that Totemism is now being developed, in Sarawak, out of nyarongs. They only say that it, perhaps, might be so developed 'in the absence of unfavourable conditions.' If there existed 'prosperous families,' each with a nyarong, other families would dream of nyarongs, and it would become rather disreputable to have none. 'So a system of clan totems would be established.' But male kinship, agriculture, metal-working, chiefship, and large houses were certainly non-existent when Totemism was first evolved. We must not look, in such advanced society, for the origin of Totemism. In Sarawak is a houseless nomadic race, the Punans. Among them Totemism has not yet been observed, but they are so little known, that the present negative evidence cannot be regarded as conclusive. Mr. Hose knew the Ibans for fourteen years without learning what a nyarong is, and it was by, mere accident that Mr. Atkinson discovered the animal 'fathers' of the Kanakas.
MR. HADDON'S THEORY
Mr. Haddon has suggested a theory which was printed in the Proceedings of the British Association (1902). On this scheme, at a very early period, groups, by reason of their local environment, would have special varieties of food. Thus, at present, in New Caledonia, the Sea branch of a tribe has cocoa-nuts, fish of all sorts, and so forth, while the Bush branch has bananas, and other commodities, and the Sea and Bush moieties of the tribe meet at markets for purposes of barter. But, in a really primitive state, there will be no cultivation, as there is in New Caledonia. Still, a coast savage might barter crabs for a kangaroo, and, if landed property is acknowledged, owners of plum-trees, or of a spot rich in edible grass-seeds, might trade these away for lobsters and sea-perch.[37] Not having any idea of real cultivation, or of pisciculture (though they may and do have 'close' seasons, under tabu), the savages may set about working magic for their specialities in food. Thus it is conceivable that the fishers might come to be named 'crab-men,' 'lobster-men,' 'cuttlefish-men,' by their neighbours, whom they would speak of as 'grass-men,' 'plum-men,' 'kangaroo-men,' and so on. When once these names were accepted (I presume), and were old, and now of unknown or rather forgotten origin, all manner of myths to account for the connection between the groups and their plant and animal names would arise. When the myth declared that the plants and animals were akin to their name-giving creatures, superstitious practices would follow. We have seen two cases in which Australian totem groups averred that they were named totemically after a small species of opossum, and a fish which their ancestors habitually ate. But that is an explanatory myth. Man cannot live on opossums alone, still less on sardines.
My own guess admits the possibility of this cause of giving plant and animal names to groups, among other causes. But I doubt if this was a common cause. In Australia, everything that can be eaten is eaten by all the natives of a given area, each kindred having only a tendency to spare its own totem, while certain other tabus on foods exist. In this condition of affairs, very few groups could have a notable special variety of food, except in the case of certain fruits, grass-seeds, and insects. For these articles the season is almost as brief as the season of the mayfly or the grannom. 'When fruits is in, cats is out,' as the pieman said to the young lady. During the rest of the year, all the groups in a large area will be living on the same large variety of reptiles, roots, animals such as rats and lizards, birds and so forth. It does not seem probable that, except as between Sea and Bush parts of a tribe, there could be much specialisation in matters of diet, during the greater part of the year. Therefore, I do not think that the derivation of totem names from special articles of food can ever have been common. But local knowledge is necessary on this point. Are the totem groups of Australia settled on lands peculiarly notable for the plants and animals whose names they bear? If so, that circumstance may account for the totem names of each group, and—granting that the origin of the names is long ago forgotten, and that native speculation has explained the names by myths—the rest is easy.
It will appear, when we come to my conjecture, that it varies from Mr. Haddon's only on one point. We both begin with plant and animal names given to the various groups, from without. We then suppose (or, at least, I suppose) the origin of the names to be forgotten, and a connection to be established between the groups and their name-giving objects, a connection which is explained by myths, while belief in these gives rise to corresponding behaviour: respect for the totem, and for his human kinsfolk. The only difference is that my theory suggests several sources of the names: while Mr. Haddon offers only one source, special articles of food and barter. Kindreds, to be sure, are now named, not from what they eat (scores of things), but from the one thing which (as a kindred) they do not eat. But this, when once the myths of kinship with the totem arose, might be a later development, arising out of the myth. In essentials, my conjecture appears to be in harmony with Mr. Haddon's—the two, of course, were independently evolved.
On one point I perceive no difficulty, and no difference. It has been suggested that Mr. Haddon 'commences with the commencement,' whereas, in the hypothetical early age which we both contemplate, people had scarcely a sufficient command of language to invent nicknames. Why more command of language is needed for the application of nicknames than of names, I do not perceive. In Mr. Haddon's theory, as in mine, names already existed, names of plants and animals. In both of our hypotheses those names were transferred to human groups; in my conjecture for a variety of reasons, in his, solely from connection with special articles of food, eaten and bartered, by each group. I am not convinced that, so early, the relations between groups would admit of frequent barter: nor, as has been said, am I certain that many groups could have a very special article of food, in an age prior to cultivation. But, granting all that to Mr. Haddon, no more command of language is needed by my theory than by his. Each conjecture postulates the existence of names of plants and animals, and the transference of the names to human groups. If gesture language was prior to spoken language, in each case gesture names could be employed, as, in North America, totem names are to this day expressed in gesture language. In my own opinion, man was as human as he is to-day, when totem names arose, and as articulate. But, if he was not, gesture-language would suffice.