nd the social equality of women. At an early age boys were often kept
apart from girls. Special taboos, of food and other things, were imposed
on women. On the other hand, they were in some cases the owners of the
tribal property, and were sometimes admitted to membership in secret
societies. The organization of the sex would follow under peculiarly
favorable conditions.[825]

+473+. The remaining districts of Australia have been less carefully
investigated than the central and southern parts, and information about
their totemistic customs is not always satisfactory. So far as the
accounts go there is a widespread divergence from simple clan
organization in these districts. In Northeast Australia (Queensland)
there are exogamous subclasses, and no clan taboos. In the southwest not
clans but families are the social units; these trace their descent from
animals, and there are individual animal patrons. In the northwest no
clan organization is reported; there is class exogamy, and in the
magical ceremonies the performers are taken from the exogamous classes.

+474+. _Torres Straits Islands._ These noteworthy variations in the
totemism of the Australian continent appear to be connected in a general
way with differences of climate and the degree of isolation of the clans
and tribes. Similar variations appear in the Torres Straits islands and
in British New Guinea. In the western islands of the Straits (the only
part in which distinct totemism has been found) the social organization
is to a certain extent independent of totemic relations: the clans are
locally segregated, and marriage is mainly regulated by blood-kinship.
On the other hand, an intimate relation between a man and his totem is
recognized--the latter, as a rule, is not eaten by the related clansmen
(there are exceptions), magical economic ceremonies are performed by
certain clans, and there is clan exogamy. A possible survival of an
early social arrangement is the existence of subsidiary totems.

+475+. There is also a rudimentary cult of heroes: two of these (animal
in form) have shrines and effigies, annual dances are performed in their
honor, and stones are shown in which their souls are supposed to dwell.
The resemblance of this cult to certain forms of worship in Polynesia
(in Samoa, for example) is apparent; the stones may be compared with
similar abodes of superhuman animals or spirits in Central Australia and
elsewhere; the myths connect the two animal