iew may be a bit of euhemeristic
rationalism.[854]

+504+. While _guardian spirits_ (generally in animal form) are found
abundantly in America and elsewhere,[855] their role in the tribes of
the Pacific Coast appears to be specially important, for there they
largely take the place occupied in Central Australia by the clan totems.
They are not wholly lacking, however, in Australia. Among the nontotemic
Kurnai of Southeast Australia there are animal patrons of the sexes and
of shamans and other individuals. In like manner the shamans of the
Pacific Coast Haidas and Tlingit have their guardians, and sometimes
secret societies are similarly provided; in the winter ceremonies of the
Kwakiutl the youth is supposed to be possessed by the patron of the
society to which he belongs. We thus have, apparently, similar and
mutually independent developments in Australia and America out of the
early relations of men with animals.

+505+. The Eskimo live in small groups, and marriage is locally
unrestricted. There is the usual reverence for animals, with
folk-stories of animal creators and of transformations, but no
well-defined marks of totemism, and no recognition of individual
protecting animal-spirits.

+506+. In the Californian tribes, which are among the least developed in
America, no traces of totemistic organization have been found.[856] The
people live, or lived, in villages. The shamans, who are important
members of the communities, have their familiar spirits, acquired
through dreams and by ascetic observances; but these belong to the
widespread apparatus of magic, and differ in their social function from
guardian spirits proper.

+507+. There are no definite marks of totemism in Central and
Northeastern Asia, and few such marks in Africa. The Siberian Koryaks
believe in a reincarnation of deceased human beings in animals, but
their social organization is not determined by this belief. Certain
clans of the Ainu (inhabiting the northernmost islands of the Japan
archipelago) are said to regard as ancestors the animals whose names
they bear, but this belief appears to be socially unimportant. Marriage
is not controlled by clan relations.

+508+. Throughout savage Africa sacred animals, plants, and other
objects play a great part in life, but generally without assuming a
specifically totemistic role.

+509+. In the great Bantu family the usages vary greatly.[857] One of
the most interesting systems is that of the Bakuana