inly as acceptable food for ghosts--the offering is a part
of ancestor-worship. In Congo families have sacred animals (as in Samoa)
which they abstain from eating. Here and there occurs belief in the
reincarnation of deceased human beings in animals. A negro fetish,
becoming intimately associated with a clan, sometimes resembles a totem.
The half-civilized Ashanti, Dahomi, and Yoruba have elaborate theistic
systems, with monarchical governments that leave no place for a
totemistic organization.[860]

+513+. Madagascar, before it came under European control, had a
well-defined religious and political hierarchy.[861] Along with its very
elaborate tabooism the island has beliefs concerning animals that are
found in totemic systems but do not take the form of totemism proper.
The animal is regarded as an ancestor or a patron, but clans do not take
their names from animals, there is no general rule of exogamy, and there
is no word corresponding exactly to the word 'totem.' The question
arises whether the Malagasy system is a stage antecedent to totemism
proper or an attenuated survival of it.[862]

+514+. _Alleged survivals of totemism among civilized peoples._ Though
totemism, as a system of social organization, is not recognizable in any
civilized community, ancient or modern, it is held by some scholars that
the fragments or hints of such a system that are certified bear witness
to its former existence in these communities.[863]

+515+. In fact certain ideas and customs that occur in connection with
savage totemism are found abundantly among ancient Semites, Greeks and
Romans, and in Celtic and Teutonic lands. They are such as the
following: a tribe or clan bears an animal name, and regards itself as
akin to the animal in question and as descended from it; this animal is
sacred, not to be killed or eaten (except ceremonially), and, when it
dies, is to be buried solemnly; sacred animals aid men by furnishing
omens, or even by protecting from harm; they are sacrificed on critical
occasions (sometimes once every year), and in some cases the killing of
the sacrificial animal is treated as a crime; animal-gods are worshiped,
and gods are thought to be incarnate in animals; men change into animals
and animals into men; certain animals are sacred to certain deities;
human worshipers dress in imitation of animal forms (by wearing skins of
beasts and by other devices); a man's tribal mark is derived from the
form of an animal; t