cial schemes are not
all accurately known. The settled village life and the half-commercial,
half-aristocratic constitution of society must be referred to racial
characteristics and other conditions with which we are not acquainted.
As in the East, so here there is the suggestion of a movement away from
a form of organization that resembles true totemism. The Northwest has a
remarkable system of ceremonies, but in definiteness and elevation of
religious conceptions it is greatly inferior to the East.

+528+. The fact that some of the least-advanced American tribes,
particularly the Eskimo and the California tribes, show no signs of
totemistic organization[879] makes against the view that totemism was
the initial form of human society, but its historical background is not
known. In any case it does not invalidate what is said above of the role
of agriculture in the modification of savage institutions. The lines of
savage growth have been various--a general law of development cannot be
laid down; the history of every community must be studied for itself,
and its testimony must be given its appropriate value. In this way it
will be possible to give a sketch of totemistic forms and suggestions,
if not a history of totemism.

+529+. _Individualistic institutions._ The development of individualism,
a universal accompaniment of general social progress, is unfavorable to
totemism, since in this latter the individual is subordinated to the
clan. To assert one's self as an individual is practically to ignore the
totem, whose function pertains to the clan as a whole, without separate
recognition of its members. Revolt against the supremacy of the clan (if
that expression is allowable) has shown itself from an early social
stage and in all parts of the world. The principal forms in which it
appears are the institution of voluntary societies, and the adoption of
personal guardians by individuals.

+530+. _Secret societies._ It is a common custom in the lower tribes to
keep the sexes separate and to distinguish between the initiated and
the uninitiated. There are often men's houses in which the young
unmarried males are required to live.[880] Women and boys are forbidden
to be present at ceremonies of initiation when, as in some instances,
the secrets of the tribe are involved. Thus there arise frequently
secret associations of males, who conduct tribal affairs. But these
associations are not voluntary--all initiated men belong to