priority or otherwise of
female descent; (2) the causes of the transition from one form of
descent to another. Of late the question has been raised whether in the
beginning hereditary kinship groups existed at all, or whether
membership was not rather determined by considerations of an entirely
different order. Dr Frazer, who has enunciated this view, maintains that
totemism rests on a primitive theory of conception, due to savage
ignorance of the facts of procreation.[10] But his theory is based
exclusively on the foundation of the beliefs of the Central Australians
and seems to neglect more than one important point which goes to show
that the Arunta have evolved their totemic system from the more ordinary
hereditary form. Whether this be so or not, it is difficult to see how
any idea of kinship could arise from such a condition of nescience. If
we take the analogous case of the nagual or "individual totem" there
seems to be no trace of any belief in the kinship of those who have the
same animal as their nagual, but are otherwise bound by no tie of
relationship. Yet if Dr Frazer's theory were correct, this is precisely
what we ought to find.

This is, however, no reason for rejecting the general proposition that
kinship, at its origin, was not hereditary; or, more exactly, that the
beginnings of the kinship groups found at the present day may be traced
back to a point at which the hereditary principle virtually disappears,
although the bond of union and perhaps the totem name already existed.
If, as suggested by Mr Lang, man was originally distributed in small
communities, known by names which ultimately came to be those of the
totem kins, we may suppose that daily association would not fail to
bring about that sense of solidarity in its members which it is found to
produce in more advanced communities. In the case of the tribe an even
feebler bond, the possession of a common language, seems to give the
tribesmen a sense of the unity of the tribe, though perhaps other
explanations may be suggested, such as the possession in common of the
tribal land, or the origin of the tribe from a single blood-related
group. However this may be, it seems reasonable to look for one factor
of the first bond of union in the influence of the daily and hourly
association of group-mates. On the other hand, if, as Mr Lang supposes,
the original group was a consanguine one, the claims of the factor of
consanguinity and perhaps of foster br