mall fish and a very small
opossum;"[359] but on the other hand it does supply a _vera causa_,
the actual evidence for which may well have passed away with the
development of totemism, without leaving survivals.

All these theories, however, are the result of considerable research
and experience, and it is more than probable that they may each
contain fragments of the truth which need the touch of combination to
show how they stand in relation to the problem which they are
propounded to solve. There are features of totemism which are not
noticed by any of these distinguished authorities. By using the
hitherto unnoticed features, I think it possible to produce a theory
as to the origin of totemism, which will contain the essential
features of those theories now prominently before the world.

I will set down the order in which the problem can be approached from
the standpoint already reached, and we may afterwards try to ascertain
what proof is to be derived from totemic societies of the rudest type.

Now totemism is essentially a system of social grouping, whose chief
characteristic is that it is kinless--that is to say, the tie of
totemism is not the tie of blood kinship, but the artificially created
association with natural objects or animals. It takes no count of
fatherhood, and only reckons with the physical fact of motherhood. It
is not the actual fatherhood or the actual motherhood which is the
fundamental basis of totemism, but the association with animal, plant,
or other natural object. This is evidently the fact, whatever view is
taken of totemism, and that totemism is, in its origin and principle,
a kinless, not a kinship system, is the first fact of importance to
bear in mind throughout all inquiry. Thus Messrs. Spencer and Gillen
say "the identity of the human individual is often sunk in that of
the animal or plant from which he is supposed to have originated."[360]

The next fact of importance is that as it commences at birth time, it
must be closely associated with the mother and her actions as mother.
This leads us to the observation that it is through the agency of the
mother that the totem name is conferred upon their children, and to
the necessary antecedent fact that women must have themselves
possessed the name they conferred--possessed, that is, either the name
as a personal attribute and valued as such, or else the power of
evolving the name and the capacity of using it with totemic
significance