The Secret of The Totem

By Andrew Lang

Book Overview

" ...]inspired by "some supernatural being, such as Kutchi of the Dieri, Bunjil of the Wurunjerri, or Daramulun of the Coast Murring," 5] is only rendered possible by the existence, to-day, of social conditions which cannot be primitive. To-day the Tribe, with its innumerable rules, and its common faith in Kutchi or Daramulun, with its recognised local or social Headmen, with its regulations for dealing with other tribes, and with its heralds or messengers, is an institution "in being." But, necessarily, this was not always so; the Tribe itself is a great "conquest of culture," and that conquest must have been made very slowly. The prevalent fallacy, then, is to take unconsciously for granted that the people was, from the beginning, regimented into tribes, or existed in "hordes" already as capable as actual tribes of deliberative assemblies and legislative action, and that, in these hordes, a certain law, "the universal basis of their social ...]."

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1514840960
• ISBN13: 9781514840962
• Release Date: July 2015
• Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 170 Pages
• Weight: 0.69 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 7.4" x 9.7"