Chapter 4. The Return of Totemism in Childhood of Totem and Taboo - Study Guide by Sigmund Freud

A final psychological theory was put forward by Wundt (1912) based upon the facts that the original and most common totem is the animal, and secondly the earliest totem animals are identical with soul animals. Thus according to Wundt, totemism is directly connected with the belief in spirits, i.e. with animism.

(b) and (c) The Origin of Exogamy and its Relation to Totemism

Here Freud proposes that we face two opposing views - one which maintains that exogamy forms an inherent part of the totemic system, and the other which denies that there is any such connection, and that there convergence is a chance one.

Those that propose that exogamy is an inevitable consequence of the basic principles of totemism, are Durkheim (1898, 1902, 1905) and Andrew Lang, (1905) who argue that the prohibition against women of the same clan might operate even without any blood taboo. As regards chronological relations, Freud notes that most authorities agree that totemism is older, and that exogamy arose later.

Of those theories that propose that exogamy is independent of totemism, McLennan (1865) proposes that exogamy arose from the earlier practice of marriage by capture. Others have seen exogamy as a prevention of incest, and on considering the complications of Australian restrictions upon marriage, this opinion of Morgan (1877), Frazer (1910), Howitt (1904) and Baldwin Spencer it seems that they achieved the result they aimed at. But this theory implicates a second problem - what is the ultimate source of incest, which must be recognised as the root of exogamy?

Westermarck (1906) has explained the horror of incest on the ground that 'there is an innate aversion to sexual intercourse between persons living closely together from early youth... ' However critics argue that there should not be any need to reinforce a deep human instinct by law. Furthermore, Freud's findings from psychoanalysis, that the earliest sexual excitations of youthful human beings are invariably incestuous in character, make Westermarck's ideas seem less likely. Having assessed other objections Freud concludes that whilst there is a choice between sociological, biological and psychological explanations, we are still ultimately ignorant of the origin of the horror of incest since none of the proposed solutions are satisfactory.

Freud, however then looks at Darwin's 'historical' perspective on the problem. He suggested that 'primaeval man aboriginally lived in small communities, each with as many wives as he could support and obtain, whom he would have jealously guarded against all other men.' This though, throws little light on the problem of whether totemism led to exogamy or vice versa.

(3) Freud then looks at psychoanalysis to throw more light on this problem. He notes that there is a great deal of resemblance between the relations of children and of primitive men towards animals. Despite children's uninhibited view of animals, frequently they develop a sudden animal phobia. From Freud's analysis of several cases of these phobias, he concludes that several features of totemism reappear in them, but reversed into their negative (except one instance of positive totemism in a child, reported by Ferenczi). Thus in applying psychoanalysis to the problem of totemism, he finds that if the totem animal substitutes the father, then the two prohibitions - not to kill the totem, nor to have sexual relations with a woman of the same totem - coincide with the two crimes of Oedipus. Assuming this equation is not mere chance, Freud proposes that this relation of totemism to the Oedipus complex, could present more information on the origin(s) of totemism and exogamy.

(4) Freud follows this with a look at the findings of William Robertson Smith (d.1894) who amongst other things, proposed the 'totem meal' and sacrificial ceremonies and their significance in totemism. The ethical force of the public sacrificial meal rested upon ancient ideas of the significance of eating and drinking together - as a symbol of fellowship, and kinship. Furthermore, Robertson Smith, proposed that 'the sacrificing community, the god and the sacrificial animal were of the same blood and members of one clan.' From this analysis, Robertson Smith (with Freud's support) concludes that the periodic killing and eating of the totem in times before the worship of anthropomorphic deities was an important element in totemic religion.