In this region we find every degree of totemism, from an institution containing the main features mentioned above, to complete absence of all these fea tures. For example, in the Santa Cruz islands we find exogamous clans, each possessing one or more totems, usually animals; the totem may not be killed or eaten, and there is usually a definite belief in descent from the totem. In the extreme west of- Papua (where there are two moieties) and in south-east New Guinea and parts of the Solomons we find totemism of similar form, yet in other parts of the Solomons and in the New Hebrides and Banks islands totemism is absent, though there are customs which sug gest survivals of an earlier totemism; in fact, the Banks islanders, while lacking totemic clans, have certain beliefs very similar to those of the Arunta of central Australia, but unsystematic. A number of men and women strictly avoid killing certain species of animals or plants on account of a supposed kinship with them. This belief is based on the belief that the mother owed her preg nancy in some way to the entry into her womb of an animal of the species avoided. This belief appears to be maintained along side some understanding of the true nature of the process of pro creation. In Polynesia we find a religious system, which in places, such as Samoa, appears to have developed out of totemism, for many totemic characters are discernible.
As a social system, if little more, totemism appears in parts of India. For instance, the Santals of Bengal are divided into a number of patrilineal clans, exogamous and totemic, and each of these into a number of sub-clans, also exogamous and totemic. There is avoidance of the totem, in some form or another, by the clan or sub-clan. Totemism also occurs in Assam, in Cen tral India and Madras, with traces elsewhere.
Except for the region of the great lakes, totemism is sporadic in Africa. The Baganda of Uganda may be cited as an example of well-developed totemism. The Baganda are divided into some 4o patrilineal exogamous clans. Each of these has a principal and a secondary totem, usually an animal or plant, neither of which is killed or eaten by the clan. There are other avoidances, more or less connected with the totem; for example, members of the leopard clan may not eat meat which has been torn or even scratched by an animal. We do not find traditions of descent from the totem amongst the Baganda, and the belief in descent from the totem is uncommon elsewhere in Africa. A nominalistic explanation of the origin of the Baganda totems is given ; for example, the lion clan of the Baganda, with the eagle as secondary totem, explain their totems as follows : Kimtu, a royal ancestor of the clan, killed a lion and an eagle, and had their skins made into royal rugs, since when the beast and the bird have been regarded as sacred. There is one curious anomaly in Baganda totemism. While a man normally takes his totem from his father, there is an exception in the case of royalty, a man taking the totem of his mother in addition, and rarely main taining the royal totem.
Throughout the greater part of North America we find totemism in a more or less typical form, and the frequent grouping of totemic clans into moieties reminds one of the Australian variety. Other features of American totemism, however, mark it off clearly from the Australian variety. While the tie between members of the totemic group may be as strong as anywhere else in the world, the attitude towards the totem is usually quite different, and the theory of totemic souls is wanting. Often, in America, the totem is little more than a clan-badge, and the totem is often killed by the totemic clan. Nevertheless, elaborate and picturesque legends of the origin of totemic clans from the totem by some sort of descent are com mon enough. Totemism is not particularly associated with the less developed tribes of North America—rather the reverse; and we find both matrilineal and patrilineal descent of the totemic clans. Amongst the strongly matrilineal Iroquois of the east we find a straightforward division of the various tribes into a small number of exogamous clans, of which the totems are animal species, the clans usually being grouped into two moieties. Al though a few traditions of direct matrilineal descent from an animal of the totemic species have been recorded, the clans usually aeny relationship with their totems, and show no regard whatever for them. Passing westward, some of the Siouan tribes provide examples of a more complex totemic system. For example, the Ponkas are divided into moieties, the moieties into phratries, the phratries into clans, and the clans into sub-clans, each of these classes being more or less totemic and exogamous. Here definite tabus are connected with the totems of the clans. In the west, particularly the north-west coast, totemism is not clearly distinguishable from another socio-religious institution, pe culiar to North America, the cult of guardian spirits. The guard ian spirit is acquired individually, sometimes quite late in life, by a process usually of fasting and religious exercise, which causes the guardian spirit to appear to the candidate in a dream or vision. Since the guardian spirit usually has an animal form, it is some times called an individual totem—clearly a misnomer. Some times the guardian spirits capable of acquirement by members of the tribe are divided out between the clans, or other social groups of the tribe, and sometimes the guardian spirit is not clearly individual in nature, but is rather of the nature of a species of animal. In so far as this is the case we have an approximation to totemism. A complication of this sort is found in the totem ism of the north-west coast peoples, who make the so-called totem poles. The student will find a mass of data on totemism arranged geographically in Sir J. G. Frazer's work Totemism and Exogamy (1910).