CHAPTER V

ORIGINS OF THESE BELIEFS

_Critical Examination of Preceding Theories_

I.--Theories which derive totemism from a previous religion: from the ancestor cult (Wilken and Tylor); from the nature cult (Jevons)--Criticism of these theories 168

II.--Theories which derive collective totemism from individual totemism--Origins attributed by these theories to the individual totem (Frazer, Boas, Hill Tout)--Improbability of these hypotheses--Reasons showing the priority of the collective totem 172

III.--Recent theory of Frazer: _conceptional_ and local totemism--The begging of the question upon which it rests--The religious character of the totem is denied--Local totemism is not primitive 180

IV.--Theory of Lang: that the totem is only a name--Difficulties in explaining the religious character of totemic practices from this point of view 184

V.--All these theories explain totemism only by postulating other religious notions anterior to it 186