Note 585 — Chapter VI · [168] DISCUSSION OF KINSHIP
Reading edition
Here in the first place must be mentioned the works of Spencer and Gillen, Nat. Tr., pp. 123-127, 255; Nor. Tr., pp. 144, 163 sqq., 169 sqq., 174-176, 150, 330, 331; Mrs. Parker, pp. 50 sqq., 61, 98.
Strehlow, loc. cit., i., on the second and third pages of the Preface by Frhr. von Leonhardi (there is no pagination), ii. pp. 51 sqq., iii. pp. x.-xi. of the Preface by Frhr. von Leonhardi. A short notice on totemic conception and on local distribution of spirit-children is communicated by Rev. L. Schultze, Trans. and Proc. R.S.S.A., xiv. p. 237 (1891). R. H. Mathews communicated in several places beliefs in reincarnation and totemic conception. See Jour. and Proc. R.S.N.S.W., xl. pp. 108 sqq., ibid., xli. p. 147. And Queensland Geographical Journal, xx. p. 73, and xxii. pp. 75, 76. Am. Anthr., xxviii. p. 144. Bull. Soc. of Anthr., Paris, vii. serie v. p. 171. Herbert Basedow, Trans. R.S.S.A., xxxi. (1907), p. 4. (Short communication concerning the Larrekiya tribe of the Northern territory, South Australia.) Amongst the sources must be quoted the communications given by Prof. Frazer on the authority of Dr. Frodsham, Bishop of North Queensland, and the Rev. C. W. Morrison, which refer to the Northern and North-Eastern tribes in general. Frazer, Tot. and Exog., i., p. 577.
In fact, the theory of totemic conception is so closely connected with the whole of the aboriginal totemic beliefs that it is necessary to be acquainted with the latter in order to understand the former; and for this the perusal of both the works of Messrs. Spencer and Gillen and of Strehlow is necessary.
Among the theoretical works dealing with primitive views of conception and paternity (in Australia and in general), we must place first the treatise of Mr. E. S. Hartland, Primitive Paternity, which is the most extensive and thorough examination of all beliefs, referring to a supernatural cause of birth and all its social consequences. The beliefs in question play an important rôle in Prof. Frazer's work on Totemism and Exogamy. See especially vol. iv., on origins of Totemism.
We may mention also the works of van Gennep, Mythes et Légendes d'Australie, especially chaps. v. and vi. of the Introduction, pp. 44-67, in which the ignorance of the natives is illustrated by several interesting remarks and inferences from other facts (for example, the beliefs of the aborigines about the rôle and nature of the sexual organs, pp. 111 sqq.). Compare also the article of Frhr. v. Reitzenstein, Z.f.E., xli., pp. 644 sqq. Mr. A. Lang's views (comp. above, p. 181, footnote 1) are expounded in Anthrop. Essays, pp. 203 sqq., and in The Secret of the Totem, chap. xi.