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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Pagan and Christian Creeds by Edward Carpenter: among native tribes in Central Africa and N. America.
And the regulations in all this matter have been so (apparently)
entirely arbitrary in the various cases that it would
almost appear as if the bar of kinship through the Totem
had been the EXCUSE, originating perhaps in some superstition,
but that the real and more abiding object was simply limitation.
And this perhaps was a wise line to take. A taboo
on promiscuity had to be created, and for this purpose any
current prejudice could be made use of.[3]
[1] Myth, Ritual and Religion, i, p. 66.
[2] See Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Australia.
Pagan and Christian Creeds |
