ABSTRACT
The “Freudian Lamarckism” of Totem and Taboo has given rise to very vigorous objections. In Sigmund Freud’s text, the way that the leader of the horde deals with the difference of the sexes could suggest that he hardly has access to this difference, being organised more by the difference between himself and the others without further sexual clarification. The subject of the primordial murder, considered as scandalous or absurd, and the scarce emphasis placed on the totemic meal in “ethno-logical material”, clearly stand in contrast to the more commonplace evocation of cannibalism in explicitly imaginary forms in fairy tales, burlesque comedy, or horror films. Although Freud devotes several pages of his essay to sacrificial rites and to the place played in them by the food offered to the gods, the evocation of cannibalism in anthropology appears to be only discreetly present in the debate.
