ABSTRACT

THE CONDITIONS OF THE INDIVIDUALIZATION OF POWER

In attempting above to throw the light of mythology upon that political evolution which we aim at explaining, we have seen the idea of an individualized ancestor in the several forms of spirit totem, phratry, and tribal divinity win­ ning precedence over the idea of a nameless and common totem. Let us begin by pointing out how such a transforma­ tion of mythology is necessary when a hierarchical society dominated by chiefs takes the place of a democratic, com­ munistic society like the primitive totemic society. We have tried to give an explanation in our Foi jurSe “ An individual who is a noble and a chief and who has all the people of the clan for clients, necessarily must appear to such people as the tutelary genius of the clan if he wish to retain his prestige as noble and his authority as chief. The totem, the arms, the insignia, the masks, and the other emblems of the clan can only proceed from him or one of his ancestors. If he have good grounds for saying hence­ forth : 6 Le clan, c’est moi,’ why could he not also say: * The clan’s totem is the manitou of my ancestor or my own 9 ? What becomes of his authority in the clan if the greatest treasure of the clan come not from him ? It is the new social necessity, implicit in the new social structure, that comes to be translated into mythology by assigning henceforth a predominant role to the manitou and the ancestor. To rid himself of the rivalry of collective totemic inheritance the chief absorbs and symbolizes this inheritance in himself. He gives himself out as the hereditary owner of the totem. And it is thereby that he becomes chief.”