ABSTRACT
David Émile Durkheim wrote a biting criticism of what he thought was faulty logic: Heinrich Cunow would have been less facile about ending with this explanation if he had not completely misunderstood the importance of the totem and of the totemic group. James Frazer followed suit with his own articles, although he stripped totemism down to a few plain essentials by divorcing it from its rich body of totemic folklore and touting it as a glorified system of magical performances by a "band of magicians" or a "primitive co-op" to increase the food supply. Baldwin Spencer official role was to take pictures and collect samples of plants and animals for scientific study and, thus, when the Horn expedition reached Alice Springs, Spencer met Gillen who volunteered his help in collecting specimens. The Gillen-Spencer partnership thus became a reality, although the initial success of their collaboration depended on Gillen's relations with the native community.
