Totemism in India by John V. Ferreira Review by: Martin Orans American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 70, No.

2 (Apr., 1968), pp. 397-398 Published by: Wiley on behalf of the American Anthropological Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/671169 . Accessed: 03/06/2013 12:22
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Book Reviews
to how much the respective writer has been obliged to extend or to narrow his basic definition of shamanism. A final paper by Norland relates the McGill experiments on the perception of reality to shamanism. All of this seems rather useless if one cannot at the same time note that a definition of reality is a primary cultural issue. By the reasoning of these authors, shamanism is thus a specific category. Yet "techniques of ecstasy" appear from Bali to the Sun Dance and can clearly be found in contemporary Pentecostalism. But the authors choose not to see it that way and so treat a potentially random phenomenon as though it were a discrete kind of social institution. The result can scarcely be expected to inform.

397

them belong to that non-verstehenpedantic tradition of the humanities that has served so unfortunately to cast the whole humanistic tradition into disrepute. In addition to basic psychological urges, the author invokes age-distribution arguments, hypothetical trait complexes, presumed evolutionary sequences, ad hoc functional interpretations, linguistic and physical anthropological data-liberally mixed with the judgments of learned scholars-in an effort to sort out origins, primal urges, and who got what from whom. The flavor of such "explanations" can be indicated by the following argument presented about the totemism of a Mundari-speaking tribe, the Birhor. The author's interpretation rests upon a hypothetical developmental schema of totemism from "protototemic" (a little totemic) to Totemism in India. JOHN V. FERREIRA. New York: full-fledged "apical group totemism" (the whole Oxford University Press, "1965" [1966]. viii, 304 complex); two declining stages of totemism termipp., bibliography, index, chapter notes and refer- nate with "totemism in decline." The Birhor are said ences. $4.65, Rs 17.50. to have the most highly developed form (apical Reviewedby MARTIN ORANS group totemism). On the basis of complex historical and con), University of California, Riverside conjectures and expert opinions (pro making use simultaneously of all the kinds of "eviWhen I agreed to review Professor Ferreira's book, dence" discussed above, the author concludes that Totemism in India, I had no idea that it emanated the Mundari tribals came into India too late to have from a tradition so fundamentally different than our produced "apical group totemism"; since the Birhor neoown. The author associates himself with the have it and the author suggests the other Mundari culture-historical school of anthropology. I'm afraid tribals do not, he argues that "their [the Birhor] presthat in spite of the "neo," the approach is so funda- ent language and some other cultural elements mentally different as to require a reviewer to were borrowed from their Mundari-speaking neighwrestle with the most basic assumptions of an en- bors in a relatively recent period of time" (p. 103). tire tradition, not excluding differences in objectives. For those unfamiliar with the Mundari tribes, let To choose a particularly significant example, the me point out that if the Birhor were not originally author renders the following judgment of Radcliffe- Mundari, they must have borrowed almost everyBrown's treatment of totemism: thing from their Mundari neighbors. The name In his proclivity, however, to interpret tend- Birhor means "forest people" in standard Santali; encies as laws, Radcliffe-Brown confuses two the "hor" (people) is cognate with the Santal's name differing areas of reality and thus perpetrates the for themselves and the Ho term; Santali and Birfallacy of reductionism or the identification of the hori (if such a distinction is even valid) are mutually socio-cultural with the natural, the more complex the so-called buru-bonga (hill) deity intelligible; with the less, the historical with the law governed and ora-bonga(house) deity mentioned by the author [p. 36]. are worshipped in identical fashion among the Though I am far from having a clear idea of what Santal; many clan names are cognate with a large differences Ferreira has in mind in distinguishing number of other Mundari tribals, and even subclan laws from tendencies, it does seem to me that his names; the totemic practices that associate plants and animals with certain social groups can be support for the latter serves as a charter for the matched by exactly parallel practices among other extremely nonscientific method of judging validity that characterizes his entire tradition. Mundari groups. In short, despite enormous cultural similarity, the author concludes that the Thus, for example, Ferreira states: Birhor are "originally" a non-Mundari group, essenPsychologically speaking, the totemic phenomenon can be traced to two fundamental urges in tially because he affirms that they have too much human nature which are closely related to each totemism. If the Birhor do have somewhat more conother-the urge towards complementarity and the cern with animals and their relation to the superurge towards dependence. That these urges are natural and social units than other Mundari speakers fundamental can be proved by a reference to two cited, it might be due to the simple fact that they and Existencurrent philosophies-Marxism are the only such group living almost entirely by tialism. hunting and gathering in a symbiotic relation with their settled agriculturalist neighbors! I feel it only necessary to add an exclamation point Rather than presenting other examples of such or two after the author's period. Such pronouncements and the form of argument used to support tortured reasoning, let me only say that one atten-

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436

American Anthropologist

[70, 1968

Insofar as it has been possible to verify, the practical information is accurate and useful. The exceptions are almost entirely those items that have become outdated in even the short time since the book's publication, notably price information. Anthropologists, especially those planning to work with Brazilian Indians, may find the book of only limited usefulness, since it is weighted heavily toward political science and history, and much of the practical advice is about how to reproduce U.S. urban middle-class living conditions in Brazilian cities. This information may, however, be of use to those interested in urban studies, as will the essay on public administration by Peter Bell. The chapter on the Northeast by anthropologist Shepard Forman and that on Goias by geographer Paul Mandell should stimulate the anthropologist interested in the peasantry, the rural proletariat, and other social groups of the Brazilian interior. The appearance of a nuts-and-bolts "how-to-doit" book for U.S. researchers in Brazil shows just how much of an industry this research has become, especially since Cuba turned socialist. Many educated Brazilians are suspicious of this activity, as Professor Levine notes. But he attributes this suspicion to Brazilian "lack of information on North American methods of education and research." He misses the point. The problem is neither that Brazilians do not read North American college catalogs, nor, as the crude propaganda of the Left would have it, that all or most U.S. academics are spies, but rather a disparity in perspectives induced by the respective social positions of Brazilian intellectuals and U.S. researchers. The North American researcher is a product and a representative of a technologically powerful society whose rulers have opted for Empire. The educated Brazilian knows this, and he also knows that Brazil is an outpost, in most senses, of this Empire, whose influence helps guarantee an institutional system against the aspirations of the majority of Brazilians. The outlooks of the two groups can hardly be identical. Where, whether, and how to tread in this situation is a delicate question for the U.S. researcher, unfortunately treated with neither delicacy nor depth in the present work. A pity, for it is far more important than the availability of stainlesssteel safety razors or the cost of soap flakes. It is the lone anthropological contribution to this book that touches most sensitively upon the human dimensions of research. Shepard Forman observes, "When people are begging for any kind of help, it is difficult to . . . merely use them as statistics in a doctoral dissertation." Though the solutions he offers seem mere palliatives to this reviewer, Forman's unresolved doubts are more congenial than a certain manipulative tendency evident in some of the other contributions. This tendency may result from a mere problem of communication, for solemnity is the keynote of this book, which has all the warmth of a balance sheet.

This is a great injustice to a culture rich in humor and personal warmth; the present work will leave the newcomer to Brazilian studies quite unprepared for either. A good exposure to Brazilian literature, both high- and low-brow, should compensate for this lack. Whatever its defects, the Research Guide is of sufficient value to have a guaranteed place in the baggage of any U.S. academic headed for Brazil. It is to be hoped that it will be expanded and kept up-todate in future editions. Early Stone Tools. Produced in 1967 by the University of California Extension Media Center, as consultant. 16 mm., with FRANgOIS BORDES color, sound, running time 20 minutes. Rental $12.00; purchase $220.00 ($264.00 abroad). Available from University of California Extension Media Center, 2223 Fulton Street, Berkeley, California 94720. Reviewed by F. CLARKHOWELL University of Chicago This film intends to depict the stone tools of early man and to illustrate methods of producing them. It unfortunately fails to do either really adequately. Professor Francois Bordes, noted prehistorian of the Laboratoire de Prehistoire, Universite de Bordeaux, is capable of reproducing most (probably all) of the classes and types of stone artifacts employed by Pleistocene peoples. Many feet of film were shot of Prof. Bordes fashioning such artifacts during a month's visit in 1965 to the University of California (Berkeley). Only a small portion of that footage is included in this film. It does illustrate the making of a chopping-tool, a cleaver and hand-axes (utilizing both stone-on-stone, including anvil technique, and antler cylinder-hammer technique), Levallois core preparation and final flake removal discoidal core technique (so-called Mousterian) and the fashioning of a few flake tools (Clactonian notch, denticulate, point, side-scraper). This is preceded by a brief illustration of the principal distinguishing characteristics of percussion-flaked stone and the terms applied to those features. These successive developments and refinements in technology and in tool typology are intermixed with illustrations of selected parts of lithic assemblages, including Oldowan, Acheulian, and Mousterian examples. There is no illustration of the diversity of late Pleistocene lithic assemblages, or techniques employed in producing such artifacts. An attempt is made to relate the progressive elaboration and refinement in techniques and in implement type to biological evolution from Australopithecus to Homo erectus to earlier and later (e.g., Neanderthals) Homo sapiens and the successful occupation of and adaptation to different environments. It is manifestly impossible to accomplish any of these goals in a film of this length. In view of its content the title of the film is misleading. The excellent illustrations of artifact manufacture are unfortu-

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