apparent.
There are myths tracing the totemism of clans to ancestors having animal
forms, but these myths are relatively late savage philosophical
explanations of existing institutions.

+550+. The relation of the individual patron and guardian to the clan
totem has been variously defined. Such a patron, it is sometimes held
(obtained by a dream or a vision), descends from the original possessor
to his children (or, in a matrilineal system, to his sister's children),
and thus becomes the patron (the totem) of a family or kin; and a larger
group, formed by the union of several kins, may similarly have its
protecting spirit. Cases in which descent is through the mother here
make a difficulty--a man's guardian spirit would not then be inherited.
Granting that the personal patron of a shaman or of an ordinary man may
be inherited, such inheritance appears to be of rare occurrence, and
there is no trustworthy evidence that it ever leads to the formation of
a totemic clan.

+551+. It is true there is a resemblance between a man's relation to his
clan totem and his relation to his personal guardian--in both cases the
sacred object is revered and spared. It is sometimes the case also (as,
for example, among the Australian Arunta) that the totem comes through
an individual (the mother) and is not transmissible, and yet endogamous
clans arise by the union of persons having the same totem. But here the
resemblance ceases--the Arunta child's totem is determined for him
before his birth, but a man chooses his personal guardian for himself,
and joins others having the same guardian, not in a clan but in a secret
society. Furthermore, the institution of the personal guardian is very
rare except in North America, and there flourishes in inverse proportion
to the strength of clan life proper.

+552+. On the supposition of the primitive predominance of the rule of
descent through the mother individualistic theories of the origin of
totemism, with one exception, are out of the question--the totem is
first chosen by a man, but children would have the totem not of the
father but of the mother. The exception is the conceptional theory, in
which the totem is determined by the mother--especially the Mota (Banks
Islands) form, in which the choice of a sacred object by the woman is
unlimited. In a small community a certain number of women would,
however, choose the same object, and thus totemic groups would arise.
This scheme of organization,