important part. But
while this is true, at least in a general way, we are not able to trace
all the influences that have determined the development of totemism and
taboo; some of these are lost in the obscurity of the remote past, and,
unfortunately for purposes of investigation, both taboo and totemism, as
we now meet them in actual operation, are in process of decay. Why, for
instance, taboo has flourished in Hawaii with its fishing industries and
has not flourished in certain half-civilized, partly agricultural North
American tribes we are unable to explain precisely. We may fall back on
the vague statement that every community has accomplished that for which
its genius fitted it, but how the genius of any one people has fitted it
for this or that particular task it is not always possible to say.

+628+. _The disappearance of the taboo system_ in civilized nations is
to be referred to the general advance in intelligence and morality.
Usually this movement is a gradual and silent one, marked by a quiet
dropping of usages as they come to be held unnecessary or oppressive.
Sometimes a bold individual rebels against the established custom and
successfully introduces a new era: thus in Yoruba, under an old custom,
when a king died his eldest son was obliged to commit suicide; this
custom was set at defiance by a certain Adelu in 1860, and has not since
been observed.[1046] All the influences that tend to broaden thought go
to displace taboo. The growth of clans into tribes, the promotion of
voluntary organizations, secret societies, which displace the old
totemistic groups, the growth of agriculture and of commercial
relations--all things, in a word, that tend to make the individual
prominent and to further family life lead naturally to the abrogation of
oppressive taboos.

+629+. Doubtless also among lower tribes intercourse with higher
communities has had the same result. One of the most remarkable episodes
in the history of taboo is its complete overthrow in the Hawaiian
Islands in the year 1819 by a popular movement.[1047] The movement was
begun by members of the royal family, particularly by one of the queens,
and was eagerly followed by almost the whole population--the result was
the final overthrow of the system. This was before the arrival of
Christian missionaries; but as foreigners had visited the islands many
years before (Captain Cook first came in 1778), it is possible that the
suggestion of the reform came