(_d_) But we need only a reminder to realize that the exogamy connected
with the totem accomplishes more; that is, aims at more than the
prevention of incest with the mother or the sisters. It also makes it
impossible for the man to have sexual union with all the women of his
own group, with a number of females, therefore, who are not
consanguineously related to him, by treating all these women like blood
relations. The psychological justification for this extraordinary
restriction, which far exceeds anything comparable to it among civilized
races, is not, at first, evident. All we seem to understand is that the
role of the totem (the animal) as ancestor is taken very seriously.
Everybody descended from the same totem is consanguineous; that is, of
one family; and in this family the most distant grades of relationship
are recognized as an absolute obstacle to sexual union.