Then, the ancients used
to abstain from certain vegetables. In his 'Roman Questions'
Plutarch asks: 'Why do the Latins abstain strictly from the flesh
of the woodpecker?' In order to answer Plutarch's question
correctly it is necessary to have some idea of the peculiar
custom and belief called 'totemism.' There is a stage of society
in which people claim descent from and kinship with beasts,
birds, vegetables, and other objects. This object, which is a
'totem,' or family mark, they religiously abstain from eating.
The members of the tribe are divided into clans or stocks, each
of which takes the name of some animal, plant, or object, as the
bear, the buffalo, the woodpecker, the asparagus, and so forth.
No member of the bear family would dare to eat bear-meat, but he
has no objection to eating buffalo steak. Even the marriage law
is based on this belief, and no man whose family name is Wolf may
marry a woman whose family name is also Wolf.
"In a general way it may be said that almost all our food
prohibitions spring from the extraordinary custom generally
called totemism. Mr. Swan, who was missionary for many years in
the Congo Free State, thus describes the custom: 'If I were to
ask the Yeke people why they do not eat zebra flesh, they would
reply, 'Chijila,' i.
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