article
The problem of 'totemism' in southern Lau: a reply to A. Capell and R. H. Lester
Oceania • 17 • Published In 1947 • Pages: 211-224
By: Thompson, Laura.
Abstract
This article is a reply to a criticism by Capell and Lester on the accuracy of her findings as published in 2: Thompson, this file, especially as they related to totemism and social groupings. Thompson re-examines her data and theirs, and comes to the conclusion that Capell and Lester tried to force the Lau social groupings into preconceived concepts, while she described the functioning groups, thus explaining the difference in findings. As regarded totemism, she believes the data to be in her monograph, although not usually described under that name, since she held to a very srtict definition of totemism. Although Thompson, Capell and Lester followed radically different methods in reconstructing southern Lau cultural history, they came to much the same conclusions.
- HRAF PubDate
- 1996
- Region
- Oceania
- Sub Region
- Polynesia
- Document Type
- article
- Evaluation
- Creator Type
- Ethnologist
- Document Rating
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- Analyst
- Timothy J. O'Leary ; 1959
- Field Date
- 1933-1934
- Coverage Date
- not specified
- Coverage Place
- Lau Islands, Fiji
- Notes
- by Laura Thompson
- LCSH
- Fijians