102 SOCIAL SCIENTIST in a 'complete system which defines his relationship with his community and with nature. The sense of history as we understand it (the development of society in time) is completely absent, and the tribe is concerned solely with trying to ensure survival in the immediate present. The tribe has absolute laws which govern all the relationships within the triangle. There arc precise rules of conduct for behaviour between the individual and the community and nature. Totcmism (using it in the broad sense to include all myths, tales, taboos and so on) is the communication system which incorporates all these rules. A single rule or taboo will simultaneously deal with a number of relationships. For instance, the individual featuring in the taboo /will be identified by his position in the tribe (as a chief, a diviner or a particular kin) and the taboo, which is the rule, specifies the conduct of this person vis-a-vis the community or nature. For the purposes of remembering these rules of conduct, the community or tribe is divided into its various elements (clan, sub-clan, family, son, brother-in-law, chief, magician, third son and so on.) Nature too is divided into its various elements (groups of plants, parts of flowers, animals). Each of these totemic taboos is a method of communicating information to the clan or tribe. The content of this information varies so that a distinction between the forbidden and the'permitted simultaneously reflects the distinction between species. The myth or story is the logic by which the object or person has a place in the total environment. In the mind of the tribal, there is logical equivalence between a collection of natural species and a world of social groups. This equivalence is expressed through a totemic system that relates each unit of nature (tree, insect, parts of plants and so on) with each unit of society. Struggle for Survival Thus the prime struggle in primitive society was between the community and nature. The individual's role was totally subservient to the community and taboos regulated his behaviour, but at no time could he opt out of the community on whom he was dependent for his survival. The relationship between man and nature was essentially monitored by the community. Man's (the individual's) access to the life support system was through the community. Marriage was the central institution which linked the role of the individual to the economic functions of the tribe. The totemic system stressed certain ordered principles—the pre-eminence of the social over the natural, the group over the individual and organization over the arbitrary.