Exchanging Totems: Totemism in Baldwin Spencer's Overseas Exchanges

Between 1899 and 1908, the director of the National Museum of Victoria, Walter Baldwin Spencer dispatched, as either gifts or exchanges, multiple collections of Aboriginal objects to museums in Europe and North America. He initially used these collections to promote his and Francis Gillen's ideas and research into totemism. Totemism was one of the hot debates of early twentieth century sociology/anthropology, and the collections constructed by Spencer and Gillen were representative of illustrations published in their books. In building his collections, Spencer developed a hierarchy of totemic symbols and 'manufactured' the nurtunja1 (Anartentye) as an Arunta (Arrernte) equivalent of the American North-West Coast totem pole. In placing importance on the nurtunja, Spencer used material culture to develop and promote facets of social theory. This paper reflects on how material culture influenced aspects of Spencer's own 'social theory' and, in turn, how social theory was used to shape 'trade' in material culture among museums. In doing so, the paper also examines how Spencer's ideas on totemism changed over time.