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How did James George Frazer explain the origin of totem clans?

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totem fish mask — Totemism Totem fish mask from the Orokolo Bay area of New Guinea. Painted bark cloth over rattan frame with fringe of dried grass. Height 1.63 m.

In his 1910 work Totemism and Exogamy, Sir James George Frazer proposed that the origin of totem clans stemmed from a belief system he termed "conceptionalism."1

Based on his research among indigenous peoples in Australia and Melanesia, Frazer argued that these cultures held a specific interpretation regarding the conception and birth of children. According to this view, women were believed to become impregnated when the spirit of an animal or a spiritual fruit entered their wombs. Because children were thought to participate in the nature of the specific animal or plant associated with their conception, those natural creatures took on significant importance. Frazer concluded that these conceptualist explanations of birth led to the formation of totem clans, with each clan deriving its identity from a particular natural creature.1