TRIBE, group of people sharing customs, language, and territory, such as the Apache Indians of North America.

Anthropologists stress the importance of kinship in tribes. Usually a tribe has a leader, a religion teaching that all its people are descended from a common ancestor, and a common language and culture. A tribe is often small in size, is fairly limited in its contacts with other societies, and is correspondingly ethnocentric in its view of the world. E perts disagree about the relative importance of linguistic, political, and geographical boundaries. !hatever definition of tribe is chosen, however, e ceptions to it abound. "he most important criteria for a tribe continue to be linguistic and cultural resemblances. "he word tribe has long been used by both anthropologists and laypersons, but recently it has come under attack as a derogatory term implying an inferior way of life. #oreover, its use is inconsistent$ it is not, for instance, applied to modern European groups that meet the criteria of the definition. "he designations people or ethnic group are generally preferred today. ANIMISM %from &at. anima, 'breath' or 'soul'(, belief in spiritual beings. Among biologists and psychologists, animism refers to the view that the human mind is a nonmaterial entity that nevertheless interacts with the body via the brain and nervous system. As a philosophical theory, animism, usually called panpsychism, is the doctrine that all ob)ects in the world have an inner or psychological being. "he *+th,century -erman physician and chemist -eorg Ernst .tahl coined the word animism to describe his theory that the soul is the vital principle responsible for organic development. .ince the late */th century, however, the term has been mainly associated with anthropology and the 0ritish anthropologist .ir Edward 0urnett "ylor, who described the origin of religion and primitive beliefs in terms of animism. In Primitive Culture %*+1*( "ylor defined animism as the general belief in spiritual beings and considered it 'a minimum definition of religion.' 2e asserted that all religions, from the simplest to the most comple , involve some form of animism. According to "ylor, primitive peoples, defined as those without written traditions, believe that spirits or souls are the cause of life in human beings$ they picture souls as phantoms, resembling vapors or shadows, which can transmigrate from person to person, from the dead to the living, and from and into plants, animals, and lifeless ob)ects. In deriving his theory, "ylor assumed that an animistic philosophy developed in an attempt to e plain the causes of sleep, dreams, trances, and death$ the difference between a living body and a dead one$ and the nature of the images that one sees in dreams and trances. "ylor3s theories were criticized by the 0ritish anthropologist 4obert 4. #arett %*+556*/78(, who claimed that primitives could not have been so intellectual and that religion must have had a more emotional, intuitional origin. 2e re)ected "ylor3s theory that all ob)ects were regarded as being alive. #arett thought that primitive peoples must have recognized some lifeless ob)ects and probably regarded only those ob)ects that had unusual 9ualities or behaved in some seemingly unpredictable or mysterious way as being alive. 2e held, moreover, that the ancient concept of aliveness was not sophisticated enough to include the notion of a soul or spirit residing in the ob)ect. :rimitive peoples treated the ob)ects they considered animate as if these things had life, feeling, and a will of their own, but did not make a distinction between the body of an ob)ect and a soul that could enter or leave it. #arett called this view 'animatism' or 'preanimism,' and he claimed that animism had to arise out of animatism, which may even continue to e ist alongside more highly developed animistic beliefs. 4elated to animism are ancestor worship and some forms of nature worship. TOTEMISM, a comple of ideas, symbols, and practices based on an assumed relationship between an individual or a social group and a natural ob)ect known as a totem. "he totem may be a species of bird, animal, or plant, a natural phenomenon, or a feature of the landscape with which a group believes itself linked in some way. "he term totem is derived from the language of the ;)ibwa, a North American Indian tribe.

"he totemic relationship is widespread and has been observed in #alaysia, Africa, and -uinea. It is especially strong among some American Indians and the Australian aborigines. In these societies, the totem is often regarded as a companion and helper with supernatural powers and as such is respected and occasionally venerated. "he individuals of a totemic group see themselves as partially identified with or assimilated to the totem, which may be referred to by special names or symbols. <escent may be traced to an original totemic ancestor, which becomes the symbol of the group. !ith the e ception of some totemic rituals, killing, eating, or touching the totem is prohibited. Individual shamans % see .2A#AN( have been known to cultivate a personal friendship with a particular totemic animal or plant. =ew anthropological concepts have undergone such radical change as that of totemism. #ost of the theories about it propounded in the */th and early >?th centuries have been discarded. It is no longer regarded as a religion, much less as an early stage in the religious and cultural history of the human race. It is admitted, however, that a totemic relationship may involve religious elements, such as the cult of ancestors and the belief in spirits %see ANI#I.#(. "he current skepticism about totemism in anthropological literature is e emplified by the =rench anthropologist @laude &Avi,.trauss3s theory that totemism is an anthropological concept having no ob)ective reality. "he basis of totemism seems to lie in the world,view of some societies that assume a specific relationship between human beings and the powers of nature, a relationship that serves as the foundation for a classificatory scheme. "otemism may thus be interpreted as a conceptual device for sorting out social groups by means of natural emblems. .ome scholars state that when different social groups within the same society draw their names and identities from plants or animals, these totems serve as symbolic devices showing that society, although divided into many groups, remains a whole. "otems identify and symbolize a group that shares common interestsBparticularly an interest in the protection of kin membersBin societies that have no other method for performing this function. 4ecently, some anthropologists have argued that Australian totemism, because of its taboos against killing and eating one3s totem, has acted as a conservation device, helping people adapt to their natural environment. "otemism would, in this view, have an ecological significance and would have played an important role in the development and survival of those societies in which it flourished SHAMAN, religious specialist, originally found in hunting,gathering cultures, which are loosely structured, technologically simple, and homogeneous. "he word shaman is derived from a word in the "ungusic language of .iberia, one of the areas in which the classical form of shamanism is found. .everal forms of shamanism have been observed in widely distributed nonliterate societies located in @entral Asia, North America, and ;ceania. Although a shaman can achieve religious status by heredity, personal 9uest, or vocation, the recognition and call of the individual is always an essential part of that individual3s elevation to the new status. "he shaman, usually a man, is essentially a medium, a mouthpiece of the spirits who became his familiars at his initiation, during which he fre9uently undergoes prolonged fasts, seclusion, and other ordeals leading to dreams and visions. "raining by e perienced shamans follows. "he main religious tasks of a shaman are healing and divination. 0oth are achieved either by spirit possession or by the departure of the shaman3s soul to heaven or to the underworld. .hamans also divine the whereabouts of game, the position of the enemy, and the best way of safeguarding and increasing the food supply. .hamans may occupy an elevated social and economic position, especially if they are successful healers. Attempts to e plain the shamans and their cures have been numerous. .ome scholars have drawn parallels between shamanistic healing and psychoanalytic cures and have concluded that in both instances

efficacious and therapeutic symbols are created, leading to psychological release and physiological curing .everal anthropologists, re)ecting a theory that shamans are basically neurotics or psychotics, have suggested that shamans possess certain cognitive abilities that are distinguishably superior to those of the rest of the community. ;ther scholars simply e plain shamanism as the precursor of a more organized religious system or as a techni9ue for achieving ecstasy.