Totemism

Totemism is a belief in which each human is thought

to have a spiritual connection or a kinship with another
physical being, such as an animal or plant, often called a
spirit-being or totem. The totem is thought to interact with a given kin group or an individual and to serve
as their emblem or symbol.

Although totems are often the focus of ritual behaviour,

it is generally agreed that totemism is not a religion.
Totemism can certainly include religious elements in
varying degrees, just as it can appear conjoined with
magic. Totemism is frequently mixed with dierent
kinds of other beliefs, such as ancestor worship, ideas
soul, or animism. Such mixtures have historically
The term totem is derived from the Ojibwa word otote- of the
made
the
understanding of particular totemistic forms
man, meaning ones brother-sister kin. The grammatidicult.
cal root, ote, signies a blood relationship between brothers and sisters who have the same mother and who may
not marry each other. In English, the word 'totem' was 1.1 Group totemism
introduced in 1791 by a British merchant and translator
who gave it a false meaning in the belief that it designated Social or collective totemism is the most widely dissemithe guardian spirit of an individual, who appeared in the nated form of this belief system. It typically includes one
form of an animalan idea that the Ojibwa clans did in- or more of several features, such as the mystic associadeed portray by their wearing of animal skins. It was tion of animal and plant species, natural phenomena, or
reported at the end of the 18th century that the Ojibwa created objects with unilineally related groups (lineages,
named their clans after those animals that live in the area clans, tribes, moieties, phratries) or with local groups and
in which they live and appear to be either friendly or fear- families; the hereditary transmission of the totems (patriful. The rst accurate report about totemism in North lineal or matrilineal); group and personal names that are
America was written by a Methodist missionary, Peter based either directly or indirectly on the totem; the use
Jones, himself an Ojibwa, who died in 1856 and whose of totemistic emblems and symbols; taboos and prohibireport was published posthumously. According to Jones, tions that may apply to the species itself or can be limthe Great Spirit had given toodaims (totems) to the ited to parts of animals and plants (partial taboos instead
Ojibwa clans, and because of this act, members of the of partial totems); and a connection with a large number
group are related to one another and on this account may of animals and natural objects (multiplex totems) within
not marry among themselves.
which a distinction can be made between principal totems
and subsidiary ones (linked totems).

Group totems are generally associated or coordinated on

the basis of analogies or on the basis of myth or ritual. Just why particular animals or natural thingswhich
sometimes possess no economic value for the communities concernedwere originally selected as totems is often based on eventful and decisive moments in a peoples
past. Folk traditions regarding the nature of totems and
the origin of the societies in question are informative, especially with regard to the groups cultural presuppositions. For example, a group that holds that it is derived
directly or indirectly from a given totem may have a tradition in which its progenitor was an animal or plant that
could also appear as a human being. In such belief systems, groups of people and species of animals and plants
can thus have progenitors in common. In other cases,
there are traditions that the human progenitor of a kin
group had certain favourable or unfavourable experiences
with an animal or natural object and then ordered that his
descendants respect the whole species of that animal.

The nature of totemism

Totemism is a complex of varied ideas and ways of

behaviour based on a worldview drawn from nature.
There are ideological, mystical, emotional, reverential,
and genealogical relationships of social groups or specic persons with animals or natural objects, the so-called
totems.

It is necessary to dierentiate between group and individual totemism. These forms share some basic characteristics, but they occur with dierent emphases and in
dierent specic forms. For instance, people generally
view the totem as a companion, relative, protector, progenitor, or helper, ascribe to it superhuman powers and
abilities, and oer it some combination of respect, veneration, awe, and fear. Most cultures use special names and
emblems to refer to the totem, and those it sponsors engage in partial identication with the totem or symbolic
assimilation to it. There is usually a prohibition or taboo Group totemism was traditionally common among peoagainst killing, eating, or touching the totem.
ples in Africa, India, Oceania (especially in Melanesia),
1

2
North America, and parts of South America. These
peoples include, among others, the Australian Aborigines, the African Pygmies, Lobedu Sothos and Yorubas
(the Leopard totem of the Akure clan of Yorubas serving as an example), and the various Native American
peoplesmost notably the Northwest Coast Indians (predominantly shermen), California Indians, and Northeast
Indians. Moreover, group totemism is represented in a
distinctive form among the Ugrians and west Siberians
(hunters and shermen who also breed reindeer) as well
as among tribes of herdsmen in north and Central Asia.

2 SOME EXAMPLES OF TOTEMISM

are passed on patrilineally. Such an individual totem is
named bala, spirit companion, or jarawaijewa, the
meat (totem) that is within him. There is a strict prohibition against eating the totem. Breach of the taboo carries
with it sickness or death. It is said: To eat your jarawaijewa is the same as if you were to eat your very own esh
or that of your father.

The medicine man identies himself with his personal

totem. Every oense or injury against the totem has its
automatic eect upon the man who commits it. It is a
duty of the totem to guard the ritualist and the medicine
man while he is asleep. In the case of danger or the arrival of strangers, the animal goes back into the body of
1.2 Individual totemism
the medicine man and informs him. After the death of
the medicine man, the animal stands watch as a bright
Individual totemism is expressed in an intimate relationickering light near the grave. The individual totem is
ship of friendship and protection between a person and a
also a helper of the medicine man. The medicine man
particular animal or a natural object (sometimes between
emits the totem in his sleep or in a trance so that it can
a person and a species of animal); the natural object can
collect information for him.
grant special power to its owner. Frequently connected
with individual totemism are denite ideas about the hu- In this tradition, sorcery may also be practiced by the
man soul (or souls) and conceptions derived from them, medicine man. By singing, for instance, the medicine
such as the idea of an alter ego and nagualismfrom the man can send out his totem to kill an enemy; the totem enSpanish form of the Aztec word naualli, something hid- ters the chest of the enemy and devours his viscera. The
den or veiledwhich means that a kind of simultaneous transmission of the individual totem to novices is done
existence is assumed between an animal or a natural ob- through the father or the grandfather, who, of course,
ject and a person; i.e., a mutual, close bond of life and fate himself is also a medicine man. While the candidate lies
exists in such a way that in case of the injury, sickness, or on his back, the totem is sung into him. The blood
death of one partner, the same fate would befall the other relative who is transmitting the totem takes a small anmember of the relationship. Consequently, such totems imal and places it on the chest of the youngster. During
became most strongly tabooed; above all, they were con- the singing, the animal supposedly sinks slowly into his
nected with family or group leaders, chiefs, medicine body and nally disappears into it. The candidate is then
instructed on how he has to treat the animal that is his
men, shamans, and other socially signicant persons.
comrade, and he is further instructed in song and the ritStudies of shamanism indicate that individual totemism
ual concentration that is necessary to dispatch the totem
may have predated group totemism, as a groups protecfrom his body.
tive spirits were sometimes derived from the totems of
specic individuals. To some extent, there also exists a
tendency to pass on an individual totem as hereditary or
to make taboo the entire species of animal to which the
individual totem belongs.
Individual totemism is widely disseminated. It is found
not only among tribes of hunters and harvesters but also 2.2 Nor-Papua
among farmers and herdsmen. Individual totemism is
especially emphasized among the Australian Aborigines
Among the Nor-Papua of New Guinea, patrilineal,
and the American Indians.
exogamous groups (consanguineous sibs) are spread over
several villages and are associated with animals, especially sh. They believe that they are born from totems,
2 Some examples of totemism
and they make them taboo. Children are given an opportunity to decide during their initiation whether they
2.1 Wiradjuri
will respect the paternal or maternal totem. Each group
of relatives has a holy place to which the totem animal
Among the Wiradjuri, an Aboriginal people who tra- brings the souls of the dead and from which the souls of
ditionally lived in New South Wales, Australia, totem children are also believed to come. Totem animals are
clans are divided among two subgroups and correspond- represented in various manifestations: as spirit creatures
ing matrilineal moieties. The group totem, named esh, in sacred utes, in disguises, and in gures preserved in
is transmitted from the mother. In contrast to this, in- each mans house. At the end of initiation ceremonies,
dividual totems belong only to the medicine men and the totems are mimicked by the members of the group.

2.5

2.3

Kpelle

Iban

Among the Iban of Sarawak, Malaysia, individual

totemism has been the tradition. Particular persons
dream of a spirit of an ancestor or a dead relative; this
spirit appears in a human form, presents himself as a
helper and protector, and names an animal (or sometimes
an object) in which he is manifested. The Iban then observe the mannerisms of animals and recognize in the behaviour of the animals the embodiment of their protector
spirit (ngarong).

3
diagram with four sections is drawn on the ground with
rice our. In one of these, the elder sits while gazing in
the direction of the ancestral hill. The emblem of the
particular totem is placed in one of the other sections of
the diagram; depending on the circumstances, this emblem could be a ower, a piece of horn or skin, a wing,
or a twig. This emblem represents the clan as a whole. If
an animal is needed for such a ceremony, it is provided
by the members of another clan who do not hold it as a
totem. The Birhor show great fear of the spirits of the
ancestral hill and avoid these places as far as possible.

Sometimes, members of the tribe also carry with them a

part of such an animal. Not only this particular animal,
but the whole species, is given due respect. Meals and 2.5 Kpelle
blood oerings are also presented to the spirit animal.
Among the Kpelle people of Liberia there is not only
Young men who wish to obtain such a protector spirit for group totemism but also individual totemism. Both kinds
themselves sleep on the graves of prominent persons or of totems are referred to variously as thing of possesseek out solitude and fast so that they may dream of a sion, thing of birth, or thing of the back of men.
helper spirit. Actually, only a few persons can name such These phrases express the idea that the totem always acanimals as their very own. Individuals with protector spir- companies, belongs to, and stands behind one as a guide
its have also attempted to require from their descendants and warner of dangers. The totem also punishes the
the respect and the taboo given the animal representing breach of any taboo.
the spirit. As a rule, such descendants do not expect special help from the protector spirit, but they observe the Kpelle totems include animals, plants, and natural phenomena. The kin groups that live in several villages were
totemistic regulations anyway.
matrilineal at an earlier time, but during the 20th century
they began to exhibit patrilineal tendencies. The group
totems, especially the animal totems, are considered as
2.4 Birhor
the residence of the ancestors; they are respected and are
The Birhor, a people that were traditionally residents given oerings. Moreover, a great role is played by inof the jungle of Chota Nagpur Plateau in the northeast dividual totems that, in addition to being taboo, are also
Deccan (India), are organized into patrilineal, exogamous given oerings. Personal totems that are animals can be
totem groups. According to one imperfect list of 37 clans, transmitted from father to son or from mother to daugh12 are based on animals, 10 on plants, 8 on Hindu castes ter; on the other hand, individual plant totems are asand localities, and the rest on objects. The totems are signed at birth or later.
passed on within the group, and tales about the tribes ori- The totem also communicates magical powers. It is even
gins suggest that each totem had a fortuitous connection believed possible to alter ones own totem animal; furwith the birth of the ancestor of the clan.
ther, it is considered an alter ego. Persons with the same
The Birhor think that there is a temperamental or physical similarity between the members of the clan and their
totems. Prohibitions or taboos are sometimes cultivated
to an extreme degree. In regard to eating, killing, or destroying them, the clan totems are regarded as if they were
human members of the group. Moreover, it is believed
that an oense against the totems through a breach of
taboo will produce a corresponding decrease in the size
of the clan. If a person comes upon a dead totem animal,
he must smear his forehead with oil or a red dye, but he
must not actually mourn over the animal; he also does not
bury it.

individual totem prefer to be united in communities. The

well-known leopard confederation, a secret association,
seems to have grown out of such desires. Entirely different groups produce patrilineal taboo communities that
are supposedly related by blood; they comprise persons
of several tribes. The animals, plants, and actions made
taboo by these groups are not considered as totems. In a
certain respect, the individual totems in this community
seem to be the basis of group totemism.

3 A short history of totemistic the-

The close and vital relationship between the totem and the
ory
clan is shown in a denite ceremony: the yearly oering
to the chief spirit of the ancestral hill. Each Birhor community has a tradition of an old settlement that is thought 3.1 McLennan to Thurnwald
to be located on a hill in the area. Once a year, the men
of each clan come together at an open place. The elder of There are a number of theories or hypotheses concerning
the clan functions as the priest who gives the oering. A totemism. Many of them are marked by methodologi-

4
cal deciencies, preconceived ideas, and a prejudiced selection of source documents; nevertheless, some of these
theories contain points of view that deserve consideration.
The rst theory was proposed by the Scottish ethnologist
John Ferguson McLennan. Following the vogue of 19thcentury research, he wanted to comprehend totemism in
a broad perspective, and in his study The Worship of Animals and Plants (1869, 1870)[1][2] he did not seek to explain the specic origin of the totemistic phenomenon but
sought to indicate that all of the human race had in ancient
times gone through a totemistic stage.
In 1899 McLennans theories were criticized by Sir Edward Burnett Tylor, an English anthropologist who rejected the confusion of totemism with mere worship of
animals and plants. Tylor claimed to nd in totemism
the tendency of the human spirit to classify the world and
its things. He thus viewed totemism as a relationship between one type of animal and a clan. But he was opposed
to the idea of seeing totems as the basis of religion.
Another Scottish scholar, Andrew Lang, early in the 20th
century advocated a nominalistic meaning for totemism,
namely that local groups, clans, or phratries, in selecting
totem names from the realm of nature, were reacting to a
need to be dierentiated.[3] If the origin of the names was
forgotten, there followed a mystical relationship between
the objectsfrom which the names were once derived
and the groups that bore these names. Lang wanted to
explain the relationship through nature myths according
to which animals and natural objects were considered as
the relatives, patrons, or ancestors of the respective social units. He felt that thoughts by the tribes on these
matters led eventually to taboos, and that group exogamy
rst originated in the formation of totemistic associations.
The rst comprehensive work on totemism was Totemism
and Exogamy, published in 1910 in four volumes by the
British anthropologist Sir James George Frazer.[4] It presented a meritorious compilation of the worldwide data
then available on the subject.
Basing his view on research done among indigenous peoples in Australia and Melanesia, Frazer saw the origin of
totemism as an interpretation of the conception and birth
of children, a belief he called conceptionalism. According to Frazer, conceptualist cultures explain that women
become impregnated when a spirit of an animal or a spiritual fruit enters into their wombs. As children therefore participate in the nature of the animal or plant, these
plants or animals take on signicance. Frazer thought
that conceptualist explanations of conception resulted in
the beginning of totem clans derived from a particular
natural creature.

A SHORT HISTORY OF TOTEMISTIC THEORY

totemism three phenomena that could exist singly and actually coincided only in the rarest of cases. These phenomena were: (1) clan organization, (2) clans taking animal or plant names or having emblems obtained from
nature, and (3) belief in a relationship between groups
and their totems. Goldenweiser did not perceive these
phenomena as a unity, since any of them could exist apart
from the others.
In another treatise published in 1910, a German ethnologist, Richard Thurnwald, claimed to recognize in
totemism the expression of a specic way of thinking
among nonindustrial societies. He felt that such groups
judge the natural environment according to its external
appearance without analyzing it any closer and assume
that there are sympathetic connections and combinations
of natural things; from these ideas come lasting rules of
behaviour such as taboos, respect, and social relationships. For the psychology of totemism, Thurnwald later
(191718) put forth a detailed, systematic presentation;
by means of concrete examples, he also raised questions
about the connections of totemism with ancestor worship,
notions of souls, and beliefs in power, magic, oerings,
and oracles.

3.2 Durkheim to Radclie-Brown

The founder of a French school of sociology, mile
Durkheim, examined totemism from a sociological and
theological point of view.[6] Durkheim hoped to discover a pure religion in very ancient forms and generally claimed to see the origin of religion in totemism.
For Durkheim, the sphere of the sacred is a reection
of the emotions that underlie social activities, and the
totem was, in this view, a reection of the group (or clan)
consciousness, based on the conception of an impersonal
power. The totemistic principle was then the clan itself,
and it was permeated with sanctity. Durkheim held that
such a religion reects the collective consciousness that is
manifested through the identication of the individuals of
the group with an animal or plant species; it is expressed
outwardly in taboos, symbols, and rituals that are based
on this identication.

In further contributions, Goldenweiser in 191516 and

1918 criticized Lang, Frazer, and Durkheim and insisted
that totemism had nothing to do with religion; he held instead that man in no way viewed his totem as superior to
himself or as a deied being but viewed it as his friend and
equal. Goldenweiser also rejected Frazers thesis of conceptionalism as an explanation of totemism. On the other
hand, Goldenweiser was of the opinion that all totemistic
manifestations do have at least something of a kind of
A Russian American ethnologist, Alexander Gold- religion, but he was not inclined to include the guardian
enweiser, subjected totemistic phenomena to sharp spirit conception within totemism.
criticism.[5] His critique had lasting importance, espe- In 1916 an American ethnologist, Franz Boas, suggested
cially in the United States, where it engendered a skep- that totemism exhibited no single psychological or histical attitude concerning totemism. Goldenweiser saw in torical origin; since totemistic features can be connected

3.2

Durkheim to Radclie-Brown

with individuals and all possible social organizations, and

they appear in dierent cultural contexts, it would be impossible to t totemistic phenomena into a single category. Boas was against systematizing and thought it
senseless to ask questions about the origins of totemism.
The rst theoretician of the Vienna school of ethnology,
Fritz Graebner, attempted to explain the forms of both
individual totemism and group totemism and designated
them as a moderately creedal or semireligious complex
of ideas according to which individual members or subgroups of a society are thought to be in an especially close
(but not cultic) relationship to natural objects. According
to Graebner, one can use the cultural-historical method to
establish the extent to which totemistic forms belong to
one denite cultural complex; which forms of totemism
are older or younger"; and the extent to which forms
belong together in an antecedent-decedent relationship.
Graebner tried to work out a totem complex (a culture
circle"; see kulturkreis) for the South Seas. This complex
entailed a patrilineal group totemism as well as the material, economic, and religious elements that, in his opinion,
appear to be combined with the totemism in that area.
Another member of the same school, Bernhard Ankermann, in 191516 championed the view that all
totemisms, regardless of where they are found, contained
a common kernel around which new characteristics are
built. As seen from the standpoint of what was found
in Africa, this kernel appeared to him to be the belief
in a specic relationship between social groups and natural thingsin a feeling of unity between botha relationship he believed to be spread throughout the world,
even if only in a modied or diminished form. From
Ankermanns perspective, magical and animalistic ideas
and rites are merged with totemism in a strong inseparable unity.
The genesis of this type of relationship presupposes a
state of mind that makes no distinction between man and
beast. Although magic can be closely connected with
totemism, the feeling of unity between man and beast has
nothing to do with magic, which was connected with it
only later. According to Ankermann, the totems are not
something perilous, something to be shunned, but on the
contrary are something friendlya totem is thought to
be like a brother and is to be treated as such. Further,
the totemistic taboo occurs because the totem is a relative. Ankermann was inclined to see the formation of
totemism in an emotional animal-man relationship: early
hunters, he thought, might have imitated those animals
that attracted their attention most of all. Ankermann
further explained that primitive man identies himself
with the animal while he is imitating it, and that the habit
of so doing could lead to a continuing identication expressed as totemism.

5
or kulturkreis (today long abandoned); because totemism
was disseminated throughout the world, he thought of it
as a single cultural complex in spite of local dierences.
He maintained that the dierences in totemism explored
by earlier theories are exaggerations and could, moreover,
be due to the lack of particular elements of totemism, to
the loss of certain forms of totemism, to incursions from
the outside, or to dierent stages of the development of
totemism, none of which would exclude a unied origin
for all of totemism. Schmidt believed that the culturalhistorical school of ethnology had produced proof that
an older, genuine totemism had been an integral part of a
culture located in a denite area and that it was organically connected with denite forms of technology, economy, art, and worldview. From this supposedly pure
form of totemism, Schmidt wanted to separate derived
forms, such as individual totemism. Moreover, though
he did not designate totemism as a religion, he saw that
it did have some sort of religious meaning. In opposition to Ankermann, Schmidt regarded a more recent, or
higher, form of hunting as the economic basis for the
totemistic culture circle.
The leading representative of British social anthropology,
A. R. Radclie-Brown, took a totally dierent view of
totemism[7] Like Boas, he was skeptical that totemism
could be described in any unied way. In this he opposed the other pioneer of social anthropology in England, Bronisaw Malinowski, who wanted to conrm the
unity of totemism in some way and approached the matter more from a biological and psychological point of
view than from an ethnological one. According to Malinowski, totemism was not a cultural phenomenon, but
rather the result of trying to satisfy basic human needs
within the natural world. As far as Radclie-Brown
was concerned, totemism was composed of elements that
were taken from dierent areas and institutions, and what
they have in common is a general tendency to characterize
segments of the community through a connection with a
portion of nature. In opposition to Durkheims theory of
sacralization, Radclie-Brown took the point of view that
nature is introduced into the social order rather than secondary to it. At rst, he shared with Malinowski the opinion that an animal becomes totemistic when it is good to
eat. He later came to oppose the usefulness of this viewpoint, since many totemssuch as crocodiles and ies
are dangerous and unpleasant.

In 1952, when Radclie-Brown rethought the problem,

he found that the similarities and dierences between
species of animals are to a certain degree translated into
ideas of friendship and conict, or close relationships and
opposition among people. The structural principle that
Radclie-Brown believed he had discovered at the end
of this study is based on the fusion of the two contrary
ideas of friendship and animosity. In this view, totemism
In 191516 Wilhelm Schmidt, then the leader of the speaks in its own way of interrelationships and antitheses,
Vienna School of Ethnology, viewed totemism strictly ideas that are also found in moieties. Thinking in terms
according to the then-popular schemes of culture circles of opposing things is, according to Radclie-Brown, an

essential structural principle for evaluating totemism.

3.3

Lvi-Strauss

The most incisive critique of totemistic phenomena,

one that denied the reality of totemism, was supplied by the French ethnologist Claude Lvi-Strauss in
Le Totmisme aujourd'hui[8] As a chief representative of
modern structuralism, Lvi-Strauss was especially stimulated by Radclie-Brown, whose views he attempted
to further expand. Lvi-Strauss believed that he was to
approach the apparent, acknowledged diculties in the
study of totemism from the viewpoint of a study of structure. In order to study the structure of totemism, LviStrauss devised a scheme to illustrate the abstract polarities that he saw in totemism as a phenomenon in human
culture.
His scheme was implemented in a table of oppositions
or polarities, or mutual relationships. The basic opposition, or relationship, was between nature and culture. On
the one hand, there were in nature certain realities such as
species of animals or plants and specic animals or plants.
On the other hand, there were in culture various groups
and individuals who identied themselves with particular
species or with specic animals or plants. Lvi-Strauss
distinguished four kinds of relationship between nature
and culture within totemism: (1) a species of animal or
plant identied with a particular group, (2) a species of
animal or plant identied with an individual, (3) a particular animal or plant identied with an individual, and (4)
a particular animal or plant identied with a group.
According to Lvi-Strauss, each of these four combinations corresponds to the phenomena that are to be observed in one people or another. The rst holds good,
for example, for the Australians, for whom natural things
are associated with cultural groups (moieties, sections,
subsections, phratries, clans, or the association of persons from the same sex). As an example of the second
combination, there is the individual totemism of North
American Indians, in which a person is correlated with
a species of nature. For the third type of combination,
the Mota people of the Banks Islands of Melanesia are
cited: the individual child is thought of as the incarnation
of a particular animal, plant, or natural creature that was
found and consumed by the mother at the time that she
was conscious of her pregnancy. For the fourth type of
correlation, Lvi-Strauss cited examples from Polynesia
and Africa where denite individual animals formed the
object of group patronage and veneration.
Lvi-Strauss also critiqued the ndings of A. P. Elkin,
a specialist on Australia, where totemism had already
played a special role in the formation of anthropological and sociological theories and where it exhibits an
abundance of forms.[9] Elkin had also dierentiated
four forms: individual totemism; social totemismi.e.,
totemism that is in a family, moiety, section, subsec-

A SHORT HISTORY OF TOTEMISTIC THEORY

tion, patrilineal clan, or matrilineal clan; cultic totemism,

with a religious content that is patrilineal and conceptional in form; and dream totemismtotemistic content in dreamsfound in social or individual totemism.
Elkin denied the unity of totemism, but (according to
Lvi-Strauss) wanted to preserve its reality on the condition that he might trace it back to a multiplicity of types.
For Elkin, there is no longer one totemism but many
totemisms, each in itself a single irreducible whole.
In connection with the Australian material, Lvi-Strauss
argued that matrilineal clan totemismwhich was passed
on through the esh or bloodand patrilineal clan
totemismwhich was based on dreamingwere in no
way heterogeneous but were to be thought of as being mutually complementary. These two types of totemism were
dierent means of connecting the material and spiritual
world; together, they expressed the relationship between
nature and society.
From the Australian data, Lvi-Strauss concluded that
real totemism was based not on the similarities of
the matrilineal and patrilineal types but on their dissimilarities. Such a pattern was clearly expressed in
the basic model of the contrasts of the natural with the
cultural (that were outlined above). Building on the
ideas of Radclie-Brown, Lvi-Strauss claimed to perceive antithetical thinking as a crucial structural principle in totemism and believed that the similarity among
totemistic ideas in various cultures lay in similarities between systems of dierencesthose documented in the
natural sphere and those in the culturally dened social
groups. Lvi-Strauss concluded that the distinction between the classes of man and animal serves as the conceptual basis for social dierences. For Lvi-Strauss,
totemism is therefore an illusion and a logic that
classiesa post hoc explanation in which the structure
of social relations is projected onto the natural phenomena, not taken from it.

3.4 After Lvi-Strauss

During the later 20th century, anthropologists and sociologists became increasingly preoccupied with such issues as the construction of meaning and identity in a
postcolonial world. Given that totemistic belief systems had proved to be relatively durable over the course
of human history, many scholars asked whether it was
useful, as Lvi-Strauss had advocated, to dispose of
totemism as a mere social construct. As a result, investigations of totemism generally declined; those that were
undertaken moved away from treatments of its universality (or lack thereof) and toward studies that considered
totem systems in more specic contexts.

References

[1] MacLennan, J., The worship of animals and plants,

Fortnightly Review, vol. 6-7 (1869-1870)
[2] Patrick Wolfe (22 December 1998). Settler Colonialism.
Continuum International Publishing Group. pp. 111.
ISBN 978-0-304-70340-1. Retrieved 4 December 2012.
[3] Andrew Lang A., Method in the Study of Totemism (1911)
[4] Frazer J., Totemism and Exogamy. A Treatise on Certain
Early Forms of Superstition and Society (1911-1915)
[5] Goldenweiser A., Totemism; An analytical study, 1910
[6] Durkheim E., Totmisme (1910)
[7] Radclie-Brown A., Structure and Function in Primitive
Society, 1952
[8] (Lvi-Strauss C., Le Totmisme aujourd'hui(1958); english trans. as Totemism, by Rodney Needham. Boston:
Beacon Press, 1963
[9] Elkin A., The Australian Aborigines: How to Understand
Them (1938)

Further reading
Claude, Lvi-Strauss Totemism (1963)
Sir James George Frazer Totemism (1887)
Sir James George Frazer Totemism and Exogamy,
Vol. II (in Four Volumes), Volume 2 (2013)
Leach, Edmund The Structural Study of Myth and
Totemism (2013)

6 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

6.1

Text

Totemism Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totemism?oldid=650125397 Contributors: Netesq, Paul Barlow, Cameron Dewe, Ahoerstemeier, BRG, Conti, Charles Matthews, Dcoetzee, Zoicon5, Hyacinth, Shizhao, Bearcat, Node ue, Eequor, Edcolins, Gadum, Axl,
Alex.g, Woohookitty, BD2412, FlaBot, Diderobot, Whimemsz, Tzorge, RobotE, Malcolma, Botteville, OSborn, DonChris, Wolfdog,
Neelix, Wahwahpedal, P64, Belovedfreak, Wisamzaqoot, Editor2020, Addbot, OlEnglish, Jarble, Yobot, AnomieBOT, Adeliine, Hunnjazal, ArthurBot, Xqbot, Shadowjams, Thehelpfulbot, FrescoBot, Dewritech, Ungomma, Paul Bedson, ZroBot, ClueBot NG, Butterscotch57, BG19bot, Aisteco, Beachgum, JYBot, Schrauwers, Epicgenius, Frogger48, Library Guy, Tepehuan and Anonymous: 27

6.2

Images

File:Ambox_important.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/Ambox_important.svg License: Public domain Contributors: Own work, based o of Image:Ambox scales.svg Original artist: Dsmurat (talk contribs)
File:Blunden_harbour_totems_Emily_Carr.jpeg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Blunden_harbour_
totems_Emily_Carr.jpeg License: Public domain Contributors: The Athenaeum: Home - info - pic Original artist: <a href='//en.wikipedia.
org/wiki/Emily_Carr' class='extiw' title='en:Emily Carr'>Emily Carr 1871-1945</a>
File:Edit-clear.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f2/Edit-clear.svg License: Public domain Contributors: The
Tango! Desktop Project. Original artist:
The people from the Tango! project. And according to the meta-data in the le, specically: Andreas Nilsson, and Jakub Steiner (although
minimally).
File:Question_book-new.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/99/Question_book-new.svg License: Cc-by-sa-3.0
Contributors:
Created from scratch in Adobe Illustrator. Based on Image:Question book.png created by User:Equazcion Original artist:
Tkgd2007
File:Wikisource-logo.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg License: CC BY-SA 3.0
Contributors: Rei-artur Original artist: Nicholas Moreau

6.3

Content license

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0