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Systems of Religious and Spiritual
Belief
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Totemism is a system of belief in which
man is believed to have kinship
with a totem or a mystical relationship is said to exist between a group or an
individual and a totem. A totem is an object, such as an animal or plant that
serves as the emblem or symbol of a kinship group or a person. The term totemism
has been used to characterize a cluster of traits in the religion and in the
social organization of many primitive peoples. |
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Totemism is manifested in various forms
and types in different contexts, especially among populations with a mixed
economy (farming and hunting) and among hunting communities (especially in
Australia); it is also found among tribes who breed cattle. Totemism can in no
way be viewed as a general stage in man's cultural development; but totemism has
certainly had an effect on the psychological behaviour of ethnic groups, on the
manner of their socialization, and on the formation of the human personality. |
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The term totem is derived from ototeman
from the language of the Algonkian tribe of the Ojibwa
(in the area of the Great Lakes in eastern North America); it originally meant
"his brother-sister kin." The grammatical root, ote, signifies 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 introduced in 1791 by a British merchant and translator who gave it a
false meaning in the belief that it designated the guardian spirit of an
individual, who appeared in the form of an animal--an idea which the Ojibwa
clans do indeed portray by their wearing of animal skins. It was reported at the
end of the 18th century that the Ojibwa name their clans after those animals
that live in the area in which they live and appear to be either friendly or
fearful. The first accurate report about totemism in North America was written
by a Methodist missionary, Peter Jones, himself an Ojibwa chief, who died in
1856 and whose report was published posthumously. According to Jones, the Great
Spirit had given toodaims ("totems")
to their clans; and because of this act, it should never be forgotten that
members of the group are related to one another and on this account may not
marry among themselves. (see also Algonquian
languages) |
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Generally speaking, totemistic forms are
based on the psychomental habits of the so-called primitives, on a distinctive
"thought style" which is characterized, above all, by an
"anthropopsychic" apprehension of nature and natural beings, for
instance, ascribing to them a soul like man's. Beasts and the things of nature
are again and again thought of as "persons," but mostly as persons
with superhuman qualities. |
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It is advisable to define totemism as
broadly as possible but concretely enough so that some justice can be done to
its many forms. Totemism is, then, a complex of varied ideas and ways of
behaviour based on a world view drawn from nature. There are ideological,
mystical, emotional, reverential, and genealogical relationships of social
groups or specific persons with animals or natural objects, the so-called
totems. It is necessary to differentiate between group and individual totemism.
These forms exhibit common basic characteristics, which occur with different
emphases and not always in a complete form. The general characteristics are
essentially the following: (1) viewing the totem as a companion, relative,
protector, progenitor, or helper--superhuman powers and abilities are ascribed
to totems and totems are not only offered respect or occasional veneration but
also can become objects of awe and fear; (2) use of special names and emblems to
refer to the totem; (3) partial identification with the totem or symbolic
assimilation to it; (4) prohibition against killing, eating, or touching the
totem, even as a rule to shun it; and (5) totemistic rituals. (see also nature worship, taboo) |
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Though it is generally agreed that
totemism is not a religion, in certain cases it can contain religious elements
in varying degrees, just as totemism can appear conjoined with magic. Totemism
is frequently mixed with different kinds of other beliefs--the cult of
ancestors, ideas of the soul, beliefs in powers and the spirits. Such mixtures
make the understanding of particular totemistic forms difficult. The cultic
veneration of definite animals and natural things and powers by all those who
belong to an ethnic unit do not belong to totemism itself. |
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Group (social or collective) totemism is
the most widely disseminated form of totemism. Though the following
characteristics can belong to it, they must not be taken to be part of a whole
system: (1) mystic association of animal and plant species, natural phenomena,
or created objects with unilineally related groups (lineages, clans, tribes,
moieties, phratries) or with local groups and families; (2) hereditary
transmission of the totems (patrilineal or matrilineal); (3) names of groups
that can be based either directly or indirectly on the totem (the same holds
true for personal names used within groups); (4) totemistic emblems, symbols,
and taboo formulas are, as a rule, a concern of the entire group, but they can
also belong to subdivisions of that group. Taboos and prohibitions can apply to
the species itself or they can be limited to parts of animals and plants
(partial taboos instead of partial totems). (5) Totems for groups are sometimes
connected with a large number of animals and natural objects (multiplex totems)
whereby a distinction can be made between principal totems and subsidiary ones
(linked totems). Totems are associated or coordinated on the basis of analogies
or on the basis of myth or ritual. (Just why particular animals or natural
things--which sometimes possess absolutely no recognizable worth for the
communities concerned--were selected as totems is often hard to fathom and may
be based on eventful and decisive moments in a people's past which are no longer
known.) (6) Accounts of the nature of totems and the origin of the societies in
question are informative, even if they are sometimes valuable only as
supplementary rationalizations; they are especially informative with regard to
their presuppositions. If, for example, one group supposes that it is derived
directly or indirectly from the totem, this may be recounted (as a
rationalization) that an animal progenitor was changed into a human being who
then became the founder of the group or that the ancestral lord of the group was
descended from a conjugal union between a man and a representative of the animal
species. Groups of men and species of animals and plants can also 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 had to
respect the whole species of that animal. |
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Group totemism is now found especially
among peoples in Africa, India, Oceania (especially in Melanesia), North
America, and parts of South America who farm rather than simply gather food from
nature. Peoples with hunting and partly harvesting economies who exhibit this
form of totemism include, among others, the Australian
Aborigines (hunters who occupy a special position due to the many forms
of totemism among them), the African Pygmies, and various tribes of North
America--such as those on the northwest coast (predominantly fishermen), in
parts of California, and in northeast North America. Moreover, group totemism is
represented in a distinctive form among the Ugrians and west Siberians (hunters
and fishermen who also breed reindeer) as well as among tribes of herdsmen in
north and Central Asia. |
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Individual totemism is expressed in an
intimate relationship of friendship and protection between a person and a
particular animal or a natural object (sometimes between a person and a species
of animal); the natural object can grant special power to its owner. Frequently
connected with individual totemism are definite ideas about the human soul (or
souls) and conceptions derived from them, such as the idea of an alter ego and
nagualism--from the Spanish form of the Aztec word naualli, "something hidden or veiled"--which means that a
kind of simultaneous existence is assumed between an animal or a natural object
and a person; i.e., a mutual, close
bond of life and fate exist in such a way that in case of the injury, sickness,
or death of one partner, the same fate would befall the other member of the
relationship. Consequently, such totems became most strongly tabooed; above all,
they were connected with family or group leaders, chiefs, medicine men, shamans,
and other socially significant persons. In shamanism,
an earlier trait of individual totemism is often ascertained: the animalistic
protective spirits can sometimes be derived from individual totems. 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. In this can perhaps be seen the beginning of the development of
totems that belong to a group. Many tales about the origins of the group totem
could, perhaps, point in this direction. |
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Individual totemism is widely
disseminated. It is found not only among the tribes of hunters and harvesters
but also among farmers and herdsmen. Individual totemism is especially
emphasized among the Australian Aborigines. |
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(New South Wales, Australia) Totem clans
are divided among two subgroups and corresponding matrilineal moieties. The
group totem, named "flesh," is transmitted from the mother. In
contrast to this, individual totems belong only to the medicine men and 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 flesh or
that of your father." The medicine man identifies himself with his personal
totem. Every offense or injury against the totem has its automatic effect 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 the medicine man and informs
him. After the death of the medicine man, the animal stands watch as a bright
flickering light near the grave. The individual totem is also a helper of the
medicine man. The medicine man emits the totem in his sleep or in a trance so
that it can collect information for him. Finally, black magic (sorcery) is also
practiced by the medicine man; by singing, for instance, the medicine man sends
out his totem. To kill an enemy, the totem enters the chest of the enemy and
devours his viscera. The transmission of the individual totem to novices is done
through the father or the grandfather who, of course, himself is also a medicine
man. While the candidate lies on his back, the totem is "sung into"
him. The blood relative who is transmitting the totem takes a small animal and
places it on the chest of the youngster. During the singing, the animal
supposedly sinks slowly into his body and finally disappears into it. The
candidate is then instructed on how he has to treat the animal that is his
comrade, and he is further instructed in song and the ritual concentration that
is necessary to dispatch the totem from his body. (see also dietary law, passage
rite) |
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( Murik Lakes, west of the mouth of the
Sepik River, north New Guinea) Patrilineal, exogamous groups (consanguineous
sibs) are spread over several villages and are associated with animals,
especially fish. They believe that they are born from totems and they make them
taboo. Children are given an opportunity to decide during their initiation
whether they will respect the paternal or maternal totem. Each group of
relatives has a holy place to which the totem animal brings the souls of the
dead and from which the souls of children are also believed to come. Totem
animals are represented in various manifestations, as spirit creatures in sacred
flutes, in disguises, and in figures preserved in each man's house. At the end
of initiation ceremonies, the totems are mimicked by the members of the group.
(see also initiation
rite) |
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(Sungai Dayak,
Sarawak, Malaysia) Among these peoples, individual totemism is clearly
discernible. 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 (sometimes one of the natural objects) 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).
Sometimes, members of the tribe also carry with them a part of such an animal.
Not only the particular animal, but the whole species of the animal is given due
respect. Meals and blood offerings are also presented to the spirit animal.
Young men, who wish to obtain such a protector spirit for themselves, sleep on
the graves of prominent persons or seek out solitude and fast so that they may
dream of a helper spirit. Actually, only a few persons can name such animals as
their very own. Individuals with protector spirits have also attempted to
require from their descendants the respect and the taboo given the animal
representing the spirit. As a rule, such descendants do not expect special help
from the protector spirit, but they observe the totemistic regulations anyway.
Thus it can be concluded that particular families or groups of relatives of the
Iban represent totem communities. |
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( Munda-speaking hunter and harvester
tribe that resides in the jungle of Chotanagpur Plateau, northeast
Deccan, India) The Birhor are organized into patrilineal, exogamous totem
groups. According to one imperfect list of 37 clans,
12 are based on animals, 10 on plants, eight on Hindu castes and localities, and
the rest on objects. The totems are passed on within the group, but no account
of their origin is available. From tales about the tribe's origins, it appears
that the totem had a fortuitous connection with the birth of the ancestor of the
clan. The Birhor think that there is a temperamental or physical similarity
between the members of the clan and their totems. Prohibitions with regard to
taboo 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 offense 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 it; he also
does not bury it. The close and vital relationship between the totem and the
clan is shown in a definite ceremony: the yearly offering to the chief spirit of
the ancestral hill. Each Birhor has a tradition of an old settlement--thought 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 the clan functions as the priest who
gives the offering. A diagram with four sections is drawn on the ground with
rice flour. 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
places of the diagram; depending on the circumstances, this emblem could be a
flower, 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. (see also social structure) |
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( Liberia, West Africa) In this society,
there is not only group totemism but individual totemism as well. Both
categories have the same designations, namely, "thing of possession,"
"thing of birth," "thing of the back of men." These phrases
express the idea that the totem always accompanies man, belongs to him, and
stands behind him as a guide and warner of dangers. The totem also punishes the
breach of any taboo. The totems are animals, plants, and natural phenomena. The
kin groups that live in several villages were matrilineal at an earlier time,
but they are beginning to exhibit patrilineal tendencies. The group totems,
especially the animal totems, are considered as the residence of the ancestors;
they are respected and are given offerings. Moreover, a great role is played by
individual totems that, in addition to being taboo, are also given offerings.
Animal personal totems can be transmitted from father to son or from mother to
daughter; on the other hand, individual plant totems are assigned at birth
(plants of a tree of life for the child) or later. The totem also communicates
magical powers. It is even believed possible to alter one's own totem animal;
further, it is considered an alter ego. Persons with the same 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 which 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. |
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There are a number of theories or
hypotheses concerning totemism. Many of them are marked by methodological
deficiencies, preconceived ideas, and a prejudiced selection of source
documents; nevertheless, some of these theories contain points of view that
deserve consideration. |
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The first theory was proposed by the
Scottish ethnologist John Ferguson
McLennan. Following the vogue of 19th-century research, he wanted to
comprehend totemism in a broad perspective, and in his study "The Worship
of Animals and Plants" (1869, 1870) he did not seek to explain the specific
origin of the totemistic phenomenon but sought to indicate that all of the human
race had in ancient times gone through a totemistic stage. |
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In 1899 McLennan's theories were
criticized by E.B. Tylor, an
English anthropologist who rejected the confusion of totemism with mere worship
of animals and plants. Tylor claimed to find 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. |
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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 differentiated. If the
origin of the names was forgotten, there followed a mystical relationship
between the objects--from 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. Thoughts by the tribes on
these matters led eventually to taboos. Group exogamy first originated in the
formation of totemistic associations. |
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The first comprehensive work on totemism
was Totemism and Exogamy, published in
1910 in four volumes by the British anthropologist Sir
James George Frazer. It presented a meritorious compilation of the then
known worldwide data on the subject. |
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Basing his view on research done among
primitives in Australia and Melanesia, Frazer saw the origin of totemism as one
possibility in the primitive interpretation of the conception and birth of
children ("conceptionalism"). According to this primitive idea, women
become impregnated when a spirit of an animal or a spiritual fruit enters into
their wombs. Since the children therefore participate in the nature of the
animal or plant, these plants or animals take on significance. These ideas were
hereditary and resulted in the beginning of totem clans derived from a
particular natural creature. |
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A Russian-American ethnologist, Alexander
Goldenweiser, subjected totemistic phenomena to sharp criticism. This
critical work had lasting importance, especially in the United States, where it
engendered a skeptical attitude concerning totemism. Goldenweiser saw in
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. |
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In another treatise published in 1910, a
German ethnologist, Richard Thurnwald,
claimed to recognize in totemism the expression of a specific way of thinking
among the primitives. Primitives 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 (like taboos, respect, and social
relationships). For the psychology of totemism, Thurnwald later (1917-18) 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, belief in power, magic, offerings, and oracles. |
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The founder of a French school of
sociology, Émile Durkheim, in a general work concerning the elementary
forms of religion (1912), also examined totemism from a sociological and
theological point of view. 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 reflection of the emotions that
underlie social activities, and the totem was, in this view, a reflection 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. Such a religion reflects the collective consciousness that is
manifested through the identification 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 identification. (see also sacred and profane) |
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In further contributions, Goldenweiser
in 1915-16 and 1918 criticized Lang, Frazer, and Durkheim and insisted that
totemism had nothing to do with religion; that man in no way viewed his totem as
superior to himself or as a deified being but viewed it as his friend and equal.
Goldenweiser also rejected Frazer's 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 religion,
but he was not inclined to include the guardian spirit conception within
totemism. |
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In 1916, an American ethnologist, Franz
Boas, posited a theory of totemism as an "artificial" unity,
existing only in the thinking of ethnologists.
For Boas, totemism exhibited no single psychological or historical origin; since
totemistic features can be connected with individuals and all possible social
organizations, and they appear in different cultural contexts, it would be
impossible to fit totemistic phenomena into a single category. Boas was against
systematizing and thought it senseless to ask questions about the origins of
totemism. (see also social
structure) |
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The first 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, with the help of the cultural-historical method, one can
establish (1) the extent to which totemistic forms belong to one definite
cultural complex, (2) which forms are "older" or "younger,"
and (3) the extent to which forms belong together genetically. Graebner tried to
work out a "totemistic" complex (a "culture circle") 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. |
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Another member of the same school,
Bernhard Ankermann, in 1915-16 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 specific relationship
between social groups and natural things--in a feeling of unity between both--a
relationship he believed to be spread throughout the world, even if only in a
modified or diminished form. 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, totems are something friendly; and since this is directly due
to kinship, a totem is thought to be like a brother and is to be treated as
such. The totemistic taboo is
believed to be due to the fact that the totem is a relative. Ankermann was
inclined to see the formation of totemism in a "lower" form of
hunting, in an emotional animal-man relationship, in animalistic behaviour. Men
of early times, he thought, might have imitated those animals that attracted
their attention most of all. According to Ankermann, pretension and reality,
however, for the "primitives" are blurred into one thing. Primitive
man identifies himself with the animal while he is imitating it; the habit of so
doing could lead to a continuing identification. Early man imitated all animals
that interested him, but he imitated those that shared his place of habitation
above all. |
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In 1915-16 Wilhelm
Schmidt, then the leader of the Vienna school of Ethnology, viewed
totemism strictly according to the then-existing schemes of culture circles
(today long abandoned); because totemism was disseminated throughout the world,
he thought of it as a closed cultural complex in spite of local differences. He
maintained that the differences in totemism shown 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 different stages of the development of totemism, none of which
would exclude a unified origin for all of totemism. Schmidt believed that the
cultural-historical school of ethnology had produced proof that the older,
genuine totemism occurred as an integral part of a culture located in a definite
area and that it was "organically" connected with definite forms of
technology, economy, art, and world view. From a "pure" totemism,
Schmidt wanted to separate similar forms, such as sex and individual totemism.
Moreover, though he did not designate totemism as a religion, he saw that it did
have some sort of religious meaning. Schmidt (in opposition to Ankermann) wanted
to regard the higher form of hunting as the economic basis for the totemistic
"culture circle." |
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The leading representative of British
social anthropology, A.R.
Radcliffe-Brown, took a totally different view on the totemistic problem.
Like Boas, he was skeptical of the reality of totemism. In this he opposed the
other pioneer of social anthropology in England, Bronislaw
Malinowski, who wanted to admit the reality of totemism in some way and
looked at it more from a biological and psychological point of view than from an
ethnological one. According to Malinowski, totemism was not a cultural
phenomenon but was the result of trying to satisfy basic human needs within the
natural world. As far as Radcliffe-Brown was concerned, totemism was composed of
elements that were taken from different 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 Durkheim's
theory of sacralization, Radcliffe-Brown took the point of view that nature is
introduced into the social order rather than secondary to it. At first, 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 totems--such as crocodiles and flies--are dangerous and
unpleasant. |
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In 1952, when Radcliffe-Brown rethought
the problem, he found that the similarities and differences between species of
animals are to a certain degree translated into ideas of friendship and
conflict, or close relationships and opposition among people. The natural world
is represented in the form of social relationships to the extent that these
social relationships become valid in primitive societies. The structural
principle which Radcliffe-Brown believed he had discovered at the end of his
comparative study is based on the fusion of the two contrary ideas of friendship
and animosity. Thus totemism speaks in its own way of interrelationships and
antitheses, ideas that are also found in moieties. So totemism is formulated as
a general problem in which the contrasts in nature serve to create an integral
whole. Thinking in terms of opposing things is, according to Radcliffe-Brown, an
essential structural principle for evaluating totemism. |
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The most incisive critique of totemistic
phenomena, one that denied the reality of totemism, was supplied by the French
ethnologist Claude Lévi-Strauss
in Le Totémisme aujourd'hui (English
translation, Totemism, 1963). As a
chief representative of modern structuralism,
Lévi-Strauss was especially stimulated by Radcliffe-Brown, whose views he
further attempted to expand. Lévi-Strauss believed that he was to
approach the apparent, acknowledged difficulties in the study of totemism from
the viewpoint of a study of structure. In order to study the structure of
totemism, Lévi-Strauss devised a scheme to illustrate the abstract
polarities that he saw in totemism as a phenomenon in human culture. This 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 natural realities such as
species of animals or plants and specific animals or plants. On the other hand,
there were in culture various groups and individuals who identified themselves
with particular species or with specific animals or plants. Lévi-Strauss
distinguished four kinds of opposition, or relationship, between nature and
culture within totemism: (1) a species of animal or plant identified with a
particular group, (2) a species of animal or plant identified with an
individual, (3) a particular animal or plant identified with an individual, and
(4) a particular animal or plant identified with a group. |
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According to Lévi-Strauss, each
of these four combinations corresponds to the phenomena that are to be observed
in one people or another. The first antithesis 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, Mota in
the Banks Islands of Melanesia is 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, Lévi-Strauss cited
examples from Polynesia and Africa where definite individual animals formed the
object of group patronage and veneration. |
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Lévi-Strauss also critiqued the
findings of A.P. Elkin, a specialist on Australia, where totemism had already
played a special role in the formation of theories and where it exhibits an
abundance of forms for expressing totemism. Elkin had differentiated the
following forms: (1) individual totemism; (2) social totemism--i.e., totemism that is in a family, moiety, section, subsection,
patrilineal clan, or matrilineal clan; (3) cultic totemism with a religious
content that is patrilineal and "conceptional" in form; (4) dream
totemism--totemistic content in dreams--found in social or individual totemism.
Elkin denied the unity of totemism, but (according to Lévi-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. |
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In connection with the Australian
material, Lévi-Strauss argued that matrilineal clan totemism--that passed
on the "flesh" or "blood"--and the patrilineal clan
totemism--based on dreaming--were in no way heterogeneous but were to be thought
of as being mutually complementary. They were different means of connecting the
material and spiritual world; they were two different, but correlative, types
that express the relationship between nature and society. |
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Lévi-Strauss concluded that not
the similarities but the dissimilarities correspond to the so-called totemism.
Such a pattern was clearly expressed in the basic model of the contrasts of the
natural with the cultural (that were outlined above). Depending on the ideas of
Radcliffe-Brown, Lévi-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 both
systems of differences--those documented in the natural sphere and those in the
culturally defined social groups. Lévi-Strauss concluded that the
distinction between the classes of man and animal serves as the conceptual basis
for social differences. For Lévi-Strauss, totemism is therefore an
"illusion" reduced to a form of thinking, and this so-called totemism
is connected with understanding the demands that it answers as well as the way
in which it seeks to satisfy those demands. Since it is a "logic that
classifies," totemism in this sense has nothing of the archaic itself. Its
picture is projected onto the material (the natural phenomena), not taken from
it. It does not take its substance from without. |
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From the publications of Lévi-Strauss
and the contributions of his predecessors, it is obvious that difficulties stand
in the way of an adequate interpretation of the intricate profusion of
totemistic phenomena. But it seems fair to many authorities to ask whether it is
possible to dispose of totemism simply as an illusion, whether the very abstract
structural interpretation of the facts is actually legitimate. To those who
question the position, it seems clear that even though all totemistic forms of
expression can hardly be seen under one common denominator, reality cannot be
totally denied to totemism. A specific relationship between man and nature, one
that serves as a basic scheme of classification, seems to be at the basis of all
the various forms of totemism. Indeed, this can be regarded as the prevailing
characteristic of totemism in the form in which it manifests itself. A special
problem, however, must be taken into consideration: since totemism can be
connected with different ideas and practices, of religious, magical, or
ideological natures, it is difficult to decide what is "totemistic"
and what is "nontotemistic." (Jo.H.) |
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