Totemism

TOTEMISM. The term "totemism" is used for a feature of the religion and social organization of widespread occurrence amongst primitive peoples. The name totem is derived from an Ojibway word, but has now been generalized by anthropologists to describe an institution, the Ojibway form of which is not typical. Unfortunately, many writers have used the term totem ism very loosely for any beliefs and practices dependent upon some supposed connection between animals and persons. The term should be restricted to those cases where a systematic asso ciation of groups of persons with species of animals (occasion ally plants or inanimate objects) is connected with a certain element of social organization. In the widest use of the term, we may speak of totemism if : (I) the tribe said to be totemic consists of a number of groups (totem groups) comprising the whole tribe, each of which groups has a certain relationship to a species (totem), animate or inanimate; (2) the relation between each group and species is of the same general kind for each group ; and (3) a member of one of these totemic groups cannot (except under special circumstances) change his membership.

By this definition one essential peculiarity of totemism is the association of groups of persons with groups of animals or objects, not of individual persons with individual animals, a common enough phenomenon, which, however, `it is desirable not to include under totemism. Another peculiarity is the division of the tribe into several totemic groups, so that, while every member of the tribe has a totem, persons living in the same locality may yet differ as to their totems. As to the determination of the membership of the totem-group, i.e., the social side of totemism and the nature of the relationship between totem group and totem, i.e., the religious side of totemism, one kind of totem-group is commoner than any other, viz., the clan, an exogamous group (i.e., a group within which marriage is for bidden), determined by descent, either through the father (pat rilineal descent), or through the mother (matrilineal descent).

The

clan (q.v.), is a group of great importance in primitive society, for it determines behaviour in a variety of ways, and is often of more importance than smaller groups, such as the family, or wider groups, such as the tribe. Members of a clan generally regard themselves as closely related, whether or not they can trace relationship genealogically, and frequently hold themselves and are held by others to be mutually responsible for the actions of their clan-brothers. In some parts of the world, where clans are widely dispersed, the totem serves as the only sign of clan-relationship, and a man will be welcomed, on account of his totem, as a clan-brother by distant members of his clan, whom he has never seen, and will also avoid sexual relations with the women of that group, though unable to trace relationship. The discovery of this association of totemism with the clan has given rise to one of the most interesting problems of anthropology, for it would seem that any theory of origin of totemism must also explain exogamy. Although totemism is generally associated with the clan, the tribe is also sometimes divided into totemic groups, which are not exogamous. For example, the Arunta (q.v.), of central Australia are divided into totemic groups, mem bership of which depends upon the accident of position of the mother at the moment of realization of pregnancy, and there is no exogamic restriction on the members of these groups. There are also totemic groups in Africa and elsewhere that are more or less endogamous (i.e., required to marry within the group). Furthermore, a tribe may be divided in more than one way into totemic groups; for example, in Australia we sometimes find, in addition to totemic clans, moieties (exogamous halves of the tribe, each of which includes a number of clans), and marriage-classes (groups with indirect descent, which are specially connected with the regulation of marriage), which may be more or less totemic, and even a division of totems according to sex.