totemism

is a class of material objects which a savage regards with superstitious respect, believing that there exist between him and every member of the class an intimate and altogether special relation.

a class of material objects which a savage regards with superstitious respect, believing that there exist between him and every member of the class an intimate and altogether special relation. (James G. Frazer, Totemism, 1887) 'the totem protects the man, and the man shows his respect for the totem in various ways, by not killing it if it be an animal, and not cutting or gathering it if it be a plant.'(1).

is a classificatory device whereby discrete elements of the external world are associated with discrete elements of the social world.

when I make loose usage of the term totemism, I never refer to a past or present institution but to a classificatory device whereby discrete elements of the external world are associated with discrete elements of the social world. (levi-strauss 'bear and barber' : 7).

is a general problem in which the contrasts in nature serve to create an integral whole.

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.

is a pseudo-institution whereby, at a deeper level than that which scholars have been mistakenly considering, phenomena arbitrarily put together to make up a pseudo-institution are endowed with some inner meaning which makes them worthy of interest.

Nevertheless, it would be too easy simply to discard all past and present speculations concerning what is generally referred to as 'totemism'. If so many scholars whom we admire have been, as it were, fascinated by the idea of 'totemism', it is probably because, at a deeper level than the one they have been mistakenly considering, phenomena arbitrarily put together to make up a pseudo-institution are endowed with some inner meaning which makes them worthy of interest' (levi-strauss 1963:1)

Claude Le vi Strauss convincingly revoked totemism as an 'illusion' in his famous essay written in 1962,

is an institution represented by a special relationship between a particular type or species of animal (or even plant) and the members of some social groups (especially kinship groups) whose function it is to express solidarity.

Totemism is the concept that there is a special relationship between a particular type or species of animal (or even plant) and the members of some social groups (especially kinship groups). The linkage often involves a protective reciprocity and a spiritual relationship among humans, animals, and nature.

is an ontology that suggests a continuity between humans and nonhumans.

an ontology that postulates a continuity between humans and nonhumans, both on the plane of physicality (which designate not only the

is rooted in the belief of an external soul. Because we cannot know which particular bird our soul is in, we are obliged to save them all.

Frazer's 'first theory of totemism': if one accepted the primitive belief in an external soul, then it was rational to deposit it for safe

totemism, n.Definitions

totemism