Totemism

TOTEMISM. - I. DEFINIZIONE, DIVISIONE, ELEMENTI DEL T. - The term totem (totam, todam, ndodem) originates in the language of the Ojibwa (Algonquians), Indians of southern Canada, and means kinship, the emblem of the family, or also the personal protective spirit. Scholars do not agree in determining which of the various forms of veneration of animals and natural things is proper to t.; it seems that the most appropriate definition is the following: t. consists in special ideological and reverential relations of kinship of a social group or of a single person with animals, plants, or even with natural phenomena, from which functionally derive a set of prescriptions and customs.

Various types of totemism can be distinguished: 1) group or social totemism, which is subdivided into: a) clan totemism; b) family totemism, proper to small groups of blood relatives and to local groups; c) totemism of the moieties of a tribe. 2) Individual, or personal, totemism, which is: a) individual totemism in the broad sense; b) the belief in an alter ego, that is, that an animal or a plant is a double of oneself or a bearer of souls. 3) Sex totemism.

This division has only a classificatory value and in particular does not mean that these different forms of totemism must also be genetically related.

The elements and characteristics that may be more or less common to all these kinds of totemism are essentially the following: 1) a constant emotional, mystical, reverential, magical, mythical and kinship relation of an intertribal unit (clan, local group, etc.) or of a person with animals or natural things considered totems. The group regularly stands in relation with an entire species of animals or plants. 2) The totem is considered a protector, helper, companion or relative, yet it is also feared and dreaded. It often possesses superhuman powers. 3) The names and emblems that refer to the totem. 4) Identification with the totem. 5) Taboos and laws of separation in relation to the totem (do not kill it, do not eat it, do not touch it). 6) The ritual in relation to the totem.

Other elements that may be found accessorily in group totemism are: 1) the interpretations and legends of the groups concerning the origin of totems: a) the origin of the totem, that is, the kinship group is believed to descend directly or indirectly from the totem. If the human group and the animal species have the same ancestors, the totemism is called "twin totemism". b) The events and experiences of the group's ancestor with the totem, which was his helper or friend, or from which he had to suffer. 2) Exogamy and certain marital relations of the groups. 3) The hereditary tradition of the totem in the group, which may be patrilineal or matrilineal. 4) The totem groups with the names (which directly or indirectly refer to the totem), with totemic emblems or symbols and with the common taboos of the totem. 5) The associations and coordinations of totems on the basis of real or fictitious analogies or for other reasons. Hence one speaks of "multiple totems" (several totems in one group) and of "articulated totems", that is, principal and secondary.

These various elements and characteristics of the totemic complex do not always exist all together among individual peoples, nor does the absence of certain characteristic elements always mean a decadence of totemism. The veneration of particular animals or natural things existing among an entire tribe, such as the cult of the bear, of the ox, etc., does not fall within the sphere of totemism, because forms of cult and beliefs of another nature may be founded on particular figures of progenitors and mythical beings in animal form, on divinities and superior beings with animal characteristics, on astral, chthonic and sacred animals. The designation of "tribe totemism" is at most justified only when it is demonstrated that the formation of tribal groups derives from the totemistic clans of past times. In any case the essential of social totemism lies in the division of the tribe into tribal subgroups.

II. THE FORMS OF TOTEMISM

a) Clan totemism. - It is the most widespread form of group totemism. The religious or ideological aspect, as compared with the social one, is sometimes very much reduced. This totemism mostly represents something purely profane-social, a rigid system in which only the names, the emblems and the formal taboos give the clan a totemistic veneer. The feeling of kinship and the clan exogamy that derives from it are not always determined by the belief in a descent from the totem, but are often founded only on a real or fictitious consanguinity, which in itself has nothing to do with totemism. But the totem that unites the group can give the feeling of kinship or the solidarity of the group a special sanction. Clan totemism, however, is only one of the possibilities for the coordination of the ideas of belief and of social groups.

Non-totemic clans or the sippi (large economic families) can be ideologically determined by the common possession of objects of worship, of sanctuaries, of traditions, and by the belief in ancestors and heroes. Among individual tribes the totemic clans have also become complex ritual units, which, according to their totems and natural symbols, perform magical actions in the interest of the whole tribe. With clan totemism various forms of religion and ceremonial can also be joined, such as the cult of the ancestors, the representations of the dead and of souls, the belief in a magical force, the feasts of fertility, etc., which contribute to a transformation of the totemic system. Clan totemism in its various forms is found mainly among the agricultural peoples of East Africa, of the Sudan, of the forests of the Congo, of Further India, sporadically in Indonesia, Micronesia and Melanesia, eastern and south-western North America, weakly represented in South America; it is rare among the tribes of shepherds and among hunting peoples (African Pygmies, Australians, those of western Siberia, of southern Canada, of Venezuela and others). A special form is had by the cult totemism of the Australian tribes, which, because of its relation to the ancestors and heroes of ancient times, and because of its characteristic myths and songs, the sacred places, the objects of worship, the paintings on sand and on rocks, the dramatization of the actions of the totemic ancestors, the rites for the multiplication and the magical control of animals and plants, the places of the spirits of the children (the belief in the preternatural origin of children from the totemic ancestors), represents a phenomenon more complex than ever, but secondary. A similar cult totemism also exists in Melanesia.

b) The totemism of the moieties of a tribe. - Often the totemic clans of the two moieties of a tribe or of a village, which are mostly exogamous and antagonistic and of matrilineal descent, can have totemic characteristics (animal dualism). The dual totemic system can also exist without the division of the clan. The totemic character of these moieties is mostly weakly formed. The connection of the moiety systems with the totemic clans often led to a broadening of the tendency already inherent in clan totemism, of coordinating animals and natural things according to determined points of view, which in this form of totemism is directed mainly to the dual principle. Therefore, according to the moieties and the clans, all things and forces of nature are symbolically divided, the celestial bodies and the regions of the sky, which are held to be important, so that the organization of the tribe represents a figure of the cosmos and every clan is considered symbolically and magically a part of nature.

c) The totemism of families and of local groups. — It is rarer, it exists mainly among the Australian tribes, and in some regions of Africa and of North America. In most cases these are the most ancient forms of group totemism, or local and particular forms, whose components are sometimes clearly distinguishable. In them one can find points of support for the question of the origin of clan totemism.

d) Individual totemism. — It consists generally in a stable relation of friendship and protection between a person and a particular animal or natural thing, a relation strongly accentuated under the emotional, mystical and magical aspect. The individual totem generally confers on its possessor special forces and aptitudes. Individual totemism has a reinforcement in the belief in the alter ego, which consists in a bond between a man and an animal or a natural thing, a bond of life and of destiny, which is so intimate and reciprocal that the evil, the illness or the death of one is the evil, the illness or the death of the other. Naturally these totems become severe taboos in a special way. The personal totems of this kind are mainly the totems of the leading men of families and of groups, that is, of the chiefs, of the medicine-men and of other socially important persons. A further development of the ideas of individual totemism can be considered the "royal" totems of the sovereigns of the negro kingdoms of East Africa, where the king or the prince are bound mainly with notable rapacious, carnivorous animals, such as the lion, the leopard, etc. Presumably the veneration of animals, in the districts of ancient Egypt, links up with an old individual totemism of the local princes. In shamanism an individual totemism is also often observed: the auxiliary spirits of the shamans are sometimes personal totems in the sense of an alter ego. At times there exists the tendency to transmit the individual totem also by inheritance: from this one can have an indication of the totems bound to social groups. Individual totemism is widely diffused. It exists both among the tribes of simple hunters as well as of agriculturists and shepherds. It has penetrated here and there also into the higher cultures and is found also in popular beliefs of Europe. The personal totem, in its expression as belief in an alter ego, is founded mainly on a special conception of the human soul, which, first of all as "shadow" or "exterior soul", can be mystically bound with animals or natural things; on this the close connection of destiny between the single man and the single animal seems to be based. The alter ego perhaps springs from the most hidden meanders of the human soul.

With individual totemism there is sometimes connected the belief in protecting spirits that is found among the North American Indians, according to which one can have a personal protecting spirit through the visions or dreams obtained from fasts or from meditations made in solitude. But this does not always seem justified, because, although broad analogies often exist between the two phenomena, nevertheless they must be held as essentially different. The essence of individual totemism is in an animal, or in a concrete natural thing, while the belief in a protecting spirit in the strict sense consists in having a spiritual being, which can also appear in the form of an animal or of a natural object.

e) Sex totemism. — It is mainly of the tribes of eastern and south-eastern Australia. Men and women have their own different totem, mostly a bird, which has a meaning mainly in the initiations and in the antagonistic games. There exists a certain relation with individual totemism and the idea of the spirit of the children. A form of sex totemism, perhaps the initial one, is found among the pygmies of the Semang of Malacca.

III. THE HISTORICAL-CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL-RELIGIOUS MEANING OF TOTEMISM

The result reached by historical ethnology still holds today: that totemism does not belong to the cultural heritage of the most ancient humanity and does not constitute a general stage in the cultural development of all peoples (as was held by evolutionism). The great mass of the ethnologically most archaic peoples has no typical clan totemism. Likewise the opinion that totemism was at the basis of society (exogamy) and of religion — indeed that the latter had arisen from it (Robertson-Smith, Durkheim, S. Freud's "Oedipus complex") — has been fully refuted by the investigations especially of W. Schmidt, F. Boas, R. Lowie and others.

The first formation of clan totemism occurred in any case in very remote times, probably already among those tribes where the men were still hunters, while the women already practiced a simple agriculture. At that time there came about a greater stability, which created the conditions by which, from the small family and local groups of the archaic hunters and gatherers, there came to be formed groups of kinship (sippi, clan) organized unilaterally, which then in part received a totemistic imprint. It is certain that the totems of the clans were originally animals and that totems of plants, cosmic totems and totems of other kinds are of later origin. As for the question whether clan totemism must be traced back to a single origin in the sense of the "totemistic cultural cycle" of Gräbner and W. Schmidt, or whether it arose several times independently in different places and times, it is a problem that cannot yet be resolved with certainty. But from recent research (Baumann, Haekel), a good number of indications incline one more toward the latter possibility. Clan totemism is found in civilizations that are often fundamentally different; therefore it is no longer possible to say what its original cultural elements were. The totemistic cultural cycle constructed by Gräbner, and perfected by W. Schmidt, according to which totemism would have arisen for the first time in the culture of a single tribe, is today for many reasons no longer tenable. To this cultural cycle were assigned, among other things, the following elements: higher hunting, the spear and edged weapons, the spear-thrower, the house with a domed roof, prefer-

of clan show a pronounced position of man with respect to woman. It is due to clan organization that among totemistic peoples with a richer cultural heritage the artistic and craft specializations within the individual totemic groups could develop to a greater extent. This tendency, however, is also found among tribes with clans without totemism. Clan totemism shows its richest formation mainly in the so-called "middle cultures." These are civilizations with agriculture and hunting or fishing, sometimes with animal husbandry, which historically stand between the archaic civilizations of individual hunters and gatherers and the other incipient higher civilizations. A similar view was expressed by J. G. Frazer, so meritorious for research on totemism, as early as 1910. Most pastoral civilizations generally show less tendency toward clan totemism; in the early high civilizations, clan totemism, if it happened to exist already, either comes to an end entirely or is profoundly transformed.

Family and local totemic groups could form even within the civilizations of hunters; but also in agricultural civilizations a totemistic transformation of small local and kinship societies sometimes occurs. Individual totemism, together with the beliefs of the alter ego and the idea of the guardian spirit, which is in part akin to it but not identical, seems older than group totemism, since it can exist also among tribes of simple hunters. Individual totemism, however, could continue to exist in all forms of civilization, including the higher ones. Given the pronounced uniqueness and relative uniformity of the phenomena of individual totemism, one may perhaps with good reason admit a single origin, although there is no full evidence of it. From several indications it appears that group or clan totemism in some regions came to be formed from individual totemism through the fact that the individual totem of a head of families or of local groups, or of an ancestor, was inherited by his descendants and the respect toward it became obligatory for the whole group. There are, however, also other possibilities for the origin of clan totemism.

The ideological and religious background of totemism is undoubtedly a vision of the animal world (the protototemism of Baumann), which was and is proper above all to distinctly hunting peoples. These tribes either have no group totemism at all or developed or acquired it only later. The interest of these hunters is directed entirely toward animals, to which they feel bound in multiple ideological and religious relations pervaded by strong emotions.

preference for artistic works and for craft specialization, patriarchy, the houses of men and of youths, age classes, platform burial (drying of the corpse), sun cult, pronounced magic. The thesis of the old historical ethnology, that specific matriarchy is originally independent of totemism, holds valid even today; nevertheless it is always possible that, given a polygenetic origin of totemism, matrilineal tendencies too may be joined with the clans, even without a transformation into matriarchy.

From the whole picture it appears, however, that the majority of tribes with totemism

These relations manifest themselves mainly in the following ideas and practices: the animal as helper and companion; the kinship between the animal and man; the special powers of animals that man seeks to appropriate; transformations of the animal; the entry of the totemic soul into the animal; reincarnation into the animal; the patron of the animals; the inspecting spirits of the animals; the progenitor of the tribe regarded as an animal; the reconciliation of the slain game; the preservation of the bones of animals, so that from them the game may arise anew; animal pantomimes; the magic of the hunt in various forms.

These ideas and practices are not yet in any way systematized and vary in their value and meaning among the individual tribes. At bottom, however, it is a question of a unitary complex of the higher hunters, which can be followed and traced back to the Upper Paleolithic of Eurasia and Africa. It must be noted, however, that this "animalism" does not form the whole religion of these hunters. It belongs mainly to the "lower" spheres of religious activity, limited to the field of daily hunting, an activity strongly oriented toward magic. There is also in part, as a survival of an older cultural stratum, the belief in a Supreme Being, or in a figure of the Lord and distributor of animals as means of sustenance, as well as in a progenitor of the tribe and bearer of civilization. From the stronger orientation toward lower beings, animals, etc., the belief in the Great God mostly acquires a character of otiose-ness. The belief in a universal force or power (dynamism) may also have its influence there, which for the most part should be considered as an emanation of the Supreme Being, but can be concentrated especially in the game and in certain natural things and in men. It would, however, be erroneous, as sometimes happens, to speak in this case of a belief in a "pre-animistic" force, as if the idea of souls or a simple animation or anthropomorphism of animals and natural things did not already exist. Although one cannot always make a clear distinction between belief in force and belief in spirit, nevertheless there is no reason to speak of a pre-animistic religion.

Now, these magical and religious ideas of the higher hunters constitute the foundation for the formation of the various forms of totemism. In general it can be said that totemism in the course of the history of civilization has made no contribution worthy of note to the religion of humanity. Insofar as it had preserved religious elements, it restricted itself only to certain spheres of the preterhuman, without influencing to a larger extent the world of the higher powers.

Giuseppe Hackel