Totems in Town A totemis an emblem of a man, a group of men, or an idea.
Their totem indicate their business and we have the red and white barber pole of today.
The totem is visible such a long way off and is understood by all, whether or not they can read or know our language, is copyrightable and advertisable, so that most of the great railway companies, etc.
Perhaps this killing of the sex-totem before marriage may be related to the pretence of killing young men and bringing them to life again at puberty.
It is no valid objection to this view that when a savage has both a sex totem and a clan totem his life must be bound up with two different animals, the death of either of which would entail his own.
Far more commonly the totem is appropriated not to a sex, but to a clan, and is hereditary either in the male or female line.
This personal totem is usually the animal of which he dreamed during a long and solitary fast at puberty.
This explanation of totemism squares very well with Sir George Grey's definition of a totem or kobong in Western Australia.
On all such occasions, man and totem were also called by the same name.
The healthy life of the children and family is bound up with the healthiness and life of the totem tree as respected and preserved by the family.
These facts seem to point to the establishment of a blood covenant, involving an interchange of life between a man and his personal totem or nagual; and among the Fans of West Africa, as we saw (above, p.
M210) In the former of these two initiatory rites of the Carrier Indians the prominent feature is the transformation of the man into his totem animal; in the latter it is his death and resurrection.
Each totem clan had a certain number of honorific totems or crests, and these might be assumed by any member of the clan who fulfilled the required conditions; but they could not be acquired by members of another clan.
He killed them all with his own hands, and then he conducted the old chieftain and the beautiful young princess back to their village, where he was marked with this totem belt that tells the story.
The great chief paid for the service I rendered him when he marked me with the totem belt, for now in my hour of need, I can call on faithful hearts for aid.
Amongst the Omaha Indians of North America men whose totem is the elk, believe that if they ate the flesh of the male elk they would break out in boils and white spots in different parts of their bodies.
Men of other totem clans also partake of their totems sacramentally at these Intichiuma ceremonies (Spencer and Gillen, op.
Doubtless the intention alike of the eating and of the anointing is to impart to the man the qualities of histotem animal, and thus to enable him to perform the ceremonies for the multiplication of the breed.
Batchelor, believes, the bear may have been the totem of an Aino clan; but even if that were so it would not explain the respect shewn for the animal by the whole Aino people.
In the island of Mabuiag men of the Sam, that is, the Cassowary, totem think that cassowaries are men or nearly so.
Morgan states that the names of the Otawa totemclans had not been obtained (Ancient Society, London, 1877, p.
Thus when they see a child with a scald head, they say at once that its father has been eating his totem and that is why the poor child has scabs on its pate.
If a Chadwar of the Central Provinces who has the pig for his totem should even see a pig killed by somebody else, he will throw away the household crockery and clean the house as if on the death of a member of his family.
Thus their belief in transmigration into the turtle is probably one of the regular articles of their totem faith.
In the same tribe men whose totem is the red maize, think that if they ate red maize they would have running sores all round their mouths.
They were simply following the well-known savage custom that the totem of a tribe is sacred.
The pig was a totem with many of the Semitic tribes, and must not, therefore, be eaten.
Now Chief, post the names on the Totem and we will stand it near the door where everyone coming in or going out can read who the applicants are," said the Guide.
We will post the names of the six girls on the Totem Pole and at the expiration of the period set for testing, the one who falls short of the mark must resign or, at least, wait for the second Band which will form at Christmastime.
At recess-time the Woodcrafters were the centre of attraction and many eager requests from other girls to be allowed to join the Tribe, was the result of the notice on the Totem Pole.
It was not difficult after this direct lead to select the burlap wall-covering which was painted to imitate forest trees somewhat like Elena's screen, as the totem mentioned by the host.
The names of the six members-to-be were posted on the Totem Pole which was placed at the entrance to the gymnasium where every scholar going in or coming out could read the notice.
The other girls were duly advised and then the Chief ordered the Tally Keeper to enter the record in the book and to print the paper that was to be posted on the Totem in as artistic a manner as she could think of.
It must be admitted that when the totem of a group is a wild beast the totemism is probably theriolatric, but it is impossible to dispute van Gennep's statement that all theriolatry is not necessarily totemic.
For example, in totemic groups unions between persons who have entered into a compact with the same totem are invariably prohibited.
It has been noticed that a characteristic feature of totemism is the prohibition of marriages between men and women with the same totem and therefore belonging to the same clan.
As for the fat man who bore the totem mark on his shoulder, they must spare him, but being a white man he must be sent away; let him go into the forest.
In a vehement oration he declared that the strange bird must have some connection with the totem of the tribe, and that while it remained with them the village would be safe from hostile attack.
Big bird belongina totem all right; all same big bird he fly long way, bring back lot of white fella; they fight bad white fella this side, eat bad white fella all up.
Good-bye, old ugly mug,' he cried as he passed the man who had discovered his totem mark.
He carve her totem at the top of the pole, then his totemand those of the family are carved below.
Having no answer ready, Ted changed the subject and asked: "Why do you have the raven at the top of your totem pole?
Kalakash had not asked Ted what his totem was, but supposing that the American eagle on the buttons of the boy's coat was his emblem, had carved the rampant bird upon the canoe as the boy's totem.
As we belong to the Raven, or Bear, or Eagle clan, we have the carved poles to show our rank, but the totemof the dead is quite different.
It has its cannery and saw-mill and village church, in which last is a large and very interesting totem carved out of the butt of a tree.
An Australian calls his totem his Wingong (friend) or Tumang (flesh), and nowadays expresses his sorrow when he has to eat it.
Hence they were the principal source of life of the tribe, as the totem had been of the clan, and were venerated and deified.
A human ancestor gradually took the place of the totem as the giver of life to the clan.
Each sept salutes the revered object or totem on seeing it, and those who worship trees will not burn them or stand in their shade.
This was perhaps not the original relation of the clan to its clan totem in the hunting stage, but it is the one commonly found in India, where the settled agricultural stage has long been reached.
Again, the sacrament of the Meher or marriage cakes is sometimes connected with the clantotem in India.
The men of the witchetty grub totem enter the structure and sing songs about the production and growth of the witchetty grub.
The Intichiuma ceremonies of the Australian natives are carried out with the object of increasing the supply of the totem for food purposes.
Sex-totems are a peculiar development which need not be discussed here, but again it would appear that a common life runs through the birds of the totem and the members of the sex.
Definite instances of the sacrificial eating of the totem animal have not been found, but it is said that the tiger and snake clans of the Bhatra tribe formerly ate their totems at a sacrificial meal.
When the men of the emu totem wish to multiply the number of emus, they allow blood from their arms, that is emu blood, to fall on the ground until a certain space is covered.
Besides these class or totem names, each little Australian girl has a personal name by which she is freely addressed by all excepting such of the opposite sex as are tabooed by custom.
The painful operation of tattooing is known to have symbolic and religious, even more than decorative, significance, as marking the connection of the man with his clan-totem or individual totem.
The three marks on the left of the totem represent important general treaties of peace to which he had been a party; the six strokes on the right probably indicate the number of big battles which he fought.
It could not move, for it was the hated totem of what now rules the white man's world--greed and love of chickimin.
As the totem is an ancestor, so all ancestors are looked upon with reverence, and deference to living progenitors becomes a virtue.
All the Pueblo Indians, of whom the Hopi are a division, possess similar festivals, which recur at various seasons or under the auspices of different totem clans or secret societies.
That the totem develops into the god is proved by the animal likeness and attributes of many deities in lands widely separate.
Neglect to pay fitting homage and sacrifice to the gods or totem is regarded with severity, especially when the evolution of a priestly caste has been achieved.
Slaughter of the totem animal becomes a 'crime'--sacrilege.
Slaughter of a member of the totem clan, of a blood-brother, must be atoned for because he is of the totem blood.
The Lover's Revenge After his family had gone Elegant appealed to his guardian spirit or totem to revenge him on the maiden who had thus cast him into despondency.
Marriage with a woman of the same totem blood becomes an offence.
On Mr. Frazer's old theory, we saw, a phratry is a totem kin which split into more kins, having for totems the various species of the original totem animal.
When a child is born, its friends hunt for its ancestral stone amulet in the place where its mother thinks that she conceived it, and around the nearest rendezvous of discarnate local totemic souls, all of one totem only.
They think that it "appears to be the case" that, among the northern Urabunna, "men of one totem can only marry women of another special totem.
It is no conjecture that the origin of the totem names has long been forgotten.
Quail, as if both a phratry and a totem kin by itself, may intermarry with any of the other four, while only three kins are open to each of the other four.
Especially the names of the totem kindreds, and of the totems, are commonly names of animals or plants.
The Kaitish have adopted the Arunta churinga nanja usage which introduces the same totem into both exogamous moieties, but, unlike the Arunta, they have not yet discarded the old universal rule, "No marriage within the totem.
We also see how totem kins could occur within the phratries, without needing to urge alternately that such kins both do and do not possess a territorial basis.
And we have no evidence that the personal name of an individual ever became a hereditary totem name of an exogamous clan or kin.
The largest and most grotesque totem poles seen on the trip here towered a height of fifty feet.
It is only the wealthier families who support a totem pole, and no amount of money can induce an Indian to part with his family tree.
The Unalachtigo or Turkey totem had its principal seat on the affluents of the Delaware near where Wilmington now stands.
Each totem of the Lenape recognized a chieftain, called sachem, sakima, a word found in most Algonkin dialects, with slight variations (Chip.
By common and ancient consent, the chief selected from the Turtle totem was head chief of the whole Lenape nation.
Loskiel, however, writing on the excellent authority of Zeisberger, states explicitly that the chief of each totem was selected and inaugurated by those of the remaining two.
The black buck was in all probability the tribal totem of some of the races occupying the country anciently known as Aryavarta.
The tortoise is a totem of the Mundari Kols, and the Kharwars and Manjhis of Mirzapur worship clay images of it, which they keep in their house, because on one occasion it conveyed their first ancestor across a river in flood.
As distinguished from a fetish, a totem is never an isolated individual, but always a class of objects, generally a class of animals or plants, rarely a class of inanimate objects, very rarely a class of artificial objects.
A totem is a class of material objects, which a savage regards with superstitious respect, believing that there exists between them and every member of the class an intimate and altogether special relation.
The eel is a totem of the Mundari Kols of Bengal and of the Oraons, neither of whom will eat it.
A bird known as the Malahari or "filth destroyer" is a sort of totem of the Kanjar gipsies.
The sheep, as we have already seen, is a totem of the Keriyas.
Passing on to birds, the crow is a famous totem or sacred bird.
The fish incarnation of Vishnu possibly represents the adoption of a fish totem into Brahmanism.
The peacock is a totemof the Jats and of the Khandhs, as the Yizidis worship the Taous, a half mythical peacock, which has been connected with the Phoenix which Herodotus saw in Egypt.
By one theory there is some connection between the snake and primitive metallurgy; by another, that the snake may have been the totem of the early jewellers; by a third, that the jewelled head of the snake is at the bottom of the matter.
It is among this tribe that the mouse-totem is found, which is Çiva's beast and the sign of Ganeça.
The beginnings of decorative art frequently express the importance of the symbol, and the totem is felt to be as distinctly a member of the group as is any of the human members.
Such totem groups cherish that animal which they believe to be their ancestor and ordinarily will not kill it or use it for food.
Then we have the so-called totem group, which is found among North American Indians, Africans, and Australians, and was perhaps the early form of Semitic groups.
In totem groups, the prevailing conception is that one blood circulates in all the members of the group and that the ancestor of the whole group is some object of nature, such as sun or moon, plant or animal.
It is an almost universal part of the clan system that the man must marry out of his own clan or totem (exogamy), and it is frequently specified exactly into what other clan he must marry.
In connection with being thrown up in the air by certain prescribed members of his tribe, he is decorated with various totem emblems and afterward the septum of his nose is bored for the insertion of the nose-bone.
He is decorated with various totem emblems, for which every detail is prescribed by the council of the tribal fathers and tribal elder brothers.
Ceremonies imitating various totem animals, frequently of the most elaborate sort, were also performed.
