If indeed we choose to regard totemism as a mere system of nomenclature, by which a tribe names itself after some animal or plant, then we might quote a few examples of Hellenic tribes totemistic in this sense.
They have totemistic septs, named after animals and plants, some of which are Gond words; and among them the bride goes to the bridegroom's house to be married, which is a Gond custom.
The tribe is divided, like others, into totemistic exogamous septs, which pay reverence to their totems.
No totemistic usages are followed as a rule, but one curious instance may be given.
The tribe have a large number of exogamous septs, which are generally totemistic or named after plants and animals.
The tribe is also divided into totemisticexogamous septs.
Each sept is further divided into a number of subsepts whose names are of a totemistic nature, being derived from animals, plants or natural objects.
On the other hand, the fact that the subsepts havetotemistic names appears difficult of explanation under this hypothesis.
In Bastar the totemistic groups are named barags, and many men also belong to a thok, having some titular name which they use as a surname.
Thus Mr. Frazer's explanation of Greek pigs and bulls and all their odd rites, as connected with the beast in which the corn-spirit is incarnate, holds its ground better than my totemistic suggestion.
One only names such dances totemistic when performed by people who call themselves by the name of the animal represented, and claim descent from him.
As I have said elsewhere, 'in totemistic countries the totem is respected himself; in Samoa the animal is worshipful because a god abides within him.
Totemism do notably occur, as we have shown, among perhaps all totemistic races.
We are not assuming, however, that all human societies have passed through the totemisticand exogamous stages.
Durkheim, as against the great mass of our knowledge of Totemism andtotemistic exogamy and exophagy.
The manner in which those names are scattered locally is precisely like what results in America, Africa, and Australia from the totemistic organisation.
I give them for what they are worth, merely observing that they do tally, as far as they go, with the totemistic theory.
The hero Cuchullain, being named after the dog, might not eat the flesh of the dog, and came by his ruin after transgressing this totemistic taboo.
The second question now arises: Can we infer from survivals of totemism among Aryans that these Aryans had once been organised on the full totemistic principle, probably with polyandry, and certainly with female descent?
Among races which are still in the totemistic stage, which still claim descent from animals and from other objects, a peculiar marriage law generally exists, or can be shown to have existed.
They then formed the totemistic community of brothers, all with equal rights and united by the totem prohibitions which were to preserve and to expiate the memory of the murder.
One of the reactions to the parricide was after all the institution of totemistic exogamy; the prohibition of any sexual relation with those women of the family who had been tenderly loved since childhood.
The hero was a man who by himself had slain the father--the father who still appeared in the myth as a totemistic monster.
This same recasting upon which all social duties are built up is already presupposed by the next form of human society, the totemistic clan.
That these originated in totemistic belief seems to be supported by what remains of these beliefs at the present day.
Except totemistic septs, they have apparently no sub-divisions.
The meaning of these carvings is quite obscure to the natives, and they answer questions in a very vague way, so that it is probable that totemisticideas are dying out in the New Hebrides.
Sometimes a fish or a bird is carved on the statue, probably as a survival of old totemistic ideas, and meant to represent the totem animal of the ancestor or of his clan.
The totemistic stories are widely spread,--so widely, indeed, as to afford a presumption that we have in them a clue to the whole meaning of the myth.
Here we may note that the origin of exogamy itself is merely part of a strict totemistic prohibition.
When this has once been elucidated, a shorter notice of other totemistic races will serve our purpose.
Among the non-Aryan tribes the marriage law has the totemistic sanction.
At the bottom of the social system, as understood by the average Hindu, stands a large body of non-Aryan castes and tribes, each of which is broken up into a number of what may be called totemistic exogamous septs.
The armoiries, the totemistic heraldry of the peoples of Virginia, greatly interested a heraldic ancestor of Gibbon the historian,(2) who settled in the colony.
Mr. Howitt mentions a case in which a group of kindred, ceasing to use their old totemistic surname, called themselves the children of a famous dead Birraark, who thus became an eponymous hero, like Ion among the Ionians.
We thus find among the Red Men precisely the same totemistic regulations as among the Aborigines of Australia.
This view, however, does not prevail among the totemistic tribes of British Columbia, for example.
The Mahilis, Koras and Kurmis, who profess to be members of the Hindu community, still retain the totemistic organisation, with names derived from birds, beasts and plants.
It does not appear why, thus recognizing that totemism was at least a long way behind in Thales's day, Mr. Cornford should trace the Ionian four elements straight back to the problematic four clans of the totemistic tribe.
On the other hand, the totemistic stage had long before been broken down.
Cornford, From Philosophy to Religion (1912), puts forth an interesting and ingenious theory to the effect that early Greek philosophy is a reduction to abstract terms of the practice of totemistic tribes.
Concerning them as concerning the Semites we may say that the claim of a primary monotheism for them "is also true of all primitive totemistic or clannish communities.
Thus Zeus may have begun as a kindly supreme being; then aetiological and totemistic myths may have accrued to his legend, and, finally, philosophic and pious thought introduced a rational conception of his nature.
The amours of Zeus, then, are probably traceable to the common habit of deriving noble descents from a god, and in the genealogical narrative older totemistic and other local myths found a place.
To some extent the Egyptian religious facts were purely totemistic in the strict sense.
In totemistic countries the totem is respected per se, in Samoa the animal is worshipful because a god abides within him.
The amours in animal shape are explained in the text as in many cases survivals of the totemistic belief in descent from beasts, sans phrase.
The connection between the Arcadian Artemis, the Artemis of Brauron, and the common rituals and creeds of totemisticworship is now, perhaps, undeniably apparent.
Mr. Tylor justly objects, but I think the Samoan belief has Totemistic origins.
Myths of this class are probably later than the period in which we presume the divine relationships of gods and animals to have passed out of the totemisticinto the Samoan condition of belief.
The eating of certain "salmon of knowledge" was believed to give inspiration, an idea perhaps derived from earlier totemistic beliefs.
The custom of "hunting the wren," found over the whole Celtic area, is connected with animal worship and may be totemistic in origin.
The story is thus a folk-tale formula applied to Fionn, doubtless because it harmonised with Celtic or pre-Celtic totemistic ideas.
Totemistic group-marriage appears to be the "starting-point" of social culture for all the races of mankind.
Similar results are reached by Spencer and Gillen, who have given a remarkably clear and minute account of matrimonial, tribal, and totemistic institutions in central Australia.
The universal spread of totemistic beliefs preclude =a priori= a single centre as a starting-point for such beliefs; and the same in all probabilities holds good for the belief that men may be changed into animals and the reverse.
A warning may also not be out of place against connecting the belief in monsters and fabulous creatures with the mental processes that give rise to totemistic beliefs.
Frazer to accept them as totemistic, and may be left out of account here; there may be many reasons for the adoption of such names besides the totemistic one.
Again, still dealing with the question of totemism, I may say that the community and village names (as already stated, there are no clan names) do not appear to be referable to any possible totemistic objects.
Also I was unable to discover the faintest trace of any idea which might be regarded as being totemistic, or having a totemistic origin.
The Maya word tem, the plural form for which is tetem, seems to be applicable to such totemistic carved stones.
On the other hand, it may be that it was the original custom for the high priest to be a sort of animated calendar sign in unison with the separate chiefs of each tribe, who represented, in rotation, the totemistic ancestors of their people.
It has been suggested that many of these marks are of totemistic origin.
Folk etymology has also exercised considerable influence, and a sept ashamed of its totemistic title readily adopts some title of the eponymous type, or a local cognomen sounding something like the name of the primitive totem.
It is perhaps too much to expect that a careful exploration of the sept titles or tribal customs of Northern India will lead to extensive discoveries of the primitive totemistic organization.
We find, then, among such races, as might have been expected, that at the present day the totemistic sept system exists only in obscure and not easily recognizable forms.
Much also of the worship of the tiger is probably of totemistic origin.
Thus, to take the Dhangars, a caste in Mirzapur, allied to the Oraons of Bengal, we find that they have eight exogamous septs, all or most of which are of totemistic origin.
The Hires are all Lingayats, and are said to have sixty-six totemistic septs or gotras.
And the clans are again sub-divided into gotras or septs, which are mostly oftotemistic origin, and retain their totemistic character to this day.
In the light of totemistic ways of thinking we see plainly enough the relation of man to food-animals.
The Khadals have totemistic exogamous groups, the Kilasi sept worshipping a tree, the Julsi and Kandualsi sept a snake-hole, and Balunasi a stone and others the sun.
The Karan or writer caste of Orissa, similarly, have clans derived from the cobra, tortoise and calf, and most of the cultivating and other middle castes have clans with totemistic names.
They have five totemistic exogamous sections, about each of which a song is sung relating its origin.
They accept alms from a Munda or Oraon on the occasion of a death in the latter's family, and have totemistic septs.
A totemistic sept of Rautia and Kawar in Bilaspur.
The mother of Ossian in animal shape may be an example of an ancient Celtic totemistic survival.
At all events, in the story of a bird ancestry of Conaire we seem to have a perfectly clear example of a Celtic totemistic survival--even though Dr.
Of these the last-mentioned, which is obviously of Hindu origin, is looked upon as the highest, whilst the names of the remaining four are apparently of totemistic origin.
My own view, however, is that stated above, and I do not think the statement that the Kachari totemistic clans were endogamous should be accepted without further investigation.
They have no subdivisions, but a number oftotemistic septs.
Grierson states, Kurukh may be connected with Tamil kurugu, an eagle, and be the name of a totemistic clan.
But besides the above groups the Turis have a large number of exogamous septs of a totemistic nature, some of which are identical with those of the Mundas.
The tribe have also a large number of exogamous septs of the totemistic type, named after plants and animals.
The tribe have totemistic septs, and retain some veneration for their totems.
Exogamous groups The subcastes are as usual divided into exogamous groups of the territorial, titular andtotemistic classes.
According to him Oraon was a name coined by the Hindus, its base being orgoran, hawk or cunny bird, used as the name of a totemistic sept.
The rule is probably, however, a totemistic survival.
They have also a number of exogamous septs of the usual titular and totemistic types, the few recognisable names being Marathi.
The bargas are much more numerous than the totemistic septs, and marriage either within the barga or within the sept is forbidden.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "totemistic" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
