Customise Consent Preferences

We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.

The cookies that are categorised as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... 

Always Active

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

No cookies to display.

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

No cookies to display.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

No cookies to display.

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyse the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

No cookies to display.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customised advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyse the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

No cookies to display.

Encyclopedia of Religion and Society

Totemism

Primitive system of religious and social organization. Totemism is exemplified in various North American and Australian tribes characterized as clans or bands united by kinship. The clan is distinguished by the name of an animal, plant, or, more rarely, natural phenomenon. The object is usually the subject of religious emotion. Within this system, those within the clan group are given protection but cannot marry or have sexual intercourse within the clan. Émile Durkheim argued that the totemic principle—defined as belief in a mystical relationship between a group and an animal, plant, or other object, which served as their emblem—was the basis for the distinction between the sacred and the profane.

See also Émile Durkheim, Sigmund Freud
James McClenon

References

É. Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life (New York: Free Press, 1965 [1912])

J. G. Frazer, Totemism and Exogamy (London: Macmillan, 1910)

D. P. Johnson, Sociological Theory (New York: Macmillan, 1986)

A. Lang, Myth, Ritual and Religion (London: Longmans, Green, 1899)

A. Lang, Social Origins (London: Longmans, 1903)

A. Lang, The Secret of the Totem (London: Longmans, 1905).