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totemism |
Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Medical, Legal, Idioms, Wikipedia, Hutchinson | 0.06 sec. |
totemismComplex of ideas and practices based on the belief in kinship or mystical relationship between a group (or individual) and a natural object, such as an animal or plant. The term derives from the Ojibwa word ototeman, signifying a blood relationship. A society exhibits totemism if it is divided into an apparently fixed number of clans, each of which has a specific relationship to an animate or inanimate species (totem). A totem may be a feared or respected hunted animal or an edible plant. Very commonly connected with origin myths and with instituted morality, the totem is almost always hedged about with taboos of avoidance or of strictly ritualized contact. Totem, taboo, and exogamy seem to be inextricably intertwined. See also totem pole. How to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us, add a link to this page, add the site to iGoogle, or visit webmaster's page for free fun content. |
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By 1926-27, in works like Forest and The Large Forest, any trace of painting-as-usual has been eliminated in favor of a futuristic totemism fusing archeological and natural elements and setting the stage on which his deepest explorations would take place. Theories that link totemism and hunting with sacrifice would seem to bear directly on the Ogbaseri story, but it also provides a metaphorical explanation for the way epidemics exceed socially acceptable limits by claiming too many human lives in one stroke. Eric Kline Silverman brings literacy, secrecy, gender and tourist art into his comparison of Eastern Iatmul and Australian Aboriginal totemism and mythological time. |
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