Lupabitch
November 28th, 2007, 04:16 PM
One thing I've noticed in the pagan community is a lot of confusion as to what a totem traditionally is/was considered in indigenous societies, versus what neopagans understand totems to be. A lot of people will pick up Animal Speak by Ted Andrews (which I do like, just FTR) and assume that what he's talking about is "just like the Native Americans!"
There are a couple of problems with that argument. First, totemism isn't limited to Native American cultures (though the term "totem" is Ojibwe in origin). Indigenous cultures around the world have totemic systems. Claude Levi-Strauss (no relation to the jeans) wrote a classic text called, simply, Totemism. In it he detailed the systems of a number of cultures, including not only the Americas, but also Australia.
However, the other problem is that neopagan totemism isn't the same as traditional totemism. Traditionally, totems represented groups, not individuals. Clans, families and tribes had totems that served not only to teach certain morals, but also to help facilitate exogamy, the process of determining who could and could not marry as a way of avoiding accidental incest. Men and women might also have had individual totems, and totems were often passed either matrilineally or patrilineally. Totems were usually animals, though they occasionally were plants or other objects. The totem could impart mysteries upon its chosen group, as well as be the basis for certain social taboos; however, in some cultures the totem was merely a figurehead, no more important than a last name. There were a few rare cases where totems were seen on a more individual basis, but overwhelmingly it was a group phenomenon.
Neopagan totemism combines traditional totemism with the concept of the individual spirit guide, and the power animal of the shaman (by the way, not all shamanic systems have power animals). It takes the practice of associating certain qualities with animals from totemism, combines it with the one on one relationship of spirit guides, and throws in the magical aspects of the power animal.
This doesn't make it less effective or true! I've worked exclusively with neopagan totemism for over a decade. It's wonderfully adapted for most pagans' situations--we tend to live in cultures where the individual is emphasized over the group, we are aware of animals beyond our geographic boundaries and can work with their totems, and because neopaganism tends to be fluid, we can adapt neopagan totemism as we see fit. It is a unique system that has come out of the bubbling cauldron of neopagan ingenuity, and I think it's awesome.
If you want to read more extensively, I've elaborated in these two articles:
http://www.spiralnature.com/magick/tradvsneopagantotemism.html
http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usor&c=words&id=12039
As for sources, you can see all the books I've read and reviewed on this topic here:
http://lupabitch.wordpress.com/category/animal-magic/
Specific sources that may be of interest for traditional totemism:
Levi-Strauss, Claude, Totemism
Morris, Brian The Power of Animals: An Ethnography and Animals and Ancestors: An Ethnography
Campbell, Joseph, The Way of the Animal Powers, Vol. I and II
Vitebsky, Piers, The Shaman (includes information on power animals from an anthopological viewpoint)
If you compare these to modern texts on neopagan totemism, you'll notice the distinct differences. Again, neopagan totemism is NOT inferior, just different.
Let me just finish by saying--we all do totemism differently. Even traditional cultures have their own systems for totemism and so forth--there's no such thing, for example, as "Native American totemism". So take what I say here with however much salt you like. I just tossed it up for conversation purposes, and since it didn't seem like anybody had addressed the idea here.
Always open for discussion :)
There are a couple of problems with that argument. First, totemism isn't limited to Native American cultures (though the term "totem" is Ojibwe in origin). Indigenous cultures around the world have totemic systems. Claude Levi-Strauss (no relation to the jeans) wrote a classic text called, simply, Totemism. In it he detailed the systems of a number of cultures, including not only the Americas, but also Australia.
However, the other problem is that neopagan totemism isn't the same as traditional totemism. Traditionally, totems represented groups, not individuals. Clans, families and tribes had totems that served not only to teach certain morals, but also to help facilitate exogamy, the process of determining who could and could not marry as a way of avoiding accidental incest. Men and women might also have had individual totems, and totems were often passed either matrilineally or patrilineally. Totems were usually animals, though they occasionally were plants or other objects. The totem could impart mysteries upon its chosen group, as well as be the basis for certain social taboos; however, in some cultures the totem was merely a figurehead, no more important than a last name. There were a few rare cases where totems were seen on a more individual basis, but overwhelmingly it was a group phenomenon.
Neopagan totemism combines traditional totemism with the concept of the individual spirit guide, and the power animal of the shaman (by the way, not all shamanic systems have power animals). It takes the practice of associating certain qualities with animals from totemism, combines it with the one on one relationship of spirit guides, and throws in the magical aspects of the power animal.
This doesn't make it less effective or true! I've worked exclusively with neopagan totemism for over a decade. It's wonderfully adapted for most pagans' situations--we tend to live in cultures where the individual is emphasized over the group, we are aware of animals beyond our geographic boundaries and can work with their totems, and because neopaganism tends to be fluid, we can adapt neopagan totemism as we see fit. It is a unique system that has come out of the bubbling cauldron of neopagan ingenuity, and I think it's awesome.
If you want to read more extensively, I've elaborated in these two articles:
http://www.spiralnature.com/magick/tradvsneopagantotemism.html
http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usor&c=words&id=12039
As for sources, you can see all the books I've read and reviewed on this topic here:
http://lupabitch.wordpress.com/category/animal-magic/
Specific sources that may be of interest for traditional totemism:
Levi-Strauss, Claude, Totemism
Morris, Brian The Power of Animals: An Ethnography and Animals and Ancestors: An Ethnography
Campbell, Joseph, The Way of the Animal Powers, Vol. I and II
Vitebsky, Piers, The Shaman (includes information on power animals from an anthopological viewpoint)
If you compare these to modern texts on neopagan totemism, you'll notice the distinct differences. Again, neopagan totemism is NOT inferior, just different.
Let me just finish by saying--we all do totemism differently. Even traditional cultures have their own systems for totemism and so forth--there's no such thing, for example, as "Native American totemism". So take what I say here with however much salt you like. I just tossed it up for conversation purposes, and since it didn't seem like anybody had addressed the idea here.
Always open for discussion :)