sb. Also 8 totam, 9 otem. [From Odjibewa, or some kindred Algonkin dialect. Mentioned (apparently) in 1609 by Lescarbot as aoutem (in Acadia); by Long 1791, as totam, by Henry a. 1776, Cooper 1826, Catlin 1841, as totem, by Rev. P. Jones (a native Odjibewa) 1861, as toodaim, by Francis Assikinak (an Ottawa Indian) as Ododam, while the Abbé Thavenel gives the simple form as ote, ‘the possessive of which is otem.’ The initial t is explained by some as the final letter of a prec. possessive pronoun. The meaning given by most of these is ‘mark’; by the younger Henry ‘tribe’; Thavenel gives ‘mark’ and ‘family or tribe,’ app. meaning ‘that which marks the family or tribe.’ Lescarbot and Long explain it as applied to a familiar spirit.]
1. Among the American Indians: The hereditary mark, emblem, or badge of a tribe, clan, or group of Indians, consisting of a figure or representation of some animal, less commonly a plant or other natural object, after which the group is named; thus sometimes used to denote the tribe, clan, or division of a ‘nation,’ having such a mark; also applied to the animal or natural object itself, sometimes considered to be ancestrally or fraternally related to the clan, being spoken of as a brother or sister, and treated as an object of friendly regard, or sometimes even as incarnating a guardian spirit who may be appealed to or worshipped.
[1609. Lescarbot, Hist. Nouvelle France, vi. 683. Son dæmon appellé Aoutem, lequel ceux de Canada nomment Cudonagni.]
1760–76. A. Henry (the elder), Travels (1809), 305. To these are added his badge, called, in the Algonquin tongue, a totem, and which is in the nature of an armorial bearing.
1791. J. Long, Voy. Indian Interpr., 86. One part of the religious superstition of the Savages, consists in each of them having his totam, or favourite spirit, which he believes watches over him. This totam they conceive assumes the shape of some beast or other, and therefore they never kill, hunt, or eat the animal whose form they think this totam bears. Ibid. One of them, whose totam was a bear.
1799–1808. A. Henry (the younger), Journals (1897), I. 106. Should he not belong to the clan (totem).
1826. J. F. Cooper, Mohicans (1829), II. x. 162. There was one chief of his party who carried the beaver as his peculiar symbol, or ‘totem.’
1841. Catlin, N. Amer. Ind., II. liv. 168. Here are to be seen (and will continue to be seen for ages to come), the totems and arms of the different tribes, who have visited this place for ages past. Ibid., 170. We [a Mandan chief and his tribe] left our totems as marks on the rocks. We cut them deep in the stones, they are there now.
1851. Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, 294. A single element in the system attracted early notice. I allude to the institution of the Totem, which has been well known among the Algonquin tribes from the settlement of Canada.
1855. Longf., Hiaw., Picture Writing, 23. From what old, ancestral Totem, Be it Eagle, Bear, or Beaver, They descended, this we know not.
1865. J. G. Hodgins, Hist. Canada, 101. The totem, or outline of some animal, (from do-dain, a family mark,) was always the chief’s signature to a treaty.
1861. P. Jones, Hist. Ojebways, 138. Each ‘nation’ is subdivided into a number of tribes or clans called ‘toodaims,’ and each tribe is distinguished by certain animals or things, as for instance: the Ojebway nations have the following toodaims:—the Eagle, Reindeer, Otter, Bear, Buffalo, Beaver, Catfish, Pike, Birch-bark, White Oak Tree, Bear’s liver, etc., etc. The Mohawk nation have only three divisions or tribes—the Turtle, the Bear, and the Wolf.
1865. Tylor, Early Hist. Man., x. 281. The Indian tribes are usually divided into clans, each distinguished by a totem (Algonquin do-daim, that is ‘town-mark’) which is commonly some animal, as a bear, wolf, deer, etc., and may be compared on the one hand to a crest, and on the other to a surname.
1885. Clodd, Myths & Dr., I. vi. 106. The Dacotahs would neither kill nor eat their totems, and if necessity compels these and like barbarians to break the law, the meal is preceded by profuse apologies and religious ceremonies over the slain.
1887. L. Oliphant, Episodes, 72. Twelve of these placed their totems opposite my signature; each totem consisting of the rude representation of a bear, a deer, an otter, a rat, or some other wild animal.
1893. A. Lang, Custom & Myth, 105. Prof. Max Müller (Academy, Jan., 1884) says the word should be, not Totem, but Ote or Otem. Mr. Tylor’s enquiries among the Red Men support this.
b. By anthropologists the name has been extended to refer to other savage peoples and tribes, which (though they may not use totem marks) are similarly divided into groups or clans named after animals, etc.; such animals, animal-names, or animal-named groups, being spoken or written of as their totems, and their organization, their complex system of mutual and marriage relations and religious usages, being styled TOTEMISM, q.v.
There are also said to be among certain races (as the Australians) sex-totems, peculiar to men or to women, and personal totems, pertaining to the individual and not hereditary.
[1851–9. Prichard, in Man. Sci. Enq., 263. The institution of the Totem as it was termed among the North American nations has its counterpart among the nations of Australia.]
1874. Lubbock, in Manch. Sci. Lect., Ser. V. & VI. 248. In Australia we seem to find the Totem, or, as it is there called, the ‘kobong,’ in the very process of deification.
1879. A. Lang, in Academy, 11 Jan., 24/3. A man or woman is born of such or such a totem, and choice has nothing whatever to do with the matter. Ibid. (1883), in Contemp. Rev., Sept., 415. The totem was but a badge worn by all the persons who found themselves existing in close relations.
1887. J. G. Frazer, Totemism, 52–3. Clearly these sex totems are not to be confounded with clan totems…. The sex totem seems to be still more sacred than the clan totem; for men who do not object to other people killing their clan totem will fiercely defend their sex totem against any attempt of the opposite sex to injure it. Ibid. (1888), in Encycl. Brit., XXIII. 467/1. A totem is a class of material objects which a savage regards with superstitious respect, believing that there exists between him and every member of the class an intimate and altogether special relation.
1905. Athenæum, 21 Jan., 87/1. They have no special word answering to ‘totem’ for such animals. Ibid., M. van Gennep … uses ‘totem’ only in the sense of the hereditary name-giving animal or other object of the kin.
1909. trans. Hopf’s Hum. Species, 300. The necessity for setting up sub-totems first arose from the great extension of the totem in a single tribe, and it was convenient to take the sub-totem from the father who transferred his totem-name to his son.
c. fig.
1890. Pall Mall G., 30 June, 7/2. The vulgar embroidered smoking-cap, which used to be the distinctive totem of the bazaar debauchee.
1893. Times, 11 May, 9/5. Mr. Bryce, whose totem is very different, threatened the Unionists that their vote against a bogus second chamber would be remembered against them.
2. attrib. and Comb., as totem ancestor, animal, clan, figure, god, group, kin, name, people, plant, soul, stage, system, tree, worship, etc.; totem exogamy, the custom of marrying only one of a different totem or totem-clan; totem-pole, totem-post, a post carved and painted with totem figures, erected by the Indians of the north-west of North America in front of their houses; totem-stone, a stone with markings supposed to be prehistoric totemic figures.
1869. M’Lennan, in Fortn. Rev., Oct., 408. Men in, what we may call, the Totem stage of developement. Ibid. (1870), Feb., 213. The tribesmen … esteem themselves as of the species of the Totem-god.
1871. Tylor, Prim. Cult., II. xv. 213. Some accounts describing the totem-animal as being actually regarded as the sacred object. Ibid., 214. Considering it [animal-worship] as inherited from an early totem-stage of society. Ibid., 215. The systematic division of a whole people into a number of totem-clans.
1872. Morley, Voltaire, v. 241. The needs and aspirations … of the developed polytheist [would not be satisfied] by totem-worship.
1882. Athenæum, 22 April, 501/3. Even ethnologists … will maintain that the totem-kin became the gens.
1888. J. G. Frazer, in Encycl. Brit., XXIII. 468/1. The Bechuanas in South Africa … have a well-developed totem system. Ibid., 470/1. The fundamental rules of totem societies. Ibid., 470/2. The Australian ceremony at initiation of pretending to recall a dead man to life by the utterance of his totem name.
1889. W. Robertson Smith, Relig. Semites, viii. 276. Among totem peoples … the sacred animal is forbidden food, it is akin to the men who acknowledge its sanctity.
1891. Cent. Dict., s.v., Totem Posts, Canadian Pacific Coast.
1896. F. B. Jevons, Introd. Hist. Relig., xx. 294. The sacramental eating first of totem-animals and then of totem-plants.
1901. Athenæum, 7 Dec., 779/1. Mr. N. W. Thomas exhibited a collection of ‘totem-stones.’
1902. Folk-Lore, Dec., 363. To savage reasoners, the totem-soul may perhaps seem to tenant each plant or animal of its species.
1907. C. Hill-Tout, Brit. N. Amer., Far West, ix. 177. A very common practice among the Salish of covering up the family or kin totem-figures which are customarily carved on the beams or painted on the sides of their houses.
1910. Seligmann, Melanesians of Brit. N. Guinea, Introd. 10. Totem exogamy is still generally observed.
1910. A. F. Chamberlain, in Encycl. Brit., XIV. 470/1. The wood art of the Indians of the North Pacific coast (masks, utensils, houses, totem-poles, furniture, &c.).
Hence Totem v., trans. to draw, paint, or tattoo (a totem mark).
1894. S. Jackson, Educ. in Alaska, in Educ. Rep. (U.S.), 1891–2, 890. Some [Tchuktchi men] have a small mark or figure totemed on their cheek.
