[f. TOTEM + -ISM.] The use of totems, with the clan division, and the social, marriage, and religious customs connected with it.
1791. J. Long, Voy. Indian Interpr., 87. This idea of destiny, or, if I may be allowed the phrase, ‘totamism,’… is not confined to the Savages.
1870. Lubbock, Orig. Civiliz., v. (1875), 199. Nature-worship or Totemism, in which natural objects are worshipped.
1883. A. Lang, in Contemp. Rev., Sept., 414. Totemism is the name for the custom by which a stock (scattered through many local tribes) claims descent from some plant, animal, or other natural object. Ibid. Totemism … is a widespread institution prevailing all over the north of the American continent.
1905. Westm. Gaz., 13 Dec., 3/1. Here is the beginning of totemism—‘the bearing of the name of an object by a human group,’ as Mr. Howitt says. ‘Naming’ is the ‘original germ,’ says Mr. Lang, ‘of totemism.’
