The term totemism was introduced into scientific circulation. Totemism - definition, history and features of the concept

Belief in the supernatural accompanies man throughout his existence. Everything inexplicable man attributed to the otherworldly phenomenon. The first religions appeared at the dawn of the primitive communal system, they were in the nature of primitive beliefs. One of the religions was totemism, a branch of animism. What is a totem, and why did people believe in an invisible connection between different objects? What forms of totemism have survived to our times? Consider in the article.

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Description

History of totemism

The first religions of mankind are called proto-religions. Historians and scientists refer to them in four main forms:

1. animism;
2. fetishism;
3. magic.

Which proto-religion of those listed was the first is not known for certain. It is believed that all four forms appeared at approximately the same period of history. Historians explain that all major forms of belief were present in all prehistoric proto-religions.

Animism

What is animism as a proto-religion? Modern scientists define it as a belief in the spiritual world, that is, the existence of an intangible principle. Animism implies belief in nature spirits, deceased ancestors, guardian spirits. This is the animation of everything that surrounds a person and is incomprehensible.

Observing the phenomena of nature, primitive people animated them and attributed certain qualities. Over time, people began to perceive the spirits of nature as intelligent beings that control their lives. In order to appease the wrath of the spirits of nature, they began to bring gifts and sacrifices.

Also, people believed that there is an afterlife world, to which the soul of a deceased person goes. There are also various entities and spirits.

totemism

The definition of totemism is based on the belief in an invisible connection between a person / tribe / clan and a particular animal or plant. This animal/plant was called a totem. People believed that the totem patronizes them and protects them from life's adversities. Scientists believe that primitive man began to deify the animal and plant world, because the whole way of life was associated with it.

Examples of totemism are the beliefs of the ancient Egyptians, the Indians of North America, the natives of Australia and the population of central Africa. What is the difference between the cult of totem worship? Gifts are brought to the chosen patron, religious services are performed and they ask for protection or mercy. When a new member of the tribe is born, a service to the totem is immediately performed with a request to endow the baby with certain qualities and protect it from evil.

Totemism is distinguished from other beliefs by the presence of taboos. A taboo is a prohibition against doing certain things. The taboo was associated with the prohibition:

• kill totem animals;
• eat totem meat;
• kill fellow tribesmen;
• to demonstrate to foreign tribes their belonging to the totem.

Rituals were performed whenever the tribe suffered from drought and lack of food, from attacks by warring tribes, and in any emergency. People believed that only a totem could help them cope with adversity.

Fetishism, the belief in the mystical power of an object, was closely associated with totemism. This object could be a stone of a bizarre shape and an object created by hands, some plant or planets. Figurines of deities worshiped by ancient people also became fetishes. But even in our times in Africa, the cult of fetishism has been preserved in a slightly modified form.

The magic of primitive people

Ancient people considered everything incomprehensible and unusual to be magical. If a person met on his way any object that attracted attention (a pebble, a spine, part of an animal skeleton), he could make it his fetish. Over time, faith in fetishes grew stronger, and already a whole tribe could worship any object and consider it their patron.

The fetish was located in the center of the tribe, brought him gifts and praised for his help. People sincerely believed that it was the fetish that helped them and protected them from troubles. However, there was a downside to fetishism: if the object did not live up to expectations, it was subjected to torture.

Fetishism did not disappear with time, but took on a new form. Religious scholars argue that belief in amulets and amulets is a modern form of fetishism. Closely related to fetishism is magic in its original and modern form. Also, magic has retained the features of totemism and animism, because magic rituals are an appeal to various forces of nature or the spirits of animals or the dead.

Over time, a group of people separated from society, which was engaged only in conducting magical rituals for the tribe. The first magical rituals were performed by shamans, since it is shamanism that is characterized by a connection with the spirits of nature and animals. In the future, magical practices expanded the scope of their application. In the modern world, magic is closely connected with the ancient cults of proto-religions, world religions and the study of energies.

Totemistic beliefs, or totemism - the belief that certain types of animals, plants, some material objects, as well as natural phenomena are the ancestors, ancestors, patrons of specific tribal groups.

Totemism (“from-otem” in the language of North American Indians means “his family”) is a system of religious ideas about the relationship between a group of people (usually a family) and a totem - a mythical ancestor, most often some animal or plant. The totem was treated as a kind and caring ancestor and patron who protects people - their relatives - from hunger, cold, disease and death. Initially, only a real animal, bird, insect or plant was considered a totem. Then their more or less realistic image was enough, and later the totem could be designated by any symbol, word or sound.

We can meet some manifestations of totemism among the peoples of Melanesia: tribal groups bear totemic names, in places totemic prohibitions are preserved, belief in the connection of totems with the ancestors of the clan, etc. Among the tribes of the islands of Samoa, among the peoples of America - there are totems in coats of arms, family signs on clothes, on housing. In the form of a minor religion, as a modification, the belief in werewolf among the peoples of America has been preserved.

The choice of totems is often associated with the physical and geographical nature of the area. So, for example, among many tribes of Australia, the kangaroo, emu, opossum, wild dog, lizard, raven, and bat, which are common here, act as totems. At the same time, in the desert or semi-desert regions of the continent, where natural conditions and wildlife are scarce, various insects and plants become totems, which are not found anywhere else in this capacity.

Totemism is the religion of an early tribal society, where blood ties are the most important between people. A person sees similar connections in the surrounding world, he endows all nature with kindred relations. Animals and plants, which form the basis of the life of a hunter and gatherer, become the subject of his religious feelings.

In the course of historical development, most peoples have lost their totemic ideas. However, in some places totemism has shown extraordinary vitality, for example among the Australian Aborigines. In the rituals of the Australian tribes, sacred objects - churingi - play a huge role. These are stone or wooden plates with drawings applied to them, denoting one or another totem.

Belief in the absolute connection of churinga with the fate of a person is so strong that in the event of its destruction, a person often fell ill and sometimes died. This, in turn, served as a new confirmation of the effect of invisible spells.

Traces and remnants of totemism are found to varying degrees in modern religions and have been preserved as elements in the ethnic cultures of many peoples.

Animism.

A new form of religion gradually developed - the cult of nature. Man's superstitious fear of formidable and mighty nature evoked a desire to somehow propitiate her. Man in his imagination peopled all nature with spirits. This form of religious beliefs is called animism (from the Latin words - "animus" - spirit). According to animistic beliefs, the whole world around is inhabited by spirits, and each person, animal or plant has its own soul, an incorporeal double.

Such a belief, in one form or another, is inherent in any religion, from the most primitive to the most advanced. True, the degree of expression of animistic beliefs is not the same in different forms of religion, at different stages of its development.

The term "animism" covers very diverse categories of religious ideas, diverse not only in appearance, in ideological content, but also, most importantly, in origin. Animistic images are personifications, but human fantasy can personify anything.

The words "spirit" or "soul" in the view of primitive people were associated with the animation of all nature. Religious ideas about the spirits of the earth, the sun, thunder, lightning, and vegetation gradually developed. Later, on this basis, the myth of dying and resurrecting gods arose.

Magical beliefs, or magic - the belief in the ability, with the help of certain techniques, conspiracies, rituals, to influence objects and natural phenomena, the course of social life, and later the world of supernatural forces. In the cave of Montespan, discovered in 1923 in the Pyrenees, a clay figure of a bear without a head was found. The figure is riddled with round holes. These are probably dart marks. Around him, on the clay floor, there are prints of bare human feet. A similar find was made in the Tyuc d'Auduber cave. The ancients believed that the bewitched animal itself would allow itself to be killed.

TOTEMISM - one of the early forms of religion, the essence of which is the belief in the existence of a special kind of mystical connection between a group of people (genus, tribe) and a certain type of animal or plant (less often, natural phenomena and inanimate objects). The name of this form of religious belief comes from the word "ototem", which in the language of the North American Ojibwe Indians means "his kind." During the study of totemism, it was found that its emergence is closely connected with the economic activity of primitive man - gathering and hunting. Animals and plants, which gave people the opportunity to exist, became objects of worship. At the first stages of the development of totemism, such worship did not exclude, but even assumed the use of totem animals and plants for food. Therefore, sometimes primitive people expressed their attitude to the totem with the words: "This is our meat." However, this kind of connection between people and totems belongs to the distant past, and only ancient legends and stable language turns that have come down to researchers from time immemorial testify to its existence. Somewhat later, elements of social, primarily kinship relations, were introduced into totemism. Members of the tribal group (blood relatives) began to believe that a certain totem animal or plant was the ancestor and patron of their group, and that their distant ancestors, who combined the signs of people and a totem, had extraordinary abilities. This caused, on the one hand, the strengthening of the cult of ancestors, and on the other hand, a change in attitude towards the totem itself, in particular, the emergence of prohibitions on eating the totem, except for those cases when eating it was of a ritual nature and reminded of ancient norms and rules. . Subsequently, within the framework of totemism, a whole system of prohibitions-taboos arose. Totemic beliefs played a big role in the formation of primitive society. They performed an integrating function, uniting people of a particular group around a totem recognized by them. They quite effectively performed a regulatory function, subordinating people's behavior to numerous prohibitions - taboos that all members of the totem group had to observe. In the most “clean” and “convenient” form for research, totemism was found among the Indians of North America, the aborigines of Australia, and the indigenous people of Central and South Africa. Survivals of totemism (food prohibitions, depiction of sacred beings in the form of animals, etc.) ) can be found in many religions of the world.

A.N. Krasnikov

traditional religions. African traditional religions usually include fetishism, animism, totemism, the cult of ancestors, etc. Unlike world religions, African traditional religions do not have uniform religious texts, their religious norms are not fixed in the scriptures. It is impossible to determine the number of adherents of traditional religions: both Christians and Muslims turn to traditional cults in certain life situations, for example, if necessary, to undergo treatment with traditional methods from local healers.

totemism

TOTEMISM is one of the early forms of religion, the essence of which is the belief in the existence of a special kind of mystical connection between a group of people (genus, tribe) and a certain type of animal or plant (less often, natural phenomena and inanimate objects). The name of this form of religious belief comes from the word "ototem", which in the language of the North American Ojibwe Indians means "his kind." During the study of totemism, it was found that its emergence is closely connected with the economic activity of primitive man - gathering and hunting.

Totem

TOTEM (ototeman - belonging to a clan, from the language of the North American Indians Ojibwe) - a plant or animal supernaturally associated with the life of a group or individual. In Africa and North America, natural phenomena (rain, thunder, lightning, wind, etc.) also act as a totem, which are also often symbolized by animals. Totems are group (clan), sexual (belonging to men or women of the clan) or individual. In the case of a clan totem, the totem animal is considered the common ancestor of all members of the genus or group who identify with it.

Totemism (Lopukhov, 2013)

TOTEMISM - a complex of beliefs and rituals of primitive peoples, associated with ideas of kinship between groups of people (families, clans, tribes) and totems. At different times, animals, plants, stars, even household items acted as the latter among different peoples at different times. The totem was considered as a powerful patron of one or another primitive social group and as a symbol of its internal solidarity. Totemism corresponded to the level of development of society, when a person was not yet aware of his difference from nature, did not distinguish himself from it.

Totemism (Kirilenko)

TOTEMISM - belief in a supernatural relationship between human groups (kinds, tribes) and certain types of animals, less often - plants or even objects; early form of religious beliefs. Disrespect for the totem - the mythical "ancestor", with which each member of the genus considers himself connected, is a crime that entails punishment. The totem is both the animal or plant itself and its sign.

Kirilenko G.G., Shevtsov E.V. Brief philosophical dictionary. M. 2010, p. 381.

Totemism (Podoprigora)

TOTEMISM - an archaic form of religion based on the belief in a close family relationship between a certain type of animal (rarely a plant) - a totem and a generic group. The totem, which is usually thought of as the common ancestor of the genus, gives the name to the totem group. Totemism is associated with a taboo system - a ban on killing and eating a totemic animal, which was violated during its ritual murder.

Totemism (Frolov)

TOTEMISM (from the word "ototeman", in the language of the North American Indians of the Ojibwe tribe - its kind) is one of the early forms of religion of primitive society. The term was first used by J. Long (late 18th century). The main thing in totemism is the belief in the common origin and blood relationship of a group of people with a certain type of animal, plant, object or phenomenon. The emergence of totemism is due to a primitive economy (hunting, gathering) and ignorance of other ties in society, except for blood relations. An ancestor animal, its image or symbol, as well as a group of people is called a totem.

· Jainism · Hinduism · Musok · Shintoism · Tengrianism)
Africa (Ancient Egypt Central and South Africa)
Middle East and Mediterranean (Zoroastrianism Islam Judaism Christianity)
Pre-Columbian America
Pre-Christian Europe (Germans Ancient Armenia Ancient Greece Celts Slavs)

supernatural entities

Totemism- the once very widespread and now still existing religious and social system, which is based on a kind of cult of the so-called totem. This term was first used by Long in 1791. , borrowed from the North American Ojibwa tribe, in whose language totem means the name and sign, the coat of arms of the clan, as well as the name of the animal to which the clan renders a special cult. In the scientific sense, a totem is a class (necessarily a class, not an individual) of objects or natural phenomena to which one or another social group, clan, phratry, tribe, sometimes even each individual sex within the group (Australia), and sometimes the individual (Northern . America) - they render special worship, with which they consider themselves related and by whose name they call themselves. There is no such object that could not be a totem, however, the most common (and, apparently, ancient) totems were animals.

Types of totems

Wind, sun, rain, thunder, water, iron (Africa), even parts of individual animals or plants, for example, the head of a turtle, the stomach of a piglet, the ends of leaves, etc., can act as a totem, but most often - classes of animals and plants. So, for example, the North American Ojibwa tribe consists of 23 clans, each of which considers a special animal (wolf, bear, beaver, carp, sturgeon, duck, snake, etc.) as its totem; in Ghana in Africa, a fig tree and a maize stalk serve as totems. In Australia, where totemism especially flourishes, even all external nature is distributed among the same totems as the local population. So, among the Australians from Mount Gambier, rain, thunder, lightning, clouds, hail belong to the crow totem, fish, seals, certain tree species, etc. belong to the snake totem; among the tribes in Port Mackay, the sun refers to the kangaroo totem, the moon to the alligator totem.

Scope of use of totems

Totemistic ideas are reflected in the entire worldview of the primitive animist. The main sign of totemism is that the totem is considered the ancestor of a given social group, and each individual of the totem class is a blood relative, a relative of each member of the group of his admirers. If, for example, a crow serves as a totem, then it is considered the real progenitor of this genus, and each crow is a relative. In the stage of the theoretic cult that preceded totemism, all objects and phenomena of nature were presented to man as anthropomorphic creatures in the form of animals, and therefore animals are most often totems.

Africa

In Africa, at the birth of a totem snake, newborns are subjected to a special snake test: if the snake does not touch the child, it is considered legal, otherwise it is killed as alien. Australian muri refer to the totem animal as "their flesh". The tribes of the Gulf of Carpentaria, at the sight of the murder of their totem, say: “Why was this man killed: is this my father, my brother, etc.?” In Australia, where sex totems exist, women consider the representatives of their totem to be their sisters, men - brothers, and both of them - their common ancestors. Many totem tribes believe that after death, each person turns into the animal of his totem and, therefore, each animal is a deceased relative.

According to traditional ideas, the totem animal maintains a special relationship with the ethnic group. So, if the totem is a dangerous predator, it must definitely spare the consanguineous clan. In Senegambia, the natives are convinced that scorpions do not touch their admirers. The bechuans, whose totem is the crocodile, are so convinced of its favor that if a person is bitten by a crocodile, even if water is splashed on him from hitting the water with a crocodile's tail, he is expelled from the clan, as an obviously illegal member of it.

In Africa, sometimes instead of asking what genus or totem a person belongs to, they ask him what kind of dance he dances. Often, for the same purpose of assimilation, during religious ceremonies they put on face masks with images of a totem, dress in the skins of totem animals, adorn themselves with their feathers, etc. Survivals of this kind are found even in modern Europe. Among the southern Slavs, at the birth of a child, an old woman runs out with a cry: “The she-wolf gave birth to a wolf cub!” After which the child is threaded through the wolf skin, and a piece of the wolf’s eye and heart is sewn into a shirt or hung around the neck. To fully consolidate the tribal union with the totem, the primitive man resorts to the same means as when accepting an outsider as a member of the clan and concluding inter-tribal alliances and peace treaties, that is, to a blood contract (see Tattooing, Theory of tribal life, circumcision).

North America

Among the bison clan of the Omaha tribe (North America), the dying person was wrapped in the skin of a bison, his face was painted in the color of the totem and addressed to him like this: “You are going to the bison! You go to your ancestors! Be strong! Among the Zuni Indian tribe, when a totem animal, a turtle, is brought into the house, it is greeted with tears in their eyes: “O poor dead son, father, sister, brother, grandfather! Who knows who you are? - Worship of the totem is primarily expressed in the fact that it is the strictest taboo; sometimes they avoid even touching it, looking at it (the Bechuans in Africa). If it is an animal, then they usually avoid killing it, eating it, dressing in its skin; if it is a tree or another plant, they avoid cutting it, using it for fuel, eating its fruits, and even sometimes sitting in its shade.

Among many tribes, the killing of a totem by a stranger requires the same kind of revenge, or vira, as killing a kinsman. In British Columbia, eyewitnesses to such a murder hide their faces in shame and then demand vira. Similarly, in ancient Egypt, incessant bloody feuds arose between the nomes over the killing of totems. When meeting with a totem, and in some places - even when parading the sign of a totem, they greet him, bow to him, throw valuable things in front of him.

To win the full favor of their totem, totemists use a variety of means. First of all, he tries to approach him by outward imitation. So, among the Omaha tribe, boys of the bison clan curl two locks of hair on their heads, like the horns of a totem, and the turtle clan leaves 6 curls, like the legs, head and tail of this animal. Botoka (Africa) knock out the upper front teeth to resemble a bull, their totem, etc. Solemn dances often aim to imitate the movements and sounds of a totem animal.

Australia

When the corpse of a totem animal is found, condolences are expressed and a solemn funeral is arranged for him. Even tribes that allow the consumption of the totem try to consume it in moderation (central Australia), avoid killing it in a dream and always give the animal the opportunity to escape. Australians from Mount Gambier only kill a totem animal in case of hunger and in doing so express regret that they have killed "their friend, their flesh".

Totems, in turn, as faithful relatives, who also have supernatural powers, provide patronage to blood-related fans, contributing to their material well-being, protecting them from the machinations of earthly and supernatural enemies, warning of danger (the owl in Samoa), giving signals to march (kangaroo in Australia), leading a war, etc.

The tradition of eating the totem.

Rubbing the body with the blood of the totem turned over time into painting and similar feigning customs. An important means for using the supernatural patronage of the totem is considered to be its constant close presence. Therefore, totem animals are often fattened in captivity, for example, among the highlanders of Formosa, who keep snakes and leopards in cages, or on the island of Samoa, where eels are kept at home. Hence the custom subsequently developed to keep animals in temples and to give them divine honors, as, for example, in Egypt.

The most important means for communicating with a totem is considered to be eating its body (theophagy, see also prosphyra, communion). Periodically, members of the clan kill a totem animal (see slaughter) and solemnly, while observing a number of rites and ceremonies, eat it, most often without a trace, with bones and entrails. A similar rite takes place in the case when the totem is a plant (see kolachi, carols).

Survivals of this ancestral tasting of food are found in the Lithuanian Samboros. This custom, according to the views of the totemist, is not in the least offensive to the totem, but, on the contrary, is very pleasing to him. Sometimes the procedure is of such a nature as if the animal being killed is performing an act of self-sacrifice and is eager to be eaten by its fans. Gilyaks, although they came out of totem life, but annually solemnly kill a bear during the so-called bear holiday, they confidently say that the bear itself gives a good place for a mortal blow (Sternberg). Robertson Smith and Jevons consider the custom of periodically eating the totem as the prototype of later sacrifices to anthropomorphic gods, accompanied by the eating of the victims themselves who brought it. Sometimes the rite of religious killing aims either to terrorize the totem by the example of killing some members of its class, or to release the soul of the totem to follow to a better world. Thus, among the genus of worms of the Omaha tribe (North America), if worms flood a cornfield, they are caught by several pieces, crushed together with grain and then eaten, believing that this protects the cornfield for one year. Among the Zuni tribe, once a year, a procession is sent for totemic tortoises, which, after the warmest greetings, are killed and the meat and bones are buried, not eaten, in the river, so that they can return to eternal life. Recently, two researchers in Australia, B. Spencer and Gillen, discovered new facts of totemism - inticiuma ceremonies. All these ceremonies are performed at the beginning of the spring season, the period of flowering of plants and reproduction of animals, and are intended to cause an abundance of totem species. The rites are always performed in the same place, the abode of the spirits of the clan and the totem, are addressed to a certain representative of the totem, which is either a stone or an artificial image of it on earth (transition to individual deities and images), almost always accompanied by a sacrifice of the blood of totemists and ends with a solemn eating a forbidden totem; after which it is usually allowed to consume it in moderation in general.

Influence on subsequent religious teachings

In totemism, as in an embryo, all the main elements of the further stages of religious development are already contained: the relationship of a deity with a person (the deity is the father of his worshipers), taboos, forbidden and not forbidden animals (later clean and unclean), the sacrifice of an animal and the obligatory tasting of its body , the selection of a chosen individual from the totem class for worship and keeping him at dwellings (the future animal is a deity in the temple of Egypt), the identification of a person with a totem deity (reverse anthropomorphism), the power of religion over social relations, the sanction of public and personal morality (see below ), finally, jealous and vengeful intercession for the offended totem deity. Totemism is currently the only form of religion in all of Australia. He dominates the North. America and is found on a large scale in South America, in Africa, among the non-Aryan peoples of India, and its remnants exist in the religions and beliefs of more civilized peoples. In Egypt, totemism flourished in historical times. In Greece and Rome, despite the anthropomorphic cult, there are sufficient traces of totemism. Many genera had eponymous heroes who bore the names of animals, for example, κριό (ram), κῠνός (canis, dog), etc. The Myrmidons, the ancient Thessalians, considered themselves descendants of ants. In Athens, they worshiped a hero in the form of a wolf, and anyone who killed a wolf was obliged to arrange a funeral for him (see also the Capitoline she-wolf). In Rome, they worshiped the woodpecker, which was dedicated to Mars, and did not eat it. Roman patricians used family totems in their family coats of arms - images of various animals (bulls, lions, fish, etc.). Features of totemic ceremonies are noticeable in thesmophoria, which were intended to guarantee the fertility of the earth and people. In ancient India, the features of totemism are quite clear in the cult of animals and trees and the prohibitions on eating them (see Terotheism). Totemism is not only a religious, but also a socio-cultural institution. He gave the highest religious sanction to tribal institutions. The main foundations of the clan are the inviolability of the life of a relative and the obligation of revenge arising from it, the inaccessibility of the totem cult for persons of alien blood, the obligatory heredity of the totem in the male or female line, which established once and for all the contingent of persons belonging to the clan, finally, even the rules of sexual regulation - all this most closely associated with the cult of the ancestral totem. Only this can explain the strength of totemic ties, for which people often sacrificed the most intimate blood ties: during wars, sons went against fathers, wives against husbands, etc. e. Fraser and Jevons consider totemism the main, if not the only, culprit in the domestication of animals and the cultivation of plants. The ban on eating a totem animal was extremely favorable to this, because it kept the greedy savage from the frivolous extermination of valuable animals during the period of domestication. Even up to the present time, pastoral peoples avoid killing their domestic animals, not for economic reasons, but because of religious experience. In India, killing a cow was considered the greatest religious crime. In the same way, the habit of keeping from year to year the ears, grains, and fruits of totem trees and plants, and periodically eating them for religious purposes, must have led to attempts at planting and cultivation. At the same time, the didukh was burned after the holidays. Often this was even a religious necessity, for example, when moving to new places where there were no totem plants and they had to be artificially bred.

The study of totemism

Although totemism, as a fact, has been known since the end of the 18th century, the doctrine of it, as a stage of primitive religion, is still very young. It was first advanced by Mr. McLennan, who traced it from the savages to the peoples of classical antiquity. It owes its further development to the English scientists Robertson Smith, Fraser, Jevons, and a number of local researchers, especially Australian ones, of whom Gowit and Fison rendered the greatest service, and most recently B. Spencer and Gillen.

Genesis of totemism

The main question of the genesis of totemism has not yet left the field of controversy. Spencer and Lubbock are inclined to consider the origin of T. the result of some kind of misunderstanding (eng. misinterpretation of nicknames ), caused by the custom to give people, due to the poverty of the language, names for objects of nature, most often the names of animals. Over time, the savage, confusing the name of the object with the object itself, came to believe that his distant ancestor, called by the name of the animal, really was such. But this explanation fails because every savage has every opportunity to verify the meaning of the nickname on himself or on those around him, who are often also called by the names of animals and yet have nothing in common with the eponymous animal. In 1896, F. Jevons, who sees the genesis of totemism in the psychology of tribal life, put forward a very harmonious and witty theory of totemism. The animist savage, leveling all nature according to the human pattern, naturally imagines that all external nature also lives the same tribal life as he himself. Each individual species of plant or animal, each class of homogeneous phenomena, is in his eyes a conscious tribal union, recognizing the institutions of revenge, blood contracts, waging bloody feuds with other people's clans, etc. An animal, therefore, for a person is an alien who can be avenged and with whom you can enter into agreements. Weak and helpless in the struggle with nature, primitive man, seeing in animals and in the rest of nature mysterious beings stronger than himself, naturally seeks an alliance with them - and the only lasting alliance known to him is the union of blood, homogeneity, fastened a contract of blood, moreover, an alliance not with an individual, but with a class, a whole genus. Such a blood union, concluded between the genus and the totemic class, turned both of them into a single class of relatives. The habit of regarding the totem as a kinsman created the idea of ​​a real descent from the totem, and this in turn strengthened the cult and alliance with the totem. Gradually, from the cult of the totem class, the cult of the individual is developed, which turns into an anthropomorphic being; the former taste of the totem turns into a sacrifice to the individual deity; the growth of clans into phratries and tribes, with common totems for their constituent subtotems, expands the totemic cult into a polytotemic one, and thus the foundations of further stages of religion are gradually developed from the elements of totemism. This theory, which satisfactorily explains certain aspects of t., does not solve the fundamental question of its genesis: it remains incomprehensible why, given the homogeneity of the psychology of primitive man and the homogeneous conditions of the surrounding nature, neighboring clans each choose not one totem, the most powerful of the surrounding objects of nature, but each with its own special, often unremarkable object, for example, a worm, an ant, a mouse?

See also: Cult of the Ancestors, Hero ( in Greco-ancient mythology)

Fraser's theory

In 1899 prof. Fraser, on the basis of the newly discovered inticium ceremonies by Spencer and Gillen, constructed a new theory of totemism. According to Fraser, totemism is not a religion, that is, not a belief in the conscious influence of supernatural beings, but a type of magic, that is, a belief in the possibility of various magical means to influence external nature, regardless of its consciousness or unconsciousness. Totemism is a social magic that aims to cause an abundance of certain types of plants and animals that serve as natural consumer products. In order to achieve this, groups of clans living in the same territory at one time drew up a cooperative agreement, according to which each individual clan refrains from eating one or another species of plants and animals and performs annually a well-known magical ceremony, as a result of which an abundance of all consumer products is obtained. Apart from the difficulty of allowing such mystical cooperation to form among primitive people, it must be said that the inticiuma ceremonies can be interpreted as expiatory procedures for eating a forbidden totem. In any case, this theory does not resolve the fundamental question of belief in descent from a totem object.

The theory of Pickler and Somlo

Finally, in the city, two learned lawyers, prof. Pickler and Somlo, came up with a theory, finding that the genesis of totemism lies in pictography, the rudiments of which are indeed found among many primitive tribes (see sign system, semiotics, archetype, eidolon (idol)). Since the most conveniently depicted objects of the outside world were animals or plants, the image of one or another plant or animal was chosen to designate a certain social group, unlike any others. From here, by the name of this latter, they received their names and genera, and subsequently, due to a peculiar primitive psychology, the idea was developed that the object that served as a model of the totem sign was the true ancestor of the clan. In support of this view, the authors refer to the fact that the tribes, unfamiliar with pictography, do not know totemism either. More plausible, however, is another explanation of this fact: pictography could have developed more among totem tribes, accustomed to depicting their totem, than among non-totem ones, and, therefore, pictography is more a consequence of totemism than its cause. In essence, this whole theory is a repetition of the old thought of Plutarch, who derived the worship of animals in Egypt from the custom of depicting animals on banners.

Tylor's theory

Taylor came closer to clarifying the issue, who, following Wilken, accepts the cult of ancestors and belief in the transmigration of souls as one of the starting points of totemism; but he did not give his point of view a clear factual basis. For a correct understanding of the genesis of totemism, it is necessary to bear in mind the following:

• Tribal organization, terotheism and the cult of nature, as well as a special tribal cult, existed before totemism.

• Belief in origin from some object or phenomenon of nature is not at all a later speculative conclusion from other primary facts, such as a blood contract (Jevons), pictography, etc., but, on the contrary, is understood by primitive man quite realistically, in the physiological sense of the word for which he has sufficient reasons, logically arising from his whole animistic psychology.

• The genesis of totemism lies not in any one reason, but in a whole series of reasons arising from one common source - a peculiar worldview of primitive man. Here are the main ones:

1) Family cult. Among many primitive tribes with a theorotheistic cult, there is a belief that all cases of unnatural death, for example, in the fight with animals, death on the water, etc., as well as many cases of natural death, are the result of a special favor of animal deities who accept dead in their kind, turning them into their own kind. These relatives, who have turned into deities, become the patrons of their kind and, consequently, the object of the tribal cult. A typical cult of this kind was stated by Sternberg among many foreigners of the Amur region - Gilyaks, Orochs, Olches, etc. The kind of animal that adopted the chosen one becomes related to the whole family of the latter; in each individual of a given class of animals, the relative of the chosen one is inclined to see his descendant and, consequently, his close relative. From here it is not far to the idea of ​​abstaining from eating one or another class of animals and to the creation of a typical totem. There are other forms, when selected personalities are responsible for the creation of totems. Religious ecstasies (for shamans, for young men during obligatory fasts before initiations) cause hallucinations and dreams, during which one or another animal appears to the chosen one and offers him his patronage, turning him into himself similar. After that, the chosen one begins in every possible way to liken himself to a patronizing animal and with complete faith feels himself to be such. Shamans usually consider themselves under the special protection of one or another animal, turn themselves into such during the ritual and pass on their patron by inheritance to their successors. In North America, such individual totems are especially common.

2) Another root cause of totemism is parthenogenesis. Belief in the possibility of conception from an animal, plant, stone, sun, and in general any object or natural phenomenon is a very common phenomenon, not only among primitive peoples (see Immaculate Conception). It is explained by the anthropomorphization of nature, the belief in the reality of dreams, in particular erotic ones, with characters in the form of plants and animals, and, finally, an extremely vague idea of ​​the process of generation (in all of central Australia, for example, there is a belief that conception occurs from the introduction into female body of the ancestor spirit). Some real facts, such as the birth of freaks (subjects with a goat's leg, a foot twisted inward, a special hairiness, etc.) in the eyes of a primitive man, serve as sufficient proof of conception from a non-human being. Back in the 17th century. similar cases have been described by some writers under the name adulterium naturae. Stories like the story about the wife of Clovis, who gave birth to Merovee from a sea demon, are very common even among historical peoples, and faith in incubus and elves involved in the birth is still alive in Europe. It is not surprising that some erotic dream or the birth of a freak among a primitive tribe gave rise to the belief in conception from one or another object of nature and, consequently, to the creation of a totem. The history of totemism is full of facts such as the fact that a woman of one or another totem gave birth to a snake, a calf, a crocodile, a monkey, etc. L. Sternberg observed the very genesis of such a totem kind among the Orochi tribe, who have neither a totem organization nor a totem cult, no genus names; only one clan from the whole tribe calls itself a tiger, on the grounds that a tiger appeared in a dream to one of the women of this clan and had conjugio with her. The same researcher noted similar phenomena in non-totemic gilyaks. Under favorable conditions, the totem and the totem cult arise from this. At the basis of totemism lies, therefore, a real belief in a real origin from a totem object, present or transformed into such from a human state - a belief that is fully explained by the entire mental make-up of primitive man.

Notes

see also

• group psychology
• group psychosis
• Phratria (as a tribal community)
• Fratria (guild)
• Freemasonry, admission to masons, consecration of the union, blood union (unity by blood)
• Group "I"
• Taming (as taming)
• History of the circus

Literature

• Semenov Yu. I. Totemism, primitive mythology and primitive religion // Skepsis. No. 3/4. Spring 2005, pp. 74-78.

• J. F. M'Lennan, "The worship of Animals and Plants" ("Fortnightly Review", Oct. and Nov. 1869 and Feb. 1870), also in "Studies in Ancient history" (1896); W. Robertson Smith, "Religion of the Semites" (New ed. London, 1894);
• J. G. Frazer, "Totemism" (1887); his own, "The golden hough"; his own, The Origin of Totemism (Fortnightly Review, April and May, 1899); his own, "Observations on Central Australian Totemism" ("Journal of the Anthropological Institute for (Great Britain etc.", February and May, 1899);
• B. Spencer, "Remarks on Totemism etc."; E. Tylor, "Remarks on Totemism" (ibid., 1898, August and November);
• A. Lang, "Mythes, Ritual and Religion" (2nd ed., 1899); his, "M. Frazer's theory of totemism" ("Fort. Review" LXV);
• F. B. Jevons, "Introduction to the history of Religion"; his own, "The place of Totemism in the evolution of Religion" ("Folk-Lore", 1900, X);
• B. Spencer and Gillen, "The native tribes of Central Australia" (1899);
• J. Pikler u. F. Somlo, "Der Ursprung des Totemismus" (Berl., 1900);
• Kohler, "Zur Urgeschichte der Ehe, Totemismus etc.";
• Göffler-Goelz, "Der medizinische Dämonismus" ("Centralblatt für Anthropologie etc.", 1900, no. I),
• G. Wilken, "Het Animisme bijde Volken wan den indischen Archipel" (1884);
• E. S. Hartland, "The legend of Perseus";
• Staneley, "Totemism", "Science", 1900, IX);
• L. Sternberg, communications in geographer. society (short reports in Living Antiquity, 1901).

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