to·tem·ism

(tō′tə-mĭz′əm)

1. A belief in totems or in kinship through common affiliation to a totem.

2. The practice of establishing affiliation through totems.

to′tem·ist n.

to′tem·is′tic adj.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

totemist - a person who belongs to a clan or tribe having a totem

individual, mortal, person, somebody, someone, soul - a human being; "there was too much for one person to do"

totem - a clan or tribe identified by their kinship to a common totemic object

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References in periodicals archive

Malinowski (for being in a life so primitive) equates totemist belief and practices of primitive peoples to natural needs as feeding, sheltering, etc.

A basic guide to the work of Claude Levi-Strauss/Claude Levi-Strauss un calismalari icin temel bir kilavuz

(38) Jack recalls the sermon somewhat differently in Home: "it was about idolatry about the worship of things, on one hand the material world, in the manner of scientific rationalism, and on the other hand--chairs and tables and old purple drapes, in the manner Boughtons and totemists (310).

Subjectivity and the possibility of change in the novels of Marilynne Robinson

(1992/1925) Dingo Totemists. Aboriginal Perth and Bibbulmun Biographies and Legends, P.

The green frog and desalination: a Nyungar metaphor for the (mis-)management of water resources, Swan coastal Plain, Western Australia

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