Birhor
Quick Summary
The Birhor are a Dravidian people traditionally residing in the jungle regions of the Chotanagpur Plateau in east-central India. They are organized into patrilineal, exogamous totem groups, with clans named after animals, plants, Hindu castes, localities, and objects.12
The Birhor believe in a temperamental or physical similarity between clan members and their totems. They observe strict taboos regarding their totems, treating them as if they were human members of the group. Offending a totem through a breach of taboo is believed to result in a decrease in the clan's size. A yearly ceremony involves an offering to the chief spirit of the ancestral hill, with an elder acting as priest and a diagram drawn on the ground representing the clan's totem.2
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