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How did Franz Boas challenge the idea that totemism had a single origin?

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totem fish mask — Totemism Totem fish mask from the Orokolo Bay area of New Guinea. Painted bark cloth over rattan frame with fringe of dried grass. Height 1.63 m.

In 1916, the American ethnologist Franz Boas challenged the prevailing academic attempts to identify a single origin for totemism. He argued that totemism exhibited no unified psychological or historical source.1

Boas contended that because totemistic features appear across diverse cultural contexts and can be associated with various individuals and social organizations, it is impossible to categorize these phenomena into a single, universal classification. Consequently, he rejected the practice of systematizing totemism, viewing it as senseless to pursue questions regarding its singular origin. This perspective aligned with his broader anthropological approach, which favored studying specific cultural traditions and local adaptations over the search for universal evolutionary histories.12