Totemism: References & Edit History

Franz Boas, “The Origin of Totemism,” Am. Anthrop., 18:319–326 (1916), contains a variety of ideas and objects defined as totemism, and thus maintains little unity; A.P. Elkin, “Studies in Australian Totemism: The Nature of Australian Totemism,” Oceania, 4:113–131 (1933–34); E.E. Evans-Pritchard, “Nuer Totemism,” Annali Lateran., 13:225–248 (1949), describes the manifestations of totemism combined with the conception of the spirit in the “Nilot” tribe; J.V. Ferreira, Totemism in India (1965), a critical evaluation of hitherto existing works on totemism in general and that of India in particular; R. Firth, “Totemism in Polynesia,” Oceania, 1:291–321, 377–398 vol. 1 (1930–31), a useful survey article; J.L. Fischer, “Totemism on Truk and Ponape,” Am. Anthrop., 59:250–265 (1957), describes and interprets the highly contrasting forms of totemism found in Micronesia, using not only the unusual sociological–ideological organization but also containing psychological aspects. G. Foster, “Nagualism in Mexico and Guatemala,” Acta Am., 2:85–103 (1944), deals with important borderline cases of totemism with particular regard to the problem of personal totemism; J.G. Frazer, Totemism and Exogamy, 4 vol. (1910) and Totemica: A Supplement to Totemism and Exogamy (1937), comprehensive and informative reference works although the hypotheses are now out of date; A.A. Goldenweiser, “Totemism: An Analytic Study,” J. Am. Folklore, 23:179–293 (1910); “Totemism,” Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences, vol. 14 (1934); J. Haekel, “Der heutige Stand des Totemismusproblems,” Mitt. Anthrop. Ges. Wien, 82:33–49 (1952), attempts to give a critical examination with concrete examples of the complex question in its various forms; Claude Lévi-Strauss, Le Totémisme aujourd’hui (1962; Eng. trans., Totemism, 1963), contains a detailed critical evaluation of existing hypotheses of Anglo-American and French authors; R. Piddington, An Introduction to Social Anthropology 1:200–206 (1950), offers a short but sufficient characterization of the totemic phenomena, the difficulty in defining it, its great variability, and some concrete examples.