Totem
Totem, in anthropology, an animal or other object that is associated with a group of people, usually a clan (a group claiming descent from a common ancestor). Members of the group generally regard the totem as their special friend, protector, and, often, mythical or real ancestor. They usually use the name of the totem to identify themselves (as Bear clan, Raven clan). The term totem is an Algonquian Indian word meaning brother or relative. Totems are common among Australian aborigines and North American Indians. They are also found among a number of primitive peoples in South America, Africa, Asia, Melanesia, and Polynesia.
A totem pole is raised by Tlingit Indians.The beliefs and practices associated with totems are called totemism. Some groups have more than one totem; others do not have any. Members of groups with totems often use a symbol of the totem as an emblem, marking it on personal belongings, weaving it into clothing, or tattooing it on their bodies. Most groups with animal or plant totems have prohibitions against killing any animal or disturbing any plant of the totem species.
A few Indian tribes on the northwest coast of North America made totem poles, cedar posts carved with symbolic figures. Totem poles were used as memorial columns (to honor a dead person), as grave posts (to mark a grave, or hold or support a box containing the remains of a dead person), and as house poles (to form part of the frame of a house). The main carvings represent the totems of the owner or dead person, his family history, events in his life, and stories from mythology. The totems, which were animals, were not regarded as friends, protectors, or ancestors; they were merely family or clan symbols, serving much the same role as animals in European heraldry. The art of carving elaborate memorial columns flourished between 1850 and 1900.