Statue of dragon totem

 

Totemism, a belief that people have a spiritual connection or kinship with another physical being, is the earliest form of alliance in human history. The word “totem” derives from an Ojibwa word among Native Americans, denoting kin, members of a clan, blood-related family and relatives.
 

Totem worshippers regarded certain animals, plants or other natural objects as their relatives or same species, believing that they have an intimate and unique relation or association with such natural beings.

Believers held they shared a mysterious power with their totem. Totemism is in fact the belief of the existence of a certain power all beings on earth rely on to survive. This power is thought to be tangible as experienced by primitive people.
 

French scholar Lucien Lévy-Bruhl (1857-1939) identified this as the “principle of mutual infiltration,” whereby people acquired support from these beings. It is therefore natural that they revered such beings as their kin or idols of their nations or tribes.
 

Totemism arose when people encountered strong forces from the external world. They chose to form an alliance with animals, plants and other beings to relate themselves with these images and realize mutual infiltration and symbiosis. Totemism also aimed to enhance the survivability of the whole community.

Principle of alliance
Most of the time, principles of alliance refer to rights and responsibilities for every party in a relationship. Totemism, as a form of alliance, manifests distinctive principles of alliance.
 

In general, a tribe with a totem takes it as its emblem and believes that they are the offspring of the totem. They avoid contact with the totem animal, let alone hunting or eating it.
 

An unwritten law holds that the totem blesses and protects the clan as a whole, provided the latter reveres the totem.
 

Some rites were even formed to show deep respect for the totem. For example, there were ceremonies to invite the totem into the community. Designating names, symbols and taboos for the totem also displayed respect.
 

Totem exogamy can be seen as a major representation of the principle of alliance.
 

Sociologists hold that the primary social union was not based on blood relation. Instead, it was for the common purpose of survival. Exogamy is imperative for everyone in a community who has a totem.
 

Clans could grow and survive more easily through marriage, while enclosed communities struggled to survive.
 

History of alliance
According to archaeological materials, totem culture originated in the Middle Paleolithic Age and prospered in the late Paleolithic and Mesolithic ages. Many wall paintings and statues in grottoes dating back to the Paleolithic Age depict ceremonies related to totemism.
 

There are no traces of totem culture left from the mid and late Paleolithic Age, while there are a lot of archaeological findings related to totem culture from the Neolithic Age, when the culture declined.
 

According to archeological research, totem culture emerged between 100,000 years to 10,000 years ago, namely the years when the earliest form of alliance began to appear.
 

In primitive societies, where survival was the main goal, people chose to ally themselves with animals, plants and other living beings rather than humans, clans or countries.
 

Principles of alliance changed with the evolution of mentality and social progress. The history of alliances is the evolutionary history of human mentality as well as the history of human struggle for survival.

 

Wang Jin is from the Department of Social Science at East China Normal University.