tote4 (tot)

[ or carry. Bartlett . [Southern U. S.] totem (tō'tem), n. [Amer. Ind.; given as wuhtohtimoin , that to which a person or place belongs" (Webster's Dict.); Algonkin dodaim (Tylor); Algonkin otem , with a prefixed po . pron. nt'otem , my family token. Among the Indians of North America, a natural object, usually an animal, Totem Posts, Canadian Pacific Coast. a umed as the token or emblem of a clan or family, and a representation of which served as a cognizance for each member of it; hence, a more or le similar observance and usage among other uncivilized peoples. See totemism. The representation of the totem borne by an individual was often painted or figured in some way upon the skin itself, and upon his different garments, utensils, etc. The totem was also, in a sense, an idol or the embodied form of a deity or demon, or at least had a religious significance. [The word is often used attributively, as in totem clan, totem kin, totem post, etc.] And they painted on the grave-posts. Each his own ancestral Totem , Each the symbol of his household; Figures of the Bear and Reindeer, Of the Turtle, Crane, and Beaver, Each inverted as a token That the owner was departed. Long fellow , Hiawatha, xiv. It is not only the clans and the sexes that have totems ; individuals also have their own special totems , i. e., cla es of objects (generally species of animals) which they regard as related to themselves by those ties of mutual respect and protection which are characteristic of totemism. This relationship, however, in the case of the individual pertaining to a totem; characterized by a totem: as, a totemic relative or relationship. totemism (tō'tem-izm), n. [ The theory of the wide distribution of Totemism among the nations of the ancient world (especially among the Greeks) is due to Mr. J. F. M'Lennan, who first explained it in the "Fortnightly Review," 1889, 1870. C. Elton , Origins of Eng. Hist., p. 300. In the interesting pages on Egyptian religion, Mr. Lang defends his view that the worship of animals was at any rate in part a survival of totemism , and that the custom of representing the elemental gods as animals was due to the Cla ical Rev., II. 250. same cause.