Totemism is a dead belief, or does it still exist today?

2024 Author: Miguel Ramacey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 06:11

Religion is considered to be a product of human history. Scientists to this day cannot establish the time when it arose. There is an assumption that people never existed without religion. A person always creates for himself some kind of ideal, to which he longs to strive.

The ancient Greek thinker Xenophanes believed that people independently invent gods in their own image and even endow those with their inherent qualities. Another philosopher, Democritus, believed that religion arises as a result of ignorance and fear. Attempts to comprehend the essence, origin and purpose of beliefs accompany a person throughout his history.

But these discussions do not deny that there was no "non-religious" time of human existence. In the early stages of human development, there were simple beliefs, such as magic, shamanism, animism, and others. Separately, among all this religious array, totemism stands out. This belief is considered to be an early form of religion due to its primitivism. What is it? What is the religion of totemism?The answer is below.

What is this?

Listen to the sound of the word "totemism". This saying is related to the language of the American Indians and means "his kind." This term refers to the representation of a certain kindred group of people about the presence of their universal connection with any animal or plant. In ancient times, they believed in a common descent from some legendary ancestor. At the same time, the foremother was a woman, but the father was a certain representative of the animal or plant world. It was this connection between man and other types of life on Earth that was considered the basis for the religion of totemism.

This connection was sacred, exclusive and pure. The totem was revered both as an ancestor and as a patron. Each clan had a name corresponding to its deity. His living counterparts were considered brothers, they were forbidden to kill and eat. According to legend, after death, a person turned into his totem, which means that totem animals or plants were considered dead relatives. People treated their deity with trepidation and worshiped him with respect. He was protected from enemies and performed various rituals to appease him. The admission of a person to such a ceremony was a kind of socialization. It is believed that totemism is the earliest form of group self-identification.

What is its meaning?

Early forms of religion: totemism, and along with it animism with magic - were studied in detail by science in the XVIII century. It's believed thatbelief in the totem was born in Australia, despite the fact that many of the materials for reasoning were taken from the North American Indians. This belief became the basis for other religions that exist to this day and have many adherents. So, it was from totemism that such general religious ideas as belief in common ancestors, in the kinship of people and animals, plants, as well as the ideas of the transmigration of souls, the immaculate conception and resurrection after death, which take place in Christianity, Buddhism and Islam.