Neopagan totemism draws primarily from two threads in traditional totemism. The first is the clan/family/etc. group identity totem. Found in cultures around the world, group totemism is a way to define one collection of people from the rest. Exogamy, the process by which cultures determine who may marry whom, thereby avoiding incest in smaller groups of people, is also a strong proponent of traditional totemism in many cultures. And the division between male and female may even be punctuated by sex-based totems. Claude Levi-Strauss, in his work “Totemism”, describes an Australian aboriginal culture that has sex-based totems.
If the sexes are at war with each other, so to speak, one group may kill an animal representative of the other group’s totem as a way to strike a blow to the morale and punctuate their displeasure with their rivals—a battle of the sexes indeed!
More commonly talked about is the personal guide, particularly within the context of certain Native tribes. Traditionally, and generally speaking, at puberty boys (and sometimes girls) would go to a remote area to receive a vision of their personal animal guides. This animal would then guide the person throughout their her life. A shaman or other magic worker would have specialised guides to help her navigate through the Otherworld (however it was conceptualised) and to aid in acts of magic, benign or malign.
So from the identity focus of group totemism, and the individual focus of the personal guide, we get the hybrid that is neopagan totemism. This isn’t surprising, given that American culture tends to be very individual-based. Few of us live in the same area as our extended family, and we rarely make strong bonds with more than a few people outside of our nuclear families—if even then. We don’t live in villages with all the people we’re related to, interacting with the same folks our entire life. So socially traditional group totemism doesn’t apply very well in our personal context. In addition, our obsession with identity makes us add the identity of group totemism to the intimate bond with the personal guide, given extra flavor with the lore of the guides of the shamans and magic-workers whom we may want to emulate.
Does this mean that neopagan totemism is illegitimate? Not at all. The key to Neopagan totemism is custom-tailoring it. Since we don’t have any ancient traditions of our own that must be upheld, we can pretty much experiment with it as we go. The thing to remember, as with all magic, is is it works for you, use it. However, the lesson to be learned from cultural appropriation is to also recall where your information comes from and how you represent it to others.
Reading “Animal-Speak” does not make one a genuine real live Indian—nor is there any need to make that claim. Neopagan totemism is developing into its own paradigm, and is uniquely created by us, the neopagan community. Instead of trying to be like the Natives, why not try being like ourselves?
