The Elementary Forms of the Religious LifeDurkheim, Émile
Religion
The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life
Durkheim, Émile
Cults; Religion; Religion -- Philosophy; Rites and ceremonies; Totemism
These different facts give us an idea of the considerable place held by
the totem in the social life of the primitives. However, up to the
present, it has appeared to us as something relatively outside of the
man, for it is only upon external things that we have seen it
represented. But totemic images are not placed only upon the walls of
their houses, the sides of their canoes, their arms, their utensils and
their tombs; they are also found on the bodies of the men. They do not
put their coat-of-arms merely upon the things which they possess, but
they put it upon their persons; they imprint it upon their flesh, it
becomes a part of them, and this world of representations is even by
far the more important one.
In fact, it is a very general rule that the members of each clan seek to
give themselves the external aspect of their totem. At certain religious
festivals among the Tlinkit, the person who is to direct the ceremonies
wears a garment which represents, either wholly or in part, the body of
the animal whose name he bears.[289] These same usages are also found in
all the North-West of America.[290] They are found again among the
Minnitaree, when they go into combat,[291] and among the Indians of the
Pueblos.[292] Elsewhere, when the totem is a bird, men wear the feathers
of this bird on their heads.[293] Among the Iowa, each clan has a
special fashion of cutting the hair. In the Eagle clan, two large tufts
are arranged on the front of the head, while there is another one
behind; in the Buffalo clan, they are arranged in the form of
horns.[294] Among the Omaha, analogous arrangements are found: each clan
has its own head-dress. In the Turtle clan, for example, the hair is all
shaved off, except six bunches, two on each side of the head, one in
front, and one behind, in such a way as to imitate the legs, the head
and the tail of the animal.[295]
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