Mr. Frazer suggests that several of the practices here mentioned are
fundamentally connected with totemism.[1012] In order to put himself
more fully under the protection of the totem, the clansman, according
to Mr. Frazer, is in the habit of assimilating himself to it by
the arrangement of his hair and the mutilation of his body; and of
representing the totem on his body by cicatrices, tattooing, or paint.
Thus the Buffalo clans of the Iowa and Omahas wear two locks of hair in
imitation of horns; whilst the Small Bird clan of the Omahas “leave
a little hair in front, over the forehead, for a bill, and some at the
back of the head, for the bird’s tail, with much over each ear for the
wings;” and the Turtle subclan cut off all the hair from a boy’s head,
except six locks which are arranged so as to imitate the legs, head,
and tail of a turtle. The practice of knocking out the upper front
teeth at puberty, Mr. Frazer continues, is, or was once, probably an
imitation of the totem; and so also the bone, reed, or stick which
some Australian tribes thrust through the nose. The Haidahs of Queen
Charlotte Islands have always, and the Iroquois commonly, their totems
tattooed on their persons, and certain other tribes have on their
bodies tattooed figures of animals, which Mr. Frazer thinks likely to
be totem marks. According to one authority, the raised cicatrices of
the Australians are sometimes arranged in patterns representing the
totem; and, among a few peoples, the totem is painted on the person of
the clansman.[1013]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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