Ancestor Worship and Totemism

There are many behaviors Anthropologists and other social scientists consider to be “human universals.”  Behaving religiously at all for one, but more specifically, communicating one’s acceptance of the supernatural claim that the living can influence the dead, and the dead can influence the living (Steadman and Palmer 2007).  In other words, practicing ancestor worship, a specific form of religious behavior, also seems to be a human universal.

Though not as universal as ancestor worship, totemism is another commonly practiced religious behavior around the world.  Imagine the instant camaraderie you would feel walking through the streets of a foreign country and running into someone you’ve never met before wearing a Boise State Broncos shirt.  Though this example lacks the communicated acceptance of a supernatural claim, and therefore does not meet the definitions of religious behavior and totemism, it does demonstrate the function of totemism quite well; as will be discussed later in this chapter.

Totemism expands upon ancestor worship by being the communicated acceptance of the claim that one’s ancestor(s) has a supernatural relationship with a natural category.  This relationship with a natural category extends to that ancestor’s descendants (people in the present day) (Steadman and Palmer 2007).  In this chapter you will learn how totemism augments ancestor worship, and why this is a behavior that leads to descendant-leaving success.