the.com/totem
a family tree carved in cedar, telling stories taller than the people below it.
means A totem is an animal, plant, or object adopted as the emblem of a clan, family, or individual, often carved or depicted to represent ancestry and spiritual connection.
from From Ojibwe (an Algonquian language of the Great Lakes region), where 'odoodem' meant roughly 'his kinship group' or 'his clan' — the word carries the idea of belonging to a family marked by a shared emblem. English picked it up in the late 18th century through accounts of Indigenous North American peoples, and the now-familiar 'totem pole' followed as settlers described the carved cedar monuments of the Pacific Northwest coast.
- reading order
- lowest figure often carries the highest importance
- not worshipped
- they record lineage, not gods to pray to
- word origin
- from Ojibwe odoodem, meaning kinship clan
- built to rot
- many were meant to decay back to earth
tlingit clan totems — pacific northwest indigenous peoples of alaska and british columbia carved cedar poles depicting family crests and ancestors
kewa pueblo corn mothers — santo domingo pueblo in new mexico maintains sacred corn-based totemic objects representing clan origins and identity