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Orokaiva Society
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Historical SummaryIt may happen that the basis of totemism is laid down but no pattern is elaborated. Thus, in a South American tribe the mother may name a child after an animal because of some fancied resemblance but no proper totemism is developed:
Names—for example Big Frog, Curly Hair, Haimara (a fish), etc.—arc invented by the mother and given to the child in infancy. They are based on supposed resemblances of the child to some animal and imply a faint spiritual bond between the person and the animal. (This is, however only a hint of personal totemism or guardian-spirit concept. I have found no trace of formulated rights and duties between the person and the the animal involved.)1
The forms of totemism have therefore no precisely identical origin and no unitary development. They illustrate very well the elaborated patterns which may arise from relatively trivial points of view, they are absent or not reported from the larger part of the ethnological world, they are not continuous over the same geographical regions, they tend to converge, but not invariably, in legends of descent from the totem, and the totemic name becomes a symbol of personal identity and group solidarity.
1Gillin, J.n/an/an/an/an/a, "Crime and Punishment among the Barama River Carib of British Guiana," Amer. Anth., N.S., 36: 335.
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Chicago:
"Orokaiva Society," Orokaiva Society in Primitive Behavior: An Introduction to the Social Sciences, ed. Thomas, William I. (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1937), Original Sources, accessed July 1, 2025, http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=NQJVCVIC6TMV9Q1.
MLA:
. "Orokaiva Society." Orokaiva Society, Vol. 36, in Primitive Behavior: An Introduction to the Social Sciences, edited by Thomas, William I., New York, McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1937, Original Sources. 1 Jul. 2025. http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=NQJVCVIC6TMV9Q1.
Harvard:
, 'Orokaiva Society' in Orokaiva Society. cited in 1937, Primitive Behavior: An Introduction to the Social Sciences, ed. , McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., New York. Original Sources, retrieved 1 July 2025, from http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=NQJVCVIC6TMV9Q1.
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