Totemism (derived from the word ote in the Ojibwe language) is a religious belief that is frequently associated with shamanistic religions. The totem is usually an animal or other naturalistic figure that spiritually represents a person or, more likely, a clan.
Totemism played an active role in the development of 19th and early 20th century theories of religion, especially for thinkers such as Emile Durkheim, who concentrated their study on primitive societies. Drawing on the identification of social group with spiritual totem in Australian aboriginal tribes, Durkheim theorized that all human religious expression was intrinsically founded in the relationship to a group.
