The Secret of the Totem

Religion and Society from McLennan to Freud

Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Anthropology, Health & Well Being, Psychology
Cover of the book The Secret of the Totem by Robert Alun Jones, Columbia University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Robert Alun Jones ISBN: 9780231508773
Publisher: Columbia University Press Publication: September 7, 2005
Imprint: Columbia University Press Language: English
Author: Robert Alun Jones
ISBN: 9780231508773
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Publication: September 7, 2005
Imprint: Columbia University Press
Language: English

Though it is now discredited, totemism once captured the imagination of Sigmund Freud, Émile Durkheim, James Frazer, and other prominent Victorian thinkers. In this lively intellectual history, Robert Alun Jones considers the construction of a theory and the divergent ways religious scholars, anthropologists, psychoanalysts, and cultural theorists drew on totemism to explore and define primitive and modern societies' religious, cultural, and sexual norms. Combining innovative readings of individual scholars' work and a rich portrait of Victorian intellectual life, Jones brilliantly traces the rise and fall of a powerful idea.

First used to describe the belief systems of Native American tribes, totemism ultimately encompassed a range of characteristics. Its features included belief in a guardian spirit that assumed the form of an a particular animal; a prohibition against marrying outside the clan combined with a powerful incest taboo; a sacrament in which members of the totemic clan slaughtered a representative of the totemic species; and the tracing of descent through the female rather than the male. These attributes struck a chord with the late Victorian mentality and its obsession with inappropriate sexual relations, evolutionary theory, and gender roles. Totemism represented a set of beliefs that, though utterly primitive and at a great evolutionary distance, reassured Victorians of their own more civilized values and practices.

Totemism's attraction to Victorian thinkers reflects the ways in which the social sciences construct their objects of study rather than discovering them. In discussing works such as Freud's Totem and Taboo or Frazer's The Golden Bough, Jones considers how theorists used the vocabulary of totemism to suit their intellectual interests and goals. Ultimately, anthropologists such as A. A. Goldenweiser, Franz Boas, and Claude Lévi-Strauss argued that totemism was more a reflection of the concerns of Victorian theorists than of the actual practices and beliefs of "primitive" societies, and by the late twentieth century totemism seemed to have disappeared altogether.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Though it is now discredited, totemism once captured the imagination of Sigmund Freud, Émile Durkheim, James Frazer, and other prominent Victorian thinkers. In this lively intellectual history, Robert Alun Jones considers the construction of a theory and the divergent ways religious scholars, anthropologists, psychoanalysts, and cultural theorists drew on totemism to explore and define primitive and modern societies' religious, cultural, and sexual norms. Combining innovative readings of individual scholars' work and a rich portrait of Victorian intellectual life, Jones brilliantly traces the rise and fall of a powerful idea.

First used to describe the belief systems of Native American tribes, totemism ultimately encompassed a range of characteristics. Its features included belief in a guardian spirit that assumed the form of an a particular animal; a prohibition against marrying outside the clan combined with a powerful incest taboo; a sacrament in which members of the totemic clan slaughtered a representative of the totemic species; and the tracing of descent through the female rather than the male. These attributes struck a chord with the late Victorian mentality and its obsession with inappropriate sexual relations, evolutionary theory, and gender roles. Totemism represented a set of beliefs that, though utterly primitive and at a great evolutionary distance, reassured Victorians of their own more civilized values and practices.

Totemism's attraction to Victorian thinkers reflects the ways in which the social sciences construct their objects of study rather than discovering them. In discussing works such as Freud's Totem and Taboo or Frazer's The Golden Bough, Jones considers how theorists used the vocabulary of totemism to suit their intellectual interests and goals. Ultimately, anthropologists such as A. A. Goldenweiser, Franz Boas, and Claude Lévi-Strauss argued that totemism was more a reflection of the concerns of Victorian theorists than of the actual practices and beliefs of "primitive" societies, and by the late twentieth century totemism seemed to have disappeared altogether.

More books from Columbia University Press

Cover of the book Character and Environment by Robert Alun Jones
Cover of the book Religion and the Specter of the West by Robert Alun Jones
Cover of the book Love, Amy by Robert Alun Jones
Cover of the book Technology and the American Way of War Since 1945 by Robert Alun Jones
Cover of the book The Cerrados of Brazil by Robert Alun Jones
Cover of the book Constructing Public Opinion by Robert Alun Jones
Cover of the book In Defense of Charisma by Robert Alun Jones
Cover of the book The Columbia Companion to American History on Film by Robert Alun Jones
Cover of the book Global Alert by Robert Alun Jones
Cover of the book South Korea at the Crossroads by Robert Alun Jones
Cover of the book African American Children and Families in Child Welfare by Robert Alun Jones
Cover of the book Law and Order by Robert Alun Jones
Cover of the book Trauma Transformed by Robert Alun Jones
Cover of the book In Search of the Lost Orient by Robert Alun Jones
Cover of the book In Another Country by Robert Alun Jones
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy