The notion of sharks as man-eaters wa not compatible with the relationship desired with thc
totemic animal. Furthermore, if sharks were man eaters, or potential man-eaters, they would not be tolerated and could not be protected in a society where most people are not aware of the differences among domesticated, tamed, and wild animals.
Almost all the ethnic groups in Ghana have similar
totemic animal symbols, but different meanings that they ascribe.
As the ritual meal involves communing with the sacred principle that inhabits the plant or body of the killed
totemic animal, god and worshipper become united in the same act.
As Durkheim long ago perceived Aboriginal practice does not make the
totemic animal sacred, but only objects like sacred boards and other things that stand for the totemic ancestors, which are at the centre of religious life.
Only one painting of a coiled snake (a common
totemic animal species from the Western and Central islands, see Haddon & Rivers 1904) has been documented from Torres Strait rock art (Mua in the mid-Western islands) (Figure 3).
(SE 13:114) Totemism is nevertheless the primitive formulation of the law of the father; the members of the primal hoard will transfer upon the
totemic animal the ambivalent feelings they originally experienced for their leader: love, but also fear of castration stemming from sexual competition.
"The wild goats must have been a
totemic animal with ritual significance for the people at the time."
(35) The fire-theft myths explain how humans acquired fire and learnt to cook from a
totemic animal. In one of the most common versions, the hero is taken in by the animal, often a jaguar, where he is introduced to cooked meat.
Since the Lolo (Ne [or Yi in Mandarin]) also refer to the tiger (their
totemic animal) as a "big bug," it would be worthwhile to investigate further the different conceptual categories for animals in Sinitic languages.
The apposite
totemic animal here is neither the hare nor the tortoise, but rather the fox.
Returning to the scene of the hunt, Ike realizes that the glory of the wilderness is giving way before the encroachments of civilization (in this case a railroad and a sawmill), and paradoxically achieves a kind of mystic acceptance of the endless cycles of time and knowledge of immortality--symbolized by his encountering a snake and saluting it, as Sam Fathers had done, as a
totemic animal.