Totemism in Chinese Minority Ethnic Groups [antikvár]

I. What is Totemism Totemism holds an important position in religious history of Chinese minority ethnic groups and has a profound influence on their culture of later generations. To probe into totemism in minority ethnic groups can help us understand clearly the origin and cause of development of many traditional cultures of ethnic groups, comprehend properly the phenomena related to totemism in archaeological relics, historical literatures and traditional cultures, and probe into the development and changing rules of religions and cultures. The Chinese word "tuteng (SIM)" is a transliteration name for "totem", a word in Ojibwa language in the Algonquin tongue of American Indians with the original meaning of "family relatives" and "members of the same clan", etc. Other ethnic groups also have names with the same meaning as "totem", but as the word "totem" from American Indian was the first one appearing in European literatures, the academic circle called all such things and phenomena they found later as "totem" and other names were all replaced by "totem". Totemism was generated in original times and is left over in some modern ethnic groups . Among modern Chinese ethnic groups which still have totemism, their worship customs are different from each other, some reserving more and others reserving less. Totemism can be summed up into five aspects: one is that traditional social organizations such as clans, tribes and kin view some kind of animals, plants or inanimate objects as their own relative, ancestor or protective god, believing that they will not hurt them and will protect them instead Furthermore, they can acquire supernatural power, courage and skills from it; second is that such social organizations as clans, tribes or kin use totem as symbol and name as well; third is that people treat them in reverent manner and will not hurt them generally speaking; fourth is that people will hold ceremonies regularly every year, doing various activities about totemism; fifth is that people have fairy tales and arts related to totem. Totemism is very peculiar among various beliefs in mankind's history, and it is hard to understand many relevant customs until today. It is well-known that the appellations for parents and grand-parents are very sacred. Unbelievably, some ethnic groups in the history actually used the sacred appellations for parents and grand-parents to call some kind of animals. Furthermore,