Religion is believed to be a product of human history. Scientists to this day can not establish the time when it arose. There is speculation that people never existed without religion. Man always creates for himself some kind of ideal to which he longs to strive.
The ancient Greek thinker Xenophan believed that people independently invent gods for themselves in their likeness and even endow them with their inherent qualities. Another philosopher, Democritus, believed that religion arises as a result of ignorance and fear. Attempts to comprehend the essence, origin and purpose of beliefs accompany a person throughout his history.
But these discussions do not deny that there was no “irreligious” time of human existence. In the early stages of human development, there were simple beliefs such as magic, shamanism, animism, and others. Separately among all this religious massif totemism stands out. This belief is considered to be an early form of religion in view of its primitivism. What is it? What is totemism religion? The answer is below.
What it is?
Listen to the sound of the word totemism. This saying is connected with the language of the American Indians and means "its kind." This term refers to the idea of a certain kindred group of people about the existence of their universal connection with any animal or plant. In ancient times, they believed in a common origin from a legendary ancestor. At the same time, the mother was the woman, but the father was a certain representative of the animal or plant world. It was such a connection between man and other types of life on Earth that totemism was considered fundamental to religion.
This union was sacred, exclusive, and immaculate. The totem was revered both as an ancestor and as a patron. Each clan had a name corresponding to its deity. His living analogues were considered brothers, they were forbidden to kill and eat. According to legend, after death, a person turned into his totem, which means that
totem animals or plants were considered dead relatives. People treated their deity with reverence and worshiped him with respect. He was protected from enemies and performed various ceremonies to appease him. The admission of a person to such a ceremony was a kind of his socialization. It is believed that totemism is the earliest form of group self-identification.
What is its significance?
The earliest forms of religion: totemism, and along with it animism with magic, were studied in detail by science in the 18th century. Belief in a totem in Australia is believed to have arisen despite the fact that many materials for reasoning were taken from North American Indians. This belief has become the basis for other religions that exist to this day and have many adherents. So, it was from totemism that such general religious ideas were gleaned as faith in common ancestors, in the kinship of people and animals, plants, as well as the ideas of the transmigration of souls, the immaculate conception and the resurrection after death, which take place in Christianity, Buddhism and Islam.