ADSKILT, FORBUNDET, FORENET: Totemistisk praksis på Rossel Island

Abstract

John Liep: Separated, Linked, and

United: Totemic Practice on Rossel Island

Matrilineal clans on Rossel Island, Papua

New Guinea have so-called “linked totems”

of bird, plant and fish as well as a fourth

totem which is an individual snake,

crocodile or dugong. Further investigation

disclosed that these emblems and sacred

animals are both used to distinguish clans

and subclans and to unite linked subclans of

different clans. Further, individual geographical

features of subclan territories mark

out territorial as well as symbolic

possessions that are likewise used to “think”

separation as well as unification of social

groups. A minor point of the discussion is

that totems serve as vehicles of metaphor as

Levi-Strauss emphasized, but also as

metonyms which he underplayed. A second,

and major, point is that territorial categories

and relations which we tend to regard as

“economic” may also be part of a totemic

symbolic practice.