quasi-totemic

Updated: May 27, 2025

It is true that the belief was, and is, not uncommon among savages that a deceased person might take the form of some natural object; but the reported cases are rare in which a man deliberately enjoins on his descendants reverence for such an object with the result that a quasi-totemic group arises. This custom is not frequent enough to account for totemism.

Crawford Howell Toy - Introduction to the History of Religions: Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume IV

Throughout the East the known facts suggest that a nontotemic organization has followed an earlier form in which quasi-totemic elements are recognizable. +527+. The interesting social organization of the Northern Pacific Coast, on the other hand, appears to be independent of agriculture.

Crawford Howell Toy - Introduction to the History of Religions: Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume IV