Wild Thought by Claude Lévi-Strauss

Author:Claude Lévi-Strauss [Lévi-Strauss, Claude]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: SOC000000 Social Science / General, SOC002010 Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural, PHI034000 Philosophy / Social
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 2021-02-10T00:00:00+00:00

There are no subdivisions of any sort within the moieties. Associated with each, however, is a long list of animals, plants and objects; in fact, the native concept is that everything in the world belongs to one or the other side. Each member of a moiety stands in relation to one of the objects characteristic of his moiety—a relation that must be considered totemic—in one way only: through his name. This name given him in infancy by a grandfather or other relative, and retained through life, refers to one of the totem animals or objects characteristic of his moiety.

Nor is this all: in the great majority of cases the totem is not mentioned in the name, which is formed from some verbal or adjectival stem, and describes an action or condition that might apply equally well to other totems. Thus on the verb hausu-s are based the names Hausu and Hauchu, which connote, respectively, the yawning of an awakening bear and the gaping of a salmon drawn out of the water. There is nothing in either name that indicates the animals in question—which even belong to opposite moieties. The old men who bestowed them no doubt announced the totemic reference of the names; the bearers, and their family, kin, and more intimate associates, knew the implication; but a Miwok from another district would have been uncertain whether a bear, a salmon, or one of a dozen other animals was meant. (Kroeber 2, 453–54)

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