Home > Terms > English, UK (UE) > Totem

Totem

An animate or inanimate object that serves as an emblem for a clan or a people; more generally, any venerated symbol.

This is auto-generated content. You can help to improve it.
0
Improve it
  • Part of Speech: noun
  • Synonym(s):
  • Blossary:
  • Industry/Domain: Art history
  • Category: Visual arts
  • Company:
  • Product:
  • Acronym-Abbreviation:
More
Collect to Blossary

Other Languages:

More

Member comments

You have to log in to post to discussions.

Related terms

totemism
Sociology; General sociology

A religious belief of many preliterate societies where animals were seen as both gods and ancestors.

totem
Art history; Visual arts

An animate or inanimate object that serves as an emblem for a clan or a people; more generally, any venerated symbol.

totem
Anthropology; Cultural anthropology

A plant or animal whose name is adopted by a clan and that holds a special significance for its members, usually related to their mythical ancestry.

totemism
Archaeology; Human evolution

Symbolic association between a social group (e.g., a lineage or clan) and a kind of bird, plant, or natural phenomenon. In "classic" forms, a member of the social group has some ...

totemism
Language; Dictionaries

The system of distinguishing families, clans, etc., in a tribe by the totem.

totem
Language; Dictionaries

A rude picture, as of a bird, beast, or the like, used by the Nord American Indians as a symbolic designation, as of a family or a clan.

anti-art
Art history; Visual arts

Works that seek to undermine prevailing standards for the form or content of anything considered “art,” first used to describe the practices and works of the dada movement that ...

daguerreotype
Art history; Visual arts

The earliest form of commercial photographic print, developed in the mid-nineteenth century in paris by louis j. M. Daguerre, which fixes a positive image on a copper plate coated ...

classical
Art history; Visual arts

Most specifically, this term designates the 5th and 4th centuries bce in greece and the works produced then and there, though it has come to be used of greek and roman antiquity ...

critic
Art history; Visual arts

In relation to art, a person who describes and evaluates, or otherwise judges artworks according to some criteria; somewhat distinct from a connoisseur, who asserts a sensitivity ...

architrave
Art history; Visual arts

The lintel in classical architecture, or that which spans two columns at the top and forms the lowest part of the entablature.

codex
Art history; Visual arts

codex, a manuscript consisting of multiple handwritten pages, thus a set of texts in handwriting,

Terms in the News

Featured Terms

Harry8L
  • 0

    Terms

  • 0

    Blossaries

  • 1

    Followers

Industry/Domain: Computer Category: Tablet PC

DIY iPad 3

A do-it-yourself iPad assembled from scratch by an enterprising Chinese man named Xinying Liu. Responding to hot demand from China's young enthusiasts ...

Contributor

Featured blossaries

Roman Site of Constantine

Category: History   1 1 Terms

Hiking Trip

Category: Sports   1 6 Terms

Browers Terms By Category

TERMS

SOCIAL

EXTRAS

SOLUTIONS