ABSTRACT
This chapter points out the contrast between totemism and animism, and shows how first the totemic ontology, and then the animic one, are reflected in the depiction of animals. Having set out the basic contrast between totemism and animism, it considers how it bears upon the relation between human beings and non-human animals. The chapter furnishes an explanation for the remarkable ethnographic fact that masks, which are such a striking feature of the animic societies of the circumpolar North, are conspicuously absent from the totemic societies of Aboriginal Australia. It suggests that the difference between painting and carving might be related to that between the totemic focus on the land and the animic focus on its living inhabitants. The idea of comparing totemic systems and animic systems was proposed some years ago by Philippe Descola, who illustrates his argument with ethnography from Amazonian Indian societies.
