This article is about the Native American term. For the media player, see Totem Media Player.

A totem is any natural or supernatural object, being or animal which has personal symbolic meaning to an individual and to whose phenomena and energy one feels closely associated with during one's life. The word totem is of Native American origin.

A simplified dramatic example of this belief in practice is in the Walt Disney Pictures animated film, Brother Bear. In the film, a boy from a proto-Inuit tribe receives a totem of the Bear, which represents Love. Although he initially rejects it, by the end of the story he follows its ideals more literally than anyone ever dreamed possible.

In kinship and descent, if the apical ancestor of a clan is nonhuman, it is called a totem.

See also

• totem pole

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