Synonyms:
totem
Meaning: emblem consisting of an object such as an animal or plant; serves as the symbol of a family or clan (especially among American Indians)
Synonyms:
totem
Meaning: a clan or tribe identified by their kinship to a common totemic object
Usage examples
Each separate group has its totem, its general rules with reference to the marriage relation, to hunting and fishing, to shelter and protection.
The largest were thirty or forty feet high, carved from top to bottom into human and animal totem figures, one above another, with their limbs grotesquely doubled and folded.
This sacrilege came near causing trouble and would have cost us dear had the totem not chanced to belong to the Kadachan family, the representative of which is a member of the newly organized Wrangell Presbyterian Church.