a. [f. prec. + -IC.] Of, pertaining to, or of the nature of a totem or totems; characterized by or having totems.
1865. Lubbock, Preh. Times, xiv. (1878), 528. The totemic tie that binds relationships together.
1867. Parkman, Jesuits N. Amer., Introd. (1875), 68. The names of the totemic clans, borrowed in nearly every case from animals.
1885. Clodd, Myths & Dr., I. vi. 99. The belief of the Moquis of Arizona, that after death they live in the form of their totemic animal, those of the deer family becoming deer, and so on through the several gentes.
1905. Athenæum, 21 Jan., 87/1. Mr. Haddon derives totemic names from such surnames as ‘Eaters of Turtle.’ Ibid. (1906), 17 March, 332. There are many tabous on food which are certainly not totemic in origin.
Hence Totemically adv., in reference to totems or totemism; after the manner of a totem.
1902. Folk-Lore, Dec., 373. Two cases in which Australian totem-groups averted that they were named totemically after a small species of opossum.
1910. Athenæum, 11 June, 707/3. We may regard Africa, totemically speaking, as an unexplored continent.
