Cats in totemism

Not very significant news, but also quite important. Our former chief of the expedition, Ihar Edevran Samuilovich (we once even wrote a little about him) published a monograph entitled “Totemism and animalistic beliefs of people in the territories of Orova and Northern Getulia in connection with contacts with the Geartian tribes" The meaning of the work is clear from the title; Now it seems that it is not freely available anywhere, so for now we will present a few important points. Suddenly it becomes interesting, and then you want to look for it yourself.

Some patterns can be traced between the prevalence of totemic beliefs and the frequency of contacts with Gearts. But they are not always quite obvious. For example, too close contacts with the Gearts lead to the gradual destruction of animalism (this is observed, in particular, in Northern Getulia). This happens, however, only in cases where the nature of the contacts is positive or at least neutral; Frequent and prolonged armed clashes, on the contrary, in some places led to the demonization of the image of the Gearts. With all the consequences, of course; This is partly true, by the way, for the Hellenes and Urtians. To a small extent, but still.

Going a little to the side, we will add that there is the following stereotype: all animalistic beliefs take their roots precisely from short-term and rare contacts with Gearts. We have to disappoint his followers: this is often not true. This also happens, of course (in particular, this is the most popular theory regarding the emergence of all sorts of Anuvis and others like them), but relatively rarely. As a counter-argument, we cite the Rechans, as well as the Germans and Svayts: at the beginning of our era, totemism and animalism were everywhere, blooming and smelling, but there were no traces of Gearts nearby. And attempts to explain this by earlier contacts also fail, since at the pre-Orean stage (when these contacts were still possible) we do not observe traces of either totemism or animalism.

In short, this is a short excursion. Thank you to Edevran Samuilovich for a very good job, and good health to you!