Appending a Symbol: A Few Reflections upon Totemism and American Indian Signatures on Treaties
This article addresses the totemic dimension of the symbols used by North American Indians to sign treaties with Europeans. The theory of totemism is approached particularly through the analysis of Lévi-Strauss and Testart. If these seem to be antagonistic, conciliation is however suggested by considering the goal undertaken : an ethnographic analysis would consider totemism as classifying (Lévi-Strauss) whereas a comparative study of different practices of clan societies towards nature would embed social and seemingly individual forms of relationships to nature (Testart). However, neither of these understand the symbol as a signifier which, by guaranteeing the word of the signatory thanks to the link settled in the collective imaginary between the symbol and the Law giving its social identity to the group, allows the alliance talk to work.