Totem and sacrifice

The authors connect totemic identity with the psychological concept of personal identity. In the modern world, the subject has to cope on his or her own with dangerous intrusions by kinship or any other, small or large, social organisation. Migrants or refugees have many other losses, including the sense of the value of the community, and so it is more difficult for them to cope with personal needs. This encourages us to reevaluate the idea of totemic belonging in the modern world.