Totem Poles : Their Social and Historical Significance

The totem pole is the characteristically sculptured pole that had a great vogue over the northwest coast of North America from approximately the mid-19th century to the early 20th .century. The poles can be divided into at least four types, namely, detached or memorial poles, grave or mortuary posts, entrance poles, and house posts. The sculptured images represent animals and human being, and they are principally the symbols of the myths and legends in which they play certain important roles. These details are exemplified in the Chief Johnson's Pole and some other poles now preserved in Ketchikan, southeast Alaska. According to ethnographical studies, many of those animals and human beings functioned as emblems of the clan and house groups, and, therefore, the right to use them in sculpture was restricted to the appropriate clan or house group members. As it is well known, the northwest coast Indians developed a complicated system of ranking, and the emblem of a clan represented not only the descent of the owner but also his position and privileges in the ranking order. The totem pole is not the object of any worship nor possessed of religious meaning but merely the symbol of the descent, rank, and privileges of its owner. The northwest coast Indians came into contact with the white men in the 18th century, and it is intriguing to note that few documents of that period of the early contact relate any information about the high poles, and only a few cases of the grave posts and house posts are mentioned. On the other hand, later observers of the 19th and 20th centuries rarely overlooked the spectacle of bristling poles, and almost all observers with intimate experiences in the region told that the poles became popular in the late half of the 19th century. This sudden popularity once led to a hypothesis that the totem poles were made under the influence of some alien culture such as the Polynesian or Melanesian. It is most reasonable, however, that the vogue is a fairly recent phenomenon, while the origin of the sculptured poles can be traced back to the house post and grave post. In the 19th century, perpetual contact with the white men caused considerable disturbance in the native society by introducing various epidemics and economic oppression. The native people also suffered from depopulation and shifting from their traditional localities. This was a serious situation for the natives, since one's position in the descent and ranking order was no more a well-known and well-established fact. Every one was anxious to insist on his own rights and privileges whenever any reordering was attempted, thus these ranking symbols began to be erected ostentatiously in front of the house. These poles were to declare to the public and to make it recognize the owner's descent and rank. Thus, it is without doubt that the vogue of the totem poles is a phenomenon which originated within the historical situation when contact with the white men became permanently established resulting in considerable disturbance of the native social organization. Furthermore, it may be likely that the vogue is a visual outcry of the self-assertion of the native cultural tradition at the time of its decomposition. Entering into the 20 th century, new villages were formed around the churches, and the houses acquired windows, ceilings and room partitions to be not different from the houses of the white men. With this change, the old communal houses were abandoned as well as the totem poles. Few people were interested in hearing the myths told by the aged men of the tribe. Finally, the native people were incorporated into the white men's society as the lowest class or partly independent minority groups.