Here are the attributes of the totem (the supreme entity):
Totem is an object serving as the symbol of a family, a clan or a tightly knit group.
Relationship with the totem is pivotal and comes even before the membership of the tribe and all kinds of blood ties.
Totem law prohibits sexual relations and marriage between the persons belonging to the same totem. This is a taboo, because totem functions as a blood relationship.
This principle is called 'exogamy'.
Totem is not attached to any place.
Totem protects and warns the members of its clan. Loyal members of its clan get advance information on the future, and guidance from the totem.
Members of the totemic clan believe that there is a kinship between themselves and the totem animal.
There is the all important 'clan totem' which envelopes the whole clan and is transferred between generations via inheritance. There is also the personal totem which belongs to a single person and is not inherited (can you detect the beginnings of an 'all-enveloping supreme entity' and the personal deities?).
Totem's religious aspect involves the relationship between the totem and a person; its social aspect applies to the relations among the members of the clan and with the members of the other clans (Can you detect the distant beginnings of the concepts of an organized belief system; the choosing the patriarch; and the concept of the chosen people?)
Now let us deal with the subject of taboo, because totem and taboo go hand in hand. Without one there wouldn't be the other, like the concepts of the supreme being and sin in present day.
