Is therioshamanism the same as animal totemism?
It integrates totemism, but isn’t one and the same. A lot depends on what you consider totemism to be. I’ve outlined in this essay what the basic differences between traditional and neopagan totemism are, but in brief, traditional totemism is a group-based system. Totems are involved in community values, as well as exogamy (determining who can marry whom) to avoid incest, something that’s more of a risk in a smaller group of people. Modern neopagan totemism (which is what you’ll find in most spiritual books dealing with the topic) is a mixture of traditional totemism, the concept of the individual spirit guide, and the shaman’s power animal. I am a neopagan totemist. My view of totems is that they’re archetypal beings that embody all the qualities associated with a particular animal, including natural history and human lore. All animals, including domestic ones, have totems, and my practice has dealt largely with them. So therioshamanism can be seen as incorporating neopagan totemism,
