What does the Lisu totem portend?

Totem refers to the belief that an animal can act as a protector, and the ancient primitive people worshipped this animal and took it as the emblem. People in different regions have different totem beliefs. For example, the totem of China people is generally dragon. As one of the ethnic minorities, Lisu people also have their totems. So, do you know what the totems in Lisu culture are?

According to statistics, Lisu people include tiger, bear, sheep (Yang), bird, fish, mouse (Chu), Zhu, bee, buckwheat (Joe), valley, bamboo, vegetable (Cai), hemp, plow (Li), frost (double) and muntjac.

Once upon a time, every tribe and clan of Lisu people had their own totem worship. There used to be more than a dozen clans in Nujiang area, such as tiger, sheep, bee, mouse, monkey, bear, sparrow, bamboo, shepherd's purse and millet, with their totem as their clan name. And there are very historical legends and stories in this respect. Among them, the self-proclaimed "Kupai" people are buckwheat people; Claiming to be "Laba", that is, Tiger Man, and so on. Lisu people think that the above animals and plants are their own ancestors.

According to the dictionary, the so-called totem means "an animal or natural thing that people in primitive society think is related to the clan, and it is generally used as the symbol of the clan." This is in line with the situation of Lisu people. Before the democratic reform in 1949, the Lisu society in Yunnan was generally at the end of primitive society.