Totem is believed to be something or an entity that watches over or assists a group of people, such as a family, clan, or tribe.
Totems support larger groups than the individual person. In Kinmanship and descent, if the ancestor of a clan is nonhuman, it is called a totem. Totemistic beliefs are historically present throughout much of the world, including USA, India, Africa, Asia, Australia, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and the Arctic polar region.
In modern times, some religious groups have chosen to adopt a personal spirit animal helper, which has special meaning to them, and refer to this as a totem. Some groups e.g. New Age, Mythopoetic men’s movement practicing non-traditional usage.
In the early period it was believed that gods disguise themselves in appearing as certain animals. The people then treated certain animals as sacred and worshiped them.
The origin of animal-worship is believed to relate to the period when the gods were threatened by giants, and they hid under the guise of animals. The people then naturally began to worship the animals that their gods had disguised themselves as , and continued this act even after the gods returned to their normal state. The animal worship resulted from man’s natural curiosity. Primitive man would observe an animal that had a unique trait and the inexplicability of this trait would appeal to man’s curiosity. Wonder resulted from primitive man’s observations of this distinctive trait and this wonder eventually induced adoration. Thus, primitive man worshipped animals that had inimitable traits in other beliefs animal-worship originated from family names. In societies, families would name themselves and their children after certain animals and eventually came to hold that animal above other animals.
Eventually, these opinions turned into deep respect and evolved into fully developed worship of the family animal. The belief that an animal is sacred frequently results in dietary laws prohibiting their consumption. As well as holding certain animals to be sacred, religions have also adopted the opposite attitude, that certain animals are unclean.
Kalenjin people had totems in form of animals. They also attached a lot of respect to their family animal. For example those who had an elephant , Leopard, Lion etc. as their totem, believed the Elephants would not attack them when they encounter .
On the other hand identifying with the animal help distinguish clans from where marriages were acceptable to ensure they avoid inbriding.