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Among other things, I’m an animist with very strong totemist leanings. I suppose a lot of you could say a great big ‘duh’ to that, I run the internet’s most comprehensive totem animal dictionary (certainly in terms of word count). It may – actually – frighteningly be the most comprehensive dictionary even when compared with published works. Not only that, but I illustrate totems. And I aspect with totems. And I invoke totems and...well...you get the idea.
I used to hate basic 101 totem dictionaries. I've written articles and long essay-like responses on pagan forums about the shittiness of totem dictionaries. I own quite a few, but I was always like ‘man, these things don’t teach people the skills they need to engage with totems or to make their own dictionaries,’ and ‘they’re recycling a lot of the same information,’ and ‘cultural appropriation FTL,’ and ‘wait a minute, that’s actually completely inaccurate biological information about that animal. WTF?’
Two of these things really piss me off still; the first regarding cultural appropriation. The second regarding teaching people inaccurate information about animals. That’s poor form on behalf of the writer, but it’s also poor form on behalf of the editor, whose job it is to help qualify research in non-fiction material. It’s just poor form all around. The pagan industry can suffer from a bit of poor form at times, it’s not just totemism that cops it, as many of you know.
( Explanations and explorations. )
I used to hate basic 101 totem dictionaries. I've written articles and long essay-like responses on pagan forums about the shittiness of totem dictionaries. I own quite a few, but I was always like ‘man, these things don’t teach people the skills they need to engage with totems or to make their own dictionaries,’ and ‘they’re recycling a lot of the same information,’ and ‘cultural appropriation FTL,’ and ‘wait a minute, that’s actually completely inaccurate biological information about that animal. WTF?’
Two of these things really piss me off still; the first regarding cultural appropriation. The second regarding teaching people inaccurate information about animals. That’s poor form on behalf of the writer, but it’s also poor form on behalf of the editor, whose job it is to help qualify research in non-fiction material. It’s just poor form all around. The pagan industry can suffer from a bit of poor form at times, it’s not just totemism that cops it, as many of you know.
( Explanations and explorations. )
