Totemism’s Influence On Plastic Arts Of Shamanism In Northern Nationalities

In the early stage of the primitive society, due to the harsh natural conditions and backward productivity level, the original ancestors formed the psychology of awing the powerful nature. Therefore, they took the animal,plant, natural phenomena as God, believing that a special relationship exists between the human and the nature, so they put these natural objects as their ancestors, thinking that these natural compound’s mysterious power is their national “guardian God and defender”. This is how the totemism came into being.The most prominent feature of Shamanism is the totemism, nature worship and ancestor worship, among which the influence of totemism is the most profound; so far many relics in many areas of shamanism can still be found. In this thesis the plastic arts of Shamanism are mainly discussed from the costumes, masks, Shamanism god’s idols and ritual objects, to explore the influence of totemism on shamanism artifacts and the vivid reflection of the blend of totemism and shamanism artifacts. It starts from the totemism which belongs to the primitive religion, aiming to discover the secret why Shamanism plastic arts are different from the forest of the world art.Firstly, it will introduce the background and the present situation of the subject, and then it will make a brief elaboration on the concept, the origin and the decline of totemism and Shamanism. It starting from the plastic arts of Shamanism, through the analysis of the totem of animal, plant, inanimateobjects, and natural phenomena, interprets how the totemism extends these poetic sign from the limited human world to the divine world, to explore the deep connotation of totemism in plastic arts of Shamanism.