totemic

• “In the form, then, in which it is known, the Iroquois organization cannot be called totemic -- whether it was originally such must be left undetermined.”

  Introduction to the History of Religions Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume IV

• “The Shard of Glass is just the kind of totemic confidence booster the country needs.”

  The Guardian: Construction gives UK economic recovery an unstable foundation

• “The "totemic" prohibition in this instance really seems to have a hygienic origin.”

  The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism

• “Mr Clegg acknowledged that it was "self-evidently extraordinarily controversial" for the party to back higher fees, given its previous "totemic" policy of abolishing them.”

  The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed

• “By the 1970s whales had become the "totemic organisms of peaceniks, freaks, and ecoterrorists.”

  The Wall Street Journal: The Cetacean Century

• “Her name has acquired totemic meaning for politicians on the right who have cited her in speeches as a bogeyman, even though she has never and, she promises, will never run for office: "I'm just like, really, am I the scariest thing you can conjure?”

  The Guardian: Rachel Maddow: 'I'm definitely not an autocutie'

• “Some are totemic and tall and lurch like giant insects, but most crouch low and wide and suggest driftwood, bones, weapons, fossils and animals, especially birds—with wings outstretched—crippled or alighting.”

  The Wall Street Journal: The Shape of Things

• “Less randomness and a frantic desire to work in every possible totemic moment from the shows replaced by more focus and seriousness would make The Bardy Bunch a lot funnier.”

  The Huffington Post: Michael Giltz: Hero Plus Fringefest #3: Musicals Galore!

• “But the stadium also remains a totemic symbol of the ongoing arguments over the legacy of the Games.”

  The Guardian: Olympic year is almost here – but are we ready for it? | Owen Gibson

• “The bonuses paid to senior executives at RBS and Lloyds, which the government bailed out during the credit crisis, have become a totemic issue as the U.K.'s main political parties jostle to show which of them has the fairest economic policies.”

  The Wall Street Journal: U.K. Caps Part-State Bank Bonuses

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