TOTEMS AND BURIAL

We had a discussion in Austrialia or New Zealand about Totems and burial, and my companions insisted that totems do not carry bones. I recalled, from a prior visit to Alaska, that the totems do carry bones. Here's an excerpt about this interesting matter:


"Several of them are funeral poles that once held wooden boxes with the remains of Haida nobles. The early Haida buried their chiefs by compacting their bodies into a tiny wooden box that was placed at the top of a burial totem in front of the chief's lodge. The carvings on the totem would tell the story of significant events in the man's life. Each totem tells a story and there is nothing random in their carving. Each rendered image whether real or imagined has a specific meaning, a wedding, a death, or a great battle, though many are known only to the people now long gone." - by James Michael Dorsey, "Islands at the Boundary of the World - Ninstints, British Columbia, Canada"

And here's another excerpt and source:


http://science.jrank.org/pages/4480/Mounds-Earthen.html

"No one knows what the effigy mounds were used for. Some archaeologists believe that they functioned as totem poles. As with totems, a few human bones were buried within the effigy mounds for their symbolic value...."