The terms “totem” and “totemism” have been and still are used in several different senses. As the precise meaning of the word “totem” is not known, its employment is a matter of convention. The tendency in recent discussions is to restrict the terms “totem” and “totemism” to the clan organization. The designation of “totemism” may be reserved to indicate an exogamous organization in which a clan thinks itself allied by an intimate and sacred bond to a natural object. Exogamy is commonly assumed as a characteristic of clan totemism; though it has not been proved to exist everywhere, yet is generally found in communities in which totemism in a strict sense exists that scholars are warranted in regarding it provisionally as a characteristic of totemism.