All belonged to the same totem or totemic class, and might be scattered throughout the tribe, though subject to the same marriage laws.
The headship of the clan was sometimes hereditary, sometimes elective, but each clan had a totemic name, and the clans together constituted the tribe, the bond being not land, but blood.
The Bechuanas, who occupy by far the largest domain, and preserve the totemic tribal system, were probably the first arrivals from the north or the north-sea coastlands.
Thus in Australia the initiation ceremonies, concerned as they partly are with marriage, always an affair between the kin-groups, are tribal, whilst the totemic rites are the prime concern of the members of the totem clans.
The guardian spirit also is called a ' power animal ', ' tutelary spirit ', totemic animal ' or ' familiar '.