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The meaning of the prohibitions depends on the category of the person and the type of animal. The totemic prohibition comes from a covenant relationship that has been woven between the animal and the ancestor so that the totem protects man and man shows his respect for the totem in different ways, by not killing it when it is an animal and by not picking it when it is a plant. The meaning can also be biological, social and religious. Biologically, the prohibition is explained by the morphology of the animal and the consequence of the transgression. On the social level, there are prohibitions that bring bad luck. On the religious level, there are on the one hand prohibitions for the uninitiated and on the other hand prohibitions for the initiated. The animal was therefore not considered as a simple fact of nature, it had a cultural position because to each taxonomy of animals also corresponded a taxonomy of behaviors
About the author
Paulin Kialo, chercheur anthropologue, travaille sur les rapports des sociétés humaines à leur forêt. Il est l'auteur entre autres de : "Etude de faisabilité des forêts communautaires", "Anthropologie de la forêt", "Anthropologie des conflits environnementaux", et "L¿environnement en Afrique".
