Abstract

Egypt and China were essential in the evolution of human totemic culture. This paper focuses on their imaginative usage of anthropomorphic metaphors. According to research on totemism, the Chinese have three totemic concepts: totem-kin, totem-ancestor, and totem-God. If the concept of "anthropomorphic metaphor" is based on a variant of philosophical or theological terminology to focus on the "bird-totemic system of artistic meaning," it can be determined that the creative function of the institutional totems is explicit and the creative function of the individual totems is implicit, and that this manifestation of the institutional totems leads to their superficiality, with the result that a series of negative effects must inevitably ensue. To dispel the misunderstanding of the artistic connotation of the human-bird-eagle totems, it is necessary to promote our subjective consciousness through the self-conscious and speculative ideas in the individual totems in order to further liberate the life energy of humans in the contemporary spiritual construction. On the basis of Roland Barth's theory of symbol transmission, we attempt to investigate the notion that the individual consciousness represented by ancient totemic culture is power, which can assist in forming an understanding of the functioning in ancient culture.