Totem pole?_其他_趣味英语-查字典英语网

Totem pole?

Reader question:

An unemployed man who can only find part-time jobs says he is “at the bottom of the totem pole”. What does it mean?

My comments:

He means to say his social position is very low. Without a regular job, he doesn’t have a chance to make much money, regularly at any rate and therefore has little chance to get ahead, socially speaking.

Let’s hope that some day, he gets a regular job and gets out of the bottom dwelling – and climb a rung or two up the totem pole, again socially speaking.

The totem pole, you see, is a large tree trunk which North American Indians use as cultural symbols. On the pole are carved images of gods and legends which are called totems – and which signify, among other things hierarchical structure of their society.

The “totem pole” as a symbol of social hierarchy in society at large was popularized by American author H. Allen Smith, though, in a best selling humor book titled “Low man on the totem pole”. Allen was speaking freely and generally there of course. He does not mean to say that the carved figures on the bottom of the totem pole to be low in rank or stature. As a matter of fact, the opposite is true. In a real totem pole, the lower positions are usually occupied by more important gods and legends. This only makes sense because the bottom of a tree trunk is larger in diameter, thus enabling larger images to be carved therein. Also, the bottom of the pole is close to people on the ground. Totems down low therefore look large – larger, that is, than if they were at the top of the pole due to their distance.