A totem (from Ojibwe : ᑑᑌᒼ or ᑑᑌᒻ doodem ) is a spirit being, sacred object, or symbol that serves as an emblem of a group of people , such as a family , clan , lineage , or tribe , such as in the Anishinaabe clan system .
65-703: While the word totem itself is an anglicisation of the Ojibwe term (and both the word and beliefs associated with it are part of the Ojibwe language and culture ), belief in tutelary spirits and deities is not limited to the Ojibwe people. Similar concepts, under differing names and with variations in beliefs and practices, may be found in a number of cultures worldwide. The term has also been adopted, and at times redefined, by anthropologists and philosophers of different cultures. Contemporary neoshamanic , New Age , and mythopoetic men's movements not otherwise involved in
130-955: A kai augud ("chief totem") or mugina augud ("little totem"). Early anthropologists sometimes attributed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander totemism to ignorance about procreation, with the entrance of an ancestral spirit individual (the "totem") into the woman believed to be the cause of pregnancy (rather than insemination ). James George Frazer in Totemism and Exogamy wrote that Aboriginal people "have no idea of procreation as being directly associated with sexual intercourse, and firmly believe that children can be born without this taking place". Frazer's thesis has been criticised by other anthropologists, including Alfred Radcliffe-Brown in Nature in 1938. Early anthropologists and ethnologists like James George Frazer, Alfred Cort Haddon , John Ferguson McLennan and W. H. R. Rivers identified totemism as
195-401: A chief representative of modern structuralism , French ethnologist Claude Lévi-Strauss , and his Le Totémisme aujourd'hui ("Totemism Today" [1958]) are often cited in the field. In the 21st century, Australian anthropologists question the extent to which "totemism" can be generalized even across different Aboriginal Australian peoples, let alone to other cultures like the Ojibwe from whom
260-504: A compilation of the work of other writers in the field. By 1910, the idea of totemism as having common properties across cultures was being challenged, with Russian American ethnologist Alexander Goldenweiser subjecting totemistic phenomena to sharp criticism. Goldenweiser compared Indigenous Australians and First Nations in British Columbia to show that the supposedly shared qualities of totemism—exogamy, naming, descent from
325-504: A divided linguistic geography, as the people of the countryside continued to use forms of Norman French , and many did not even know English. English became seen in the Channel Islands as "the language of commercial success and moral and intellectual achievement". The growth of English and the decline of French brought about the adoption of more values and social structures from Victorian era England. Eventually, this led to
390-504: A divorce was completed). In 1916 Brown became a director of education in Tonga . In 1921 he moved to Cape Town to become professor of social anthropology, founding the School of African Life. Further university appointments were University of Cape Town (1921–25), University of Sydney (1925–31) and University of Chicago (1931–37). Among his most prominent students during his years at
455-462: A form of collective worship, reinforcing social cohesion and solidarity. The leading representative of British social anthropology, A. R. Radcliffe-Brown, took a totally different view of totemism. Like Franz Boas , he was skeptical that totemism could be described in any unified way. In this he opposed the other pioneer of social anthropology in England, Bronisław Malinowski , who wanted to confirm
520-595: A large part of the country's population due to language revival measures aimed at countering historical anglicisation measures such as the Welsh not . In the early parts of the 19th century, mostly due to increased immigration from the rest of the British Isles, the town of St Helier in the Channel Islands became a predominantly English-speaking place, though bilingualism was still common. This created
585-456: A mystical relationship between the object—from which the name was once derived—and the groups that bore these names. Through nature myths, animals and natural objects were considered as the relatives, patrons, or ancestors of the respective social units. British anthropologist Sir James George Frazer published Totemism and Exogamy in 1910, a four-volume work based largely on his research among Indigenous Australians and Melanesians , along with
650-434: A notion he called ' coadaptation ', deriving from the biological term. Functional analysis, then, was just the attempt to explain stability by discovering how practices fit together to sustain that stability; the 'function' of practice was just its role in sustaining the overall social structure, insofar as there was a stable social structure (Radcliffe-Brown 1957). While Lévi-Strauss (1958) claimed that social structure and
715-408: A rigorous battery of concepts to frame ethnography. Durkheim, inspired Radcliffe-Brown throughout the entirety of his profession in anthropology. One of Radcliffe-Brown's goals was to "transform anthropology into a 'real' science based on the natural sciences." He demonstrated these ideologies in his book published in 1957, A Natural Science of Society . In 1906, one of Alfred's primary focuses in
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#1732772851555780-447: A shared practice across indigenous groups in unconnected parts of the world, typically reflecting a stage of human development. Scottish ethnologist John Ferguson McLennan , following the vogue of 19th-century research, addressed totemism in a broad perspective in his study The Worship of Animals and Plants (1869, 1870). McLennan did not seek to explain the specific origin of the totemistic phenomenon but sought to indicate that all of
845-520: Is a form of cultural assimilation whereby something non-English becomes assimilated into or influenced by the culture of England . It can be sociocultural, in which a non-English or place adopts the English language or culture; institutional, in which institutions are influenced by those of England or the United Kingdom ; or linguistic , in which a non-English term or name is altered due to
910-411: Is a general tendency to characterize segments of the community through a connection with a portion of nature. In opposition to Durkheim's theory of sacralization, Radcliffe-Brown took the point of view that nature is introduced into the social order rather than secondary to it. At first, he shared with Malinowski the opinion that an animal becomes totemistic when it is “good to eat.” He later came to oppose
975-540: Is based on observations, what anthropologists see and hear about individual peoples. Radcliffe-Brown also argued that the study of social structure encompassed culture, therefore there is no need for a separate field dedicated to culture. A major view in the study of tribal societies had been that all societies follow a unilineal path (' evolutionism '), and that therefore 'primitive' societies could be understood as earlier stages along that path; conversely, 'modern' societies contained vestiges of older forms. Another view
1040-430: Is considered by some to be the founder of structural functionalism . Structural Functionalism, which can be traced back to sociologist Émile Durkheim, is the social theory that assumes societal institution (e.g. Government, school systems, family structures,etc.) play a role in its success. Through the two different group dynamics; Mechanical solidarity a “sentimental attraction of social units or groups that perform
1105-415: Is the tendency of definite social units to become associated with objects and symbols of emotional value". The founder of a French school of sociology, Émile Durkheim , examined totemism from a sociological and theological point of view, attempting to discover a pure religion in very ancient forms and claimed to see the origin of religion in totemism. In addition, he argued that totemism also served as
1170-899: The Danish city København ( Copenhagen ), the Russian city of Moskva ( Moscow ), the Swedish city of Göteborg ( Gothenburg ), the Dutch city of Den Haag ( The Hague ), the Spanish city of Sevilla ( Seville ), the Egyptian city of Al-Qāhira ( Cairo ), and the Italian city of Firenze ( Florence ). The Indian city of Kolkata used to be anglicised as Calcutta , until the city chose to change its official name back to Kolkata in 2001. Anglicisation of words and names from indigenous languages occurred across
1235-616: The English-speaking world in former parts of the British Empire . Toponyms in particular have been affected by this process. In the past, the names of people from other language areas were anglicised to a higher extent than today. This was the general rule for names of Latin or (classical) Greek origin. Today, the anglicised name forms are often retained for the more well-known persons, like Aristotle for Aristoteles, and Adrian (or later Hadrian ) for Hadrianus. During
1300-578: The Pacific Northwestern Indigenous peoples of North America are carved, monumental poles featuring many different designs (bears, birds, frogs, people, and various supernatural beings and aquatic creatures). They serve multiple purposes in the communities that make them. Similar to other forms of heraldry , they may function as crests of families or chiefs, recount stories owned by those families or chiefs, or commemorate special occasions. These stories are known to be read from
1365-570: The University of Chicago were Sol Tax and Fred Eggan . While at the University of Sydney, he was a cultivator of the arts and championed Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford , as the author of the works attributed to Shakespeare. Fearing that Depression may lead to financial collapse Radcliffe-Brown departed in 1931 to fill a chair at the University of Chicago, leaving his successors to solicit Rockefeller grants and government funds to save
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#17327728515551430-462: The Welsh educational system . English "was perceived as the language of progress, equality, prosperity, mass entertainment and pleasure". This and other administrative reforms resulted in the institutional and cultural dominance of English and marginalisation of Welsh, especially in the more urban south and north-east of Wales. In 2022, the Commission for Welsh-speaking Communities warned that
1495-654: The Yuin of coastal New South Wales, a person may have multiple totems of different types (personal, family or clan, gender, tribal and ceremonial). The lakinyeri or clans of the Ngarrindjeri were each associated with one or two plant or animal totems, called ngaitji . Totems are sometimes attached to moiety relations (such as in the case of Wangarr relationships for the Yolngu ). Torres Strait Islanders have auguds, typically translated as totems. An augud could be
1560-564: The British Isles became increasingly anglicised. Firstly, the ruling classes of England, who were of Norman origin after the Norman Conquest of 1066, became anglicised as their separate Norman identity, different from the identity of the native Anglo-Saxons , became replaced with a single English national identity . Secondly, English communities in Wales and Ireland emphasised their English identities, which became established through
1625-601: The Channel Islands and Britain, but also provide economic prosperity and improved "general happiness". During the 19th century, there was concern over the practise of sending young Channel Islanders to France for education, as they might have brought back French culture and viewpoints back to the Islands. The upper class in the Channel Islands supported anglicising the Islands, due to the social and economic benefits it would bring. Anglophiles such as John Le Couteur strove to introduce English culture to Jersey . Anglicisation
1690-543: The Channel Islands's culture becoming mostly anglicised, which supplanted the traditional Norman-based culture of the Islands. From 1912, the educational system of the Channel Islands was delivered solely in English, following the norms of the English educational system . Anglicisation was supported by the British government , and it was suggested that anglicisation would not only encourage loyalty and congeniality between
1755-562: The Concept of Function in Social Science, 181). Nonetheless, Radcliffe-Brown vehemently denied being a functionalist, and carefully distinguished his concept of function from that of Malinowski, who openly advocated functionalism. While Malinowski's functionalism claimed that social practices could be directly explained by their ability to satisfy basic biological needs, Radcliffe-Brown rejected this as baseless. Instead, influenced by
1820-637: The Sydney Department. After these various far-flung appointments, he returned to England in 1937 to take up an appointment to the first chair in social anthropology at Oxford University in 1937. He held this post until his retirement in 1946. Survived by his daughter, he died in London in 1955 at the age of 74. While Radcliffe-Brown founded the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology at Oxford, according to Rodney Needham his absence from
1885-455: The basis of this research, he contributed extensively to the anthropological ideas on kinship, and criticised Lévi-Strauss 's Alliance theory . He also produced structural analyses of myths, including on the basis of the concept of binary distinctions and dialectical opposition, an idea later echoed by Lévi-Strauss . According to Radcliffe-Brown, the function of religion is to install a sense of dependence on fear and other emotional strain on
1950-421: The bottom of the pole to the top. The spiritual, mutual relationships between Aboriginal Australians , Torres Strait Islanders , and the natural world are often described as totems. Many Indigenous groups object to using the imported Ojibwe term "totem" to describe a pre-existing and independent practice, although others use the term. The term "token" has replaced "totem" in some areas. In some cases, such as
2015-584: The continued prominence of the Welsh language and customs within them. However, other scholars argue that industrialisation and urbanisation led to economic decline in rural Wales, and given that the country's large towns and cities were anglicised, this led to an overall anglicisation of the nation. The Elementary Education Act 1870 and the Welsh Intermediate Education Act 1889 introduced compulsory English-language education into
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2080-474: The cultural influence of the English language. It can also refer to the influence of English soft power , which includes media, cuisine, popular culture, technology, business practices, laws and political systems. Anglicisation first occurred in the British Isles , when Celts under the sovereignty of the king of England underwent a process of anglicisation. The Celtic language decline in England
2145-554: The emigration of Anglophones to Welsh-speaking villages and towns was putting the Welsh language at risk. During the 19th and 20th centuries, there was a nationwide effort in the United States to anglicise all immigrants to the US . This was carried out through methods including (but not limited to) mandating the teaching of American English and having all immigrants change their first names to English-sounding names. This movement
2210-880: The extended family. In the Anishinaabe oral tradition, in prehistory the Anishinaabe were living along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean when the great Miigis beings appeared from the sea. These beings taught the Mide way of life to the Waabanakiing peoples. Six of the seven great Miigis beings that remained to teach established the odoodeman for the peoples in the east. The five original Anishinaabe totems were Wawaazisii ( bullhead ), Baswenaazhi (echo-maker, i.e., crane ), Aan'aawenh ( pintail duck), Nooke (tender, i.e., bear ) and Moozwaanowe ("little" moose -tail). The totem poles of
2275-504: The field [Andaman Islands] was kinship and familial relations of Western Australians. Within these communities, he uncovered distinct social organizations that proved adaptation and fusion were essential in keeping the system functioning. The term “Structural Functionalism” would later be used to describe the idea that “the life of a society may be viewed as an active system of functionally consistent, interdependent elements.” Radcliffe-Brown has often been associated with functionalism , and
2340-488: The field. Haddon led him towards the comparative method in specific societies in anthropology, classification and morphology, inductive generalization, and to sympathize with Durkheim's approaches. Rivers inspired Radcliffe in psychology to approach anthropology with many different qualities of mind. He has been described as "the classic to Bronisław Malinowski 's romantic". Radcliffe-Brown brought French sociology (namely Émile Durkheim ) to British anthropology, constructing
2405-501: The human body into a society. Therefore, a major function of religion is to affirm and strengthen sentiments necessary for a society to continue. This idea was developed in Radcliffe-Browns book, The Adaman Islanders (Free Press 1963). Radcliffe-Brown was often criticised for failing to consider the effect of historical changes in the societies he studied, in particular changes brought about by colonialism. Nevertheless, he
2470-402: The human race had, in ancient times , gone through a totemistic stage. Another Scottish scholar, Andrew Lang , early in the 20th century, advocated a nominalistic explanation of totemism, namely, that local groups or clans, in selecting a totemistic name from the realm of nature, were reacting to a need to be differentiated. If the origin of the name was forgotten, Lang argued, there followed
2535-460: The institute during the war years prevented his theories and approach from having a major influence on Oxford anthropology. Radcliffe-Brown was influenced by his tutor, W. W. Rouse Ball , to study a moral science (psychology, philosophical subjects, and economics) instead of a natural science which he originally wanted to pick. During his time at Cambridge, professors Haddon and Rivers encouraged him to study anthropology and discover his interests in
2600-528: The land the English settled was not intensively used or densely populated. The culture of settling English populations in Wales and Ireland remained heavy influenced by that of England. These communities were also socially and culturally segregated from the native Irish and Welsh, a distinction which was reinforced by government legislation such as the Statutes of Kilkenny . During the Middle Ages , Wales
2665-495: The maintenance of a society stating, “human beings are connected by a complex network of social relations. I use the term “social structure” to denote this network of actually existing relations”. (On Social Structure, 190) He also clarifies that “We may define it as a condition in which all parts of the system work together with a sufficient degree of harmony or internal consistency, i.e., without producing persistent conflicts which can neither be resolved nor regulated”. (On
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2730-512: The possible exception of linguistics , were arbitrary; once our knowledge of society is sufficient, he argued, we will be able to form subdisciplines of anthropology centred around relatively isolated parts of the social structure. But without extensive scientific knowledge, it is impossible to know where these boundaries should be drawn. Radcliffe-Brown carried out extensive fieldwork in the Andaman Islands, Australia, and elsewhere. On
2795-687: The power of the Welsh Tudor dynasty in the rest of England. Scholars have argued that industrialisation prevented Wales from being anglicised to the extent of Ireland and Scotland, as the majority of the Welsh people did not move abroad in search of employment during the early modern era, and thus did not have to learn to speak English. Furthermore, migration patterns created a cultural division of labour, with national migrants tending to work in coalfields or remain in rural villages, while non-national migrants were attracted to coastal towns and cities. This preserved monocultural Welsh communities, ensuring
2860-583: The practice of a traditional, tribal religion have been known to use "totem" terminology for the personal identification with a tutelary spirit or spirit guide . The Anishinaabe peoples are divided into a number of doodeman (in syllabics : ᑑᑌᒪᐣ or ᑑᑌᒪᓐ ), or clans, (singular: doodem ) named mainly for animal totems (or doodem , as an Ojibwe person would say this word). In Anishinaabemowin , ᐅᑌᐦ ode' means heart. Doodem or clan literally would translate as 'the expression of, or having to do with one's heart', with doodem referring to
2925-574: The process philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead , he claimed that the fundamental units of anthropology were processes of human life and interaction. Because these are by definition characterized by constant flux, what calls for explanation is the occurrence of stability. Why Radcliffe-Brown asked, would some patterns of social practices repeat themselves and even seem to become fixed? He reasoned that this would at least require that other practices must not conflict with them too much; and that in some cases, it may be that practices grow to support each other,
2990-406: The same or similar functions” & Organic solidarity , which is relies on “interdependence based on differentiated functions and specialization”, a society creates a web that allows a cohesive existence of heterogenous groups. Alfred built off of these principles believing that studying social structures like kinship ties would be evidence enough for understanding how social structures affect
3055-414: The second son of Alfred Brown (d.1886), a manufacturer's clerk, and his wife Hannah (née Radcliffe). He later changed his last name, by deed poll , to Radcliffe-Brown, Radcliffe being his mother's maiden name. He was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham , and Trinity College, Cambridge (B.A., 1905; M.A., 1909), graduating with first-class honours in the moral sciences tripos. At Trinity College, he
3120-563: The settlement of various parts of Wales and Ireland between the 11th and 17th centuries under the guidance of successive English kings. In Wales, this primarily occurred during the conquest of Wales by Edward I , which involved English and Flemish settlers being "planted" in various newly established settlements in Welsh territory. English settlers in Ireland mostly resided in the Pale , a small area concentrated around Dublin . However, much of
3185-460: The social relations that are its constituents are theoretical constructions used to model social life, Radcliffe-Brown only half-agreed In addition to identifying abstract relationships between social structures, Radcliffe-Brown argued for the importance of the notion of a 'total social structure', which is the sum total of social relations in a given social unit of analysis during a given period. The identification of 'functions' of social practices
3250-508: The term was originally derived. Rose, James and Watson write that: The term ‘totem’ has proved to be a blunt instrument. Far more subtlety is required, and again, there is regional variation on this issue. Poets, and to a lesser extent fiction writers, often use anthropological concepts, including the anthropological understanding of totemism. For this reason, literary criticism often resorts to psychoanalytic, anthropological analyses. Anglicisation Anglicisation or Anglicization
3315-616: The theory of structural functionalism . He conducted fieldwork in the Andaman Islands and Western Australia , which became the basis of his later books. He held academic appointments at universities in Cape Town , Sydney , Chicago , and Oxford , and sought to use model the field of anthopology after the natural sciences . Alfred Reginald Radcliffe-Brown was born Alfred Reginald Brown in Sparkbrook , Birmingham , England,
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#17327728515553380-439: The time in which there were large influxes of immigrants from Europe to the United States and United Kingdom during the 19th and 20th centuries, the names of many immigrants were never changed by immigration officials but only by personal choice. Alfred Radcliffe-Brown Alfred Reginald Radcliffe-Brown , FBA (born Alfred Reginald Brown ; 1881–1955) was an English social anthropologist who helped further develop
3445-547: The totem, taboo, ceremony, reincarnation, guardian spirits and secret societies and art—were actually expressed very differently between Australia and British Columbia, and between different peoples in Australia and between different peoples in British Columbia. He then expands his analysis to other groups to show that they share some of the customs associated with totemism, without having totems. He concludes by offering two general definitions of totemism, one of which is: "Totemism
3510-456: The unity of totemism in some way and approached the matter more from a biological and psychological point of view than from an ethnological one. According to Malinowski, totemism was not a cultural phenomenon, but rather the result of trying to satisfy basic human needs within the natural world. As far as Radcliffe-Brown was concerned, totemism was composed of elements that were taken from different areas and institutions, and what they have in common
3575-437: The untestable nature of historical reconstructions. Instead, he argued for the use of the comparative method to find regularities in human societies and thereby build up a genuinely scientific knowledge of social life. To that end, Radcliffe-Brown argued for a 'natural science of society'. He claimed that there was an independent role for social anthropology here, separate from psychology, though not in conflict with it. This
3640-561: The usefulness of this viewpoint, since many totems—such as crocodiles and flies—are dangerous and unpleasant. In 1938, the structural functionalist anthropologist A. P. Elkin wrote The Australian Aborigines: How to understand them. His typologies of totemism included eight "forms" and six "functions". The forms identified were: The functions identified were: The terms in Elkin's typologies see some use today, but Aboriginal customs are seen as more diverse than his typologies suggest. As
3705-913: The workings of the societies there. His time in the Andaman Islands and Western Australia were the basis of his later books The Andaman Islanders (1922) and The Social Organization of Australian Tribes (1930). At the 1914 meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, in Melbourne , Bates accused him of plagiarising her work, based on an unpublished manuscript she had sent him for comment. Before departing for Western Australia, Brown married Winifred Marie Lyon in Cambridge ; they had one daughter, Mary Cynthia Lyon Radcliffe. The couple became estranged by about 1926. They may have divorced in 1938 (sources disagree on whether
3770-589: Was an essential element in the development of British society and of the development of a unified British polity. Within the British Isles , anglicisation can be defined as influence of English culture in Scotland , Wales , Ireland , the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands . Until the 19th century, most significant period for anglicisation in those regions was the High Middle Ages . Between 1000 and 1300,
3835-441: Was because psychology was to be the study of individual mental processes, while social anthropology was to study processes of interaction between people (social relations). Thus he argued for a principled ontological distinction between psychology and social anthropology, in the same way as one might try to make a principled distinction between physics and biology. Moreover, he claimed that existing social scientific disciplines, with
3900-550: Was elected Anthony Wilkin student in 1906 and 1909. While still a student, he earned the nickname "Anarchy Brown" for his close interest in the writings of the anarcho-communist and scientist Peter Kropotkin . He studied psychology under W. H. R. Rivers who, with A. C. Haddon , led him toward social anthropology. Under the latter's influence, he travelled to the Andaman Islands (1906–1908) and Western Australia (1910–1912, with biologist and writer E. L. Grant Watson and Australian writer Daisy Bates ) to conduct fieldwork into
3965-700: Was gradually conquered by the English. The institutional anglicisation of Wales was finalised with the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542 , which fully incorporated Wales into the Kingdom of England . This not only institutionally anglicised Wales, but brought about the anglicisation of the Welsh culture and language. Motives for anglicising Wales included securing Protestant England against incursions from Catholic powers in Continental Europe and promoting
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#17327728515554030-713: Was known as Americanization and is considered a subset of Anglicization due to English being the dominant language in the United States. Linguistic anglicisation is the practice of modifying foreign words, names, and phrases to make them easier to spell, pronounce or understand in English . The term commonly refers to the respelling of foreign words, often to a more drastic degree than that implied in, for example, romanisation . Non-English words may be anglicised by changing their form and/or pronunciation to something more familiar to English speakers. Some foreign place names are commonly anglicised in English. Examples include
4095-565: Was mostly complete by 1000 AD, but continued in Cornwall and other regions until the 18th century. In Scotland , the decline of Scottish Gaelic began during the reign of Malcolm III of Scotland to the point where by the mid-14th century the Scots language was the dominant national language among the Scottish people . In Wales , however, the Welsh language has continued to be spoken by
4160-446: Was supposed to be relative to this total social structure. Lévi-Strauss saw social structure as a model. Within his research, Radcliffe-Brown focused on so-called "primitive" societies. He believed kinship played a large role in these societies, and that patrilineages, clans, tribes and units all relate to kinship rules in society and are essential in political organization. Radcliffe-Brown claimed that all research on social structure
4225-429: Was that social practices tend to develop only once, and that therefore commonalities and differences between societies could be explained by a historical reconstruction of the interaction between societies (' diffusionism '). According to both of these views, the proper way to explain differences between tribal societies and modern ones was historical reconstruction. Radcliffe-Brown rejected both of these views because of
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