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Ancient cultures in every region have used animal images as means of representing intangible concepts like strength and courage. Animal fetishes have stood as markers of clan or tribe since the dawn of human kind. More recently, these shamanistic totems have been revisioned. In modern times, corporate mascots and entertainment mascots have penetrated to every corner of society. Do these modern totems function in the same way as the ancient ones did?

In traditional cultural practices, the totem is a ritual device that functions by association. Because the crocodile is powerful, its totem is powerful, and those who claim the crocodile totem have that power too. The oldest totemic figures tended to come from animals that natives would encounter in their natural splendor. The power and grace of the natural world is captured in the totem.

As human culture has transformed, so too has our use of totemic figures. The use of mascots as a university symbol to drag out at sporting events, for example, is a relatively new trend in the human scale of things. College athletic leagues first took on the use of mascots in the early 19th century.

Since becoming a university symbol, the mascot has taken on other characteristics unique to modern culture. Particularly the ironic tone in some mascots is interesting. For example, Sluggo the banana slug mascot for the University of California at Santa Cruz does not immediately strike fear into the hearts of his opponents. By choosing the banana slug, the university works against our expectations while also emphasizing the complex biodiversity of the campus region.

To some degree, these icons and totems share a similar function, but there are important details that separate them as well. How are a logo, a totem, a mascot, and an icon different? You can distinguish them by their engagement with things like corporatism or ritualism. Mickey Mouse means different things to children and to the corporate world. The bat means something different to Bruce Wayne than it does to DC comics.

Businesses of course have very special relationships with their mascots. Business logos like the Exxon tiger are meant to remind us of the good and positive things that the corporate product can do for us. The tiger assures us that our car will run the best. Logos are a tool to divert our attention toward these positive things and away from a corporation’s sometime shady past. The tiger doesn’t tell us anything about oil spills or the suppression of governments.

Being aware of this discrepancy, knowing the difference between how a logo represents a group and what really constitutes the group, and being able to articulate this discrepancy are the basic components of media literacy. Because the media has saturated our lives, we must be sure that all of our children are trained in these skills. They cannot be contributing citizens without being able to think critically.

I have a totem that I often turn to for inspiration and courage. Like all of the corporate mascot and Entertainment mascots, I think my bear totem is a sign of strength and power.

Your physician or chiropractor mostly likely refers to your suffering as thoracic back pain. But you probably call it upper back pain. Who hasn’t had some pain in the back at one point or another? If you’re a grown up, you’ve likely had some ache in your back from moving the wrong way or injury. Typically, this pain stems from a stress of some kind to the upper part of the back area. But the cause can be from something far more serious and destructive. Often the cause is a slipped disc or degeneration or something along those lines.

As a group, adults are much more sedentary than we once were. There was a time when as a society we were very active. Our jobs were physical. Now the bulk of sit down all day long. And then when we go home, we’ve mastered the couch potato routine. The average workers these days sits at a computer all day. Very few people even have an ergonomic work space. We work jobs that are very unnatural from a physical standpoint. The stress of these unnatural positions and actions causes the muscles in our upper back to be tense and cramped all day. As a result, we don’t have the muscular strength in the thoracic area like we do in the lower back.

Right now, trying to take notice of in which position you sure those are. If your shoulders are a little high then you are putting enormous pressure on your shoulder and neck muscles. Keeping your shoulders high all the time will give you pain in your upper back.

By being aware of how you are using the muscles in your back, you can reduce and even eliminate back pain. Throughout the day you should stop and check how you are carrying your shoulders. If your shoulders are hunched and not relaxed, then you need to work on proper posture. Imagine that you are carrying a heavy grocery bag in each hand. This is the proper position your shoulders should be in to ease the strain on the muscles in your upper back.

If changing your posture, along with your work environment doesn’t bring you some relief then you might want to consider an exercise program that’s designed to strengthen the muscles in your back. Or you can take the easy way out and see your doctor and get a prescription for pain pills. But pain pills won’t help you get to the root of the problem, and they will only make it worse in the end.