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The Neglected Place of “Totems” in Contemporary Art

Religions 2023, 14(6), 810; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14060810

by Aixin Zhang

Reviewer 1: Anonymous

Reviewer 2:

Salvatore Talluto

Reviewer 3: Anonymous

Reviewer 4: Anonymous

Religions 2023, 14(6), 810; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14060810

Submission received: 3 December 2022 / Revised: 4 June 2023 / Accepted: 15 June 2023 / Published: 19 June 2023

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Conceptual Art and Theology)

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report (New Reviewer)

Please see my comments in the text.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Responds to the review’s comments , Title: "The Neglected Place of “Totems” in Contemporary Art"

Comments to the Authors:

The overall rating is very good

Question #1: The first section which seems like a literature review seems incoherent at times. The second and third sections seem just fine but may need some minor revisions.

Response:

Please accept our apologies for any misunderstanding caused by the lack of detailed explanation of the research question, and we are grateful to the reviewers for providing us with detailed and important instructions. References relevant to the research question have been re-included, a summary review of the research literature has been provided, and we have explained how the present study integrates with previous studies. We have provided a list of references to be attached for the convenience of the reviewers. This literature review has been inserted in Sections 2 - 3 of the manuscript at the suggestion of the reviewers.

1	Adams, David. 2001. Theological Expressions through Visual Art Forms,a in D. ApostolosCappadona, ed. Art, Creativity and the Sacred. New York: Continuum, 311.
2	Andreson, K. 2013. "ART AND RELIGION." BALTIC JOURNAL OF ART HISTORY 6: 193-203.
3	Arya, R. 2011. "The Neglected Place of Religion in Contemporary Western Art." FIELDWORK IN RELIGION 6(1): 27-46.
4	Boas, Franz. 1989. Primitive Art, Shanghai: Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House.
5	Cao, Jing曹靖. 2007. Cen Jiawu and the quasi master of Totem Art History岑家梧及《图腾艺术史》之准研究.Database of the China Knowledge Netword.Master’s thesis,Hubei Academy of Fine Arts.
6	Cheng Xiaoyu成肖玉. 2009. The Giant of Modern Art: Joseph Beuys现代艺术的巨人:约瑟夫·博伊斯. China Art Museum, (07):113-116.
7	Adams, David. 2001. Theological Expressions through Visual Art Forms,a in D. ApostolosCappadona, ed. Art, Creativity and the Sacred. New York: Continuum, 311.
8	Andreson, K. 2013. "ART AND RELIGION." BALTIC JOURNAL OF ART HISTORY 6: 193-203.
9	Conley, K. (2013). Sleeping gods in surrealist collections. Symposium: A Quarterly Journal in Modern Literatures, Taylor & Francis.
10	Eliade, Mircea. 2019. Furnace and crucible: the origin and structure of alchemy熔炉与坩埚：炼金术的起源和结构.Translated by Wang Wei王伟. China: Shaanxi Normal University Press.
11	Elkins, J. 2004. On the strange place of religion in contemporary art, Routledge.
12	Elkins, J. and D. Morgan (2011). Re-enchantment. Routledge.
13	Conley, K. (2013). Sleeping gods in surrealist collections. Symposium: A Quarterly Journal in Modern Literatures, Taylor & Francis.
14	Eliade, Mircea. 2019. Furnace and crucible: the origin and structure of alchemy熔炉与坩埚：炼金术的起源和结构.Translated by Wang Wei王伟. China: Shaanxi Normal University Press.
15	Elkins, J. 2004. On the strange place of religion in contemporary art, Routledge.
16	Guo, Moruo郭沫若. 1962. Collection of Moruo's Works沫若文集, People's Literature Publishing House.
17	Harlan,Falkel. 2017.What is Art? --A Conversation Between Beuys and a Student. pub-lished by The Commercial Press.
18	Kull, A. 2014. "HOW TO ASK QUESTIONS ABOUT ART AND THEOLOGY? THE EXAMPLE OF PAUL TILLICH." BALTIC JOURNAL OF ART HISTORY 7: 59-80.
19	Li, Zhehou李哲厚. 2013. Shamanism rationalized 巫史传统. Shanghai: Shanghai Translation Publishing.
20	Mennekes, F. 2000. "Between doubt and rapture-art and Church today: the spiritual in the art of the twentieth century." Religion and the Arts 4(2): 165-183.
21	Mesch, C. 2017. Joseph Beuys. Reaktion Books.
22	Morgan, D. 2005. The sacred gaze: Religious visual culture in theory and practice. Univ of California Press.
23	Myers, F. 2019. the work of art: rethinking the elementary forms of religious life, Taylor & Francis.
24	Wang, Guowei王国维. 1997. Collected Works of Wang Guowei王国维文集, China Literature and History Press.
25	Угринович，Д.М. 1987. Art and Religion艺术与宗教, Beijing: Life, Reading, New Knowledge.
26	Wu, Hong巫鸿. 2005. Art in Etiquette: Wu Hong Chinese Ancient Art History礼仪中的美术:巫鸿中国古代美术史文编. Life • Reading • Xinzhi Sanlian Bookstore.
27	Zhang, Guangzhi张光直. 1994.The Bronze Age of China, Lianjing Publishing Company中国青铜器时期, Taipei.

Question #2：I would like you to check the attachment for good language and a small phonetic check

Response:

To improve the language of the paper, we have asked the professional retouching agency "Koto Academic Center" to help us locate a native English speaker who can revise it. Koto Academic Center has been recognized and praised by the international journal community for providing high-quality academic retouching services. A certificate of retouching is included here to confirm that your paper has been professionally retouched. Please let us know if you feel that the revised English is not fluent enough and we will try to correct it again.

While we have carefully reviewed the attached commentary, since the article has been substantially restructured and differs significantly from the original manuscript in many ways, your commentary may not be appropriate.

We appreciate your constructive comments once again and seeing our paper from a different perspective makes it easier for us to discuss our topic.

Reviewer 2 Report (Previous Reviewer 1)

This revised manuscript is so much better written than the first. I did not find any major typos or other issues, but it may still be a good idea to read through the work and proofread one last time before publication. This is a great contribution not only to the analysis of Beuys' works but also to the analysis of the relationship between art and spirituality.

Author Response

Comments to the Authors:

The topic is very interesting, and the subject is engaging and extremely relevant. For example, the connection between western forms of witchcraft and shamanism and Chinese forms is extremely interesting. But there are places where the text and the writing could be tightened up. I did not go through and highlight all these sections because it would take too much time. I recommend rereading it carefully and tightening up these sections, as well as sending the article to another external reader for help with this, preferably another colleague of yours.

Responds：

Please accept our sincere thanks for reviewing this manuscript and for the detailed comments you provided during our research. My response to each of your questions has been compiled and collected in the response letter for your convenience. In the meantime, I have carefully reviewed and responded to each note in your attachment. We have asked the professional retouching agency "Koto Academic Center" to help us find a native English speaker and a religion teacher to revise the paper again.

Question #1：I feel that the refences are a very thin and your argument would be much stronger and more convincing if could draw in more sources to substantiate your thesis.

Responds：

Since you reminded us, we have made significant changes to sections I, II, and III of the paper and, at the same time, searched for additional literature to support our arguments. Please review the following new references.

1	Adams, David. 2001. Theological Expressions through Visual Art Forms,a in D. ApostolosCappadona, ed. Art, Creativity and the Sacred. New York: Continuum, 311.
2	Andreson, K. 2013. "ART AND RELIGION." BALTIC JOURNAL OF ART HISTORY 6: 193-203.
3	Arya, R. 2011. "The Neglected Place of Religion in Contemporary Western Art." FIELDWORK IN RELIGION 6(1): 27-46.
4	Boas, Franz. 1989. Primitive Art, Shanghai: Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House.
5	Cao, Jing曹靖. 2007. Cen Jiawu and the quasi master of Totem Art History岑家梧及《图腾艺术史》之准研究.Database of the China Knowledge Netword.Master’s thesis,Hubei Academy of Fine Arts.
6	Cheng Xiaoyu成肖玉. 2009. The Giant of Modern Art: Joseph Beuys现代艺术的巨人:约瑟夫·博伊斯. China Art Museum, (07):113-116.
7	Adams, David. 2001. Theological Expressions through Visual Art Forms,a in D. ApostolosCappadona, ed. Art, Creativity and the Sacred. New York: Continuum, 311.
8	Andreson, K. 2013. "ART AND RELIGION." BALTIC JOURNAL OF ART HISTORY 6: 193-203.
9	Conley, K. (2013). Sleeping gods in surrealist collections. Symposium: A Quarterly Journal in Modern Literatures, Taylor & Francis.
10	Eliade, Mircea. 2019. Furnace and crucible: the origin and structure of alchemy熔炉与坩埚：炼金术的起源和结构.Translated by Wang Wei王伟. China: Shaanxi Normal University Press.
11	Elkins, J. 2004. On the strange place of religion in contemporary art, Routledge.
12	Elkins, J. and D. Morgan (2011). Re-enchantment. Routledge.
13	Conley, K. (2013). Sleeping gods in surrealist collections. Symposium: A Quarterly Journal in Modern Literatures, Taylor & Francis.
14	Eliade, Mircea. 2019. Furnace and crucible: the origin and structure of alchemy熔炉与坩埚：炼金术的起源和结构.Translated by Wang Wei王伟. China: Shaanxi Normal University Press.
15	Elkins, J. 2004. On the strange place of religion in contemporary art, Routledge.
16	Guo, Moruo郭沫若. 1962. Collection of Moruo's Works沫若文集, People's Literature Publishing House.
17	Harlan,Falkel. 2017.What is Art? --A Conversation Between Beuys and a Student. pub-lished by The Commercial Press.
18	Kull, A. 2014. "HOW TO ASK QUESTIONS ABOUT ART AND THEOLOGY? THE EXAMPLE OF PAUL TILLICH." BALTIC JOURNAL OF ART HISTORY 7: 59-80.
19	Li, Zhehou李哲厚. 2013. Shamanism rationalized 巫史传统. Shanghai: Shanghai Translation Publishing.
20	Mennekes, F. 2000. "Between doubt and rapture-art and Church today: the spiritual in the art of the twentieth century." Religion and the Arts 4(2): 165-183.
21	Mesch, C. 2017. Joseph Beuys. Reaktion Books.
22	Morgan, D. 2005. The sacred gaze: Religious visual culture in theory and practice. Univ of California Press.
23	Myers, F. 2019. the work of art: rethinking the elementary forms of religious life, Taylor & Francis.
24	Wang, Guowei王国维. 1997. Collected Works of Wang Guowei王国维文集, China Literature and History Press.
25	Угринович，Д.М. 1987. Art and Religion艺术与宗教, Beijing: Life, Reading, New Knowledge.
26	Wu, Hong巫鸿. 2005. Art in Etiquette: Wu Hong Chinese Ancient Art History礼仪中的美术:巫鸿中国古代美术史文编. Life • Reading • Xinzhi Sanlian Bookstore.
27	Zhang, Guangzhi张光直. 1994.The Bronze Age of China, Lianjing Publishing Company中国青铜器时期, Taipei.

Question #2： You also need to explain how you are connecting totemism and witchcraft more clearly. It seems to me that you are arguing that Beuys is engaged in a project of re-enchantment. If this is correct, there is already lots of literature on this subject that needs to be referred to. Because the concept of totemism is not really used in the study of religion anymore, I feel that you need a section describing how scholars have defined totemism and how you define it and how Beuys defined it (if he did). I also do not see any of Beuys’s own writings quoted. Did he write about such topics?

Responds：

I appreciate your very good suggestions. The purpose of our thesis research is to analyze specific examples of Beuys' works in order to demonstrate the mystical character of their " Shaman etiquette." In other words, we are interested in the relationship between visual art and totemic beliefs, not in the relationship between totemism and Shaman. To gain a better understanding of the purpose of the study, please refer to the first and second sections of our article.

Regarding 1 and 2, we have discussed this issue in more detail in the previous part of the revised text (p. 5).

Thank you again for reminding us that many scholars' viewpoints have been added to the concept of totemic art in section 2.
The question of whether Beuys mentioned totems is probably not the main focus of this article, which intends to analyze specific examples of Beuys' artwork to illustrate the mystical nature of their "sorcerous rituals" of totemic art. We have made significant changes to the paper's discussion in order to avoid misunderstandings.

Question #3：The section about Beuys’s work in connection to the concept of individuation, of rebirth, of Hegel’s idea of the abyss, and other such concepts, is the strongest part of the article and it is very intriguing. On Hegel, the book Hegel and the Hermetic Tradition by Glenn Alexander Magee might be of further help to you there.

Responds：

In appreciation of the reviewer's very valuable references, I have downloaded Glenn Alexander Magee's book Hegel and the Hermetic Tradition. Our article may focus more on totems in contemporary art and may not be many references to Hegel's theory. The next article will, however, cite the references you provided.

Question 4: My main suggestions are: first, that the article needs to be expanded, especially at the beginning, and more sources need to be brought in to support your claims;

Responds：

Thank you to the anonymous commenter for bringing this issue to our attention.

Several significant changes have been made to our article, including the expansion of the original introduction into three sections: the introduction, the history of religious art (the concept of totem), and the history of contemporary totemic art. As a result, the rest of the text has also been revised. Particularly, the concluding section has been significantly expanded.

Question# 5: second, that the text needs to be proofread again and the language tightened up.

Responds：

Question 6：Finally, the conclusion needs to be expanded, right now it is only a mere paragraph. Here you need to tie everything together and make it very clear how Beuys’s “totem art” is connected to witchcraft, shamanism, the abyss, individuation, religious experience, theology, and all the other things you referenced throughout the paper. How are all these things connected in Beuys’s art? You begin to do this in the conclusion, but I think a lot more needs to be said about this here. You also need to connect back to the idea of irrationalism and so forth that you brought up at the beginning of the article.

Responds：

We would like to thank the reviewers for pointing out that this part of the conclusion has been significantly revised (p. 11):

This article shows that totemic religion and art have a complex and tense rela-tionship, but their dialogue is mutually beneficial. From the mid-18th century to the mid-20th century, art and religion were discussed extensively by German philosophers, theologians, poets, critics and art historians. In the discussion, the importance of prim-itive art emerged as a conclusion. To make this dialogue fruitful, the boundary between totems and art needs to be adjusted. The artist entered the core of the problem in an exploratory way, indicating that art works, including totemic art, were not only the in-terpretation of religion in a broad sense but also the expression of the spirit and practice of religion in a narrow sense. In addition, they raised valuable questions again. There-fore, “totemic art and contemporary speculative research” is an important topic for re-flecting on this relationship.

Beuys is a particularly interesting case study because he combined totemic art with contemporary art. He drew inspiration from the relationship between ancient su-premacy and totem worship, with his most famous work being How to Explain the Picture to the Dead Rabbit (1965). Beuys’ works are a renewal of these totems in contemporary practice. Totem symbols are dominated by unique animal images. However, the author did not describe the common story narrative associated with the totem religion but focused on the essence of these early mystical Shaman views in the ancient totem age, as the author discussed earlier in this chapter. According to our experience, the witchcraft ritual is the embodiment of self-sacrifice activities associated with the subconscious mind of humans. By using animal images as totems, Beuys created a unique psycho-logical image originating from mysterious “Shaman etiquette”. Hence, he can be re-garded as a sorcerer in ancient China.

Beuys’ example indicates a place for totemic art in contemporary art. In Western contemporary art, this totemic culture has not been given the attention it deserves but has been mixed into the broad category of primitive religious art. Thus, it is especially interesting to know how totemic art is related to Shaman etiquette, sacrificial behavior, and human psychological cognition (emotional factors).

Today, religious pluralism in the 21st century has resulted in the emergence of various religious viewpoints. Although in the history of religious art, the importance of primitive culture in contemporary art has been gradually recognized in the process of continuous evolution, contemporary art still requires its own unique voice and a strong position in the debate about totemic research. This article aims to raise and identify questions; as for whether the questions are appropriate, I would appreciate your feed-back.

Question #7：Title: I would change the title to simply: “Totems of Sacred Animals: Joseph Beuys Combines Wiccan Energy with Theology” there is no need to say he is a contemporary or an artist in the title. But do you really talk about energy much in the paper? If not, why is it in the title?

Responds：

It is a valid point, and we agree with you that we had not considered it in that manner previously. After discussion, we decided to change the title from " Totems of Sacred Animals - Contemporary Artist Joseph Beuys Combines Wiccan Energy with Theology " to " The Neglected Place of “Totems” in Contemporary Art ". To avoid the title of our article being too far from our research topic, the research objectives have been adjusted.

My sincere appreciation goes out to you once again for your detailed suggestions.

Question #8： Abstract: I would delete these first two sentences: “A series of animal totems by Joseph Beuys was exhibited at one time, and the meaning 9 behind the totems continued later. In the face of grotesque and irrational influences, he incorporated 10 a variety of animal imagery into the human form.”

Start the abstract with simply… “In this paper, I analyze…”

Also refrain when possible from speaking of “mankind” in a general sense. Instead say something like this: “The work of this artist is not considered "irrational" and "bizarre" as contemporary societies often understand these terms, but rather as a legacy of the lost spiritual heritage of the ancient sacred totemizations of humanity.”

Rewrite final sentence as: “The animal totem images used by Beuys have an ineffable symbolic effect that persuades us to sympathize with the invisible world, to act on our finite personality, and thus to experience rebirth in a Christ-like manner.”

Responds：

In light of the detailed comments provided by the reviewer, as well as your comments, we have made significant adjustments to the original abstract. Here is an excerpt from the article.

Abstract: In this article, Joseph Beuys’ series of animal images are studied to illustrate the spiritual experience brought by totems. Essentially, Beuys’ works embody the spir-it of the sacred totems of ancient humans. The reason is that behind his series of ani-mal images lies the mystery of “Shaman etiquette” of totemic art. Up until now, con-temporary art has been neglected in totemic research. Similarly, totems have been ig-nored in the critical debate on contemporary art and are considered outdated and ir-relevant. Totemic research and contemporary art cannot be developed jointly due to the resistance between them. In modern art, we can explore the concept of new reli-gions or the concept of new totems in the life of the 20th and 21st centuries through new representations. Beuys’ works evoke a mysterious experience of universal totemic art, as shown in this research. An “inexplicable” sense of the mysterious and unknown nature of early human beings is conveyed by his series of animal images in a mysteri-ous manner. Briefly, Joseph Beuys was the best witness to the totem god in the ancient age of witchcraft.

Question #9：Keywords: I have never heard of Witchcraft Theory or Theological Philosophy. I recommend simply witchcraft and theology

Responds：

As a result of the reviewer's comments and in order to conform to the revised text, I have changed the key words from Witchcraft Theory and Theological Philosophy to Shaman etiquette and sacrifice taboo in Chinese contexts. Since the article has been adjusted to be less about "theology", it has been removed.

Question #10：Page 1, final sentence of first paragraph, I am not sure how something can be based on essentialism. Could you clarify what you mean by this?

Responds：

Please accept our apologies for this misleading and uncritical statement. In order to make this statement more accurate, we have revised it as follows:

Beuys may be the most iconic example of the new religious movement in totemic research. He received more attention than most other artists in his era. He repeatedly incorporated primitive totemic symbols into his paintings, to which he added a sacrificial theme related to primitive witchcraft. By using “Shaman etiquette” , Beuys demonstrated the power of self-sacrificial activities asso-ciated with the human subconscious, making him a very important focus in the art world.

As native Chinese speakers, we ignored the exact meaning of the sentences in our translation. In the revised version, the sentence has been revised in the first paragraph.

Question #11：Page 2: Shamanism and witchcraft are not the same thing and most religious studies scholars would not equate them. Could you give a bit more background on the difference between shamanism and witchcraft and how you are connecting them, in what ways are they similar? For example, Frazer is an extremely dated source on something like witchcraft, could you bring in more recent sources on the subject? I do not think that “Western cultural anthropologists” still view witchcraft in the way that Frazer and Taylor did. You begin to suggest this when you move into the subject of Wicca, but there is a ton of research on these subjects, and so a better bridge needs to be built from Frazer’s ideas about witchcraft to the modern phenomenon of Wicca, which is technically a New Religious Movement. This means you need to bring in more sources.

Responds：

My sincere appreciation goes out to you for your helpful suggestions, perhaps by commenting on our manuscript from a western totemism perspective and offers many helpful suggestions for revision, should we seriously consider whether we need to construct a better bridge between Fraser's perspective on witchcraft and the phenomenon of modern witchcraft worship when discussing the theme of witchcraft worship? As a matter of fact, Fraser is not the only one whose view on witchcraft and the phenomenon of modern witchcraft worship focuses on a better bridge, but also our Chinese scholar Li Zhehou, which proposes that our country has a profound "witchcraft history tradition" culture. I believe that the works of contemporary artist Joseph Beuys represent the exact continuation of Chinese "witchcraft history" worship. As a result, my explanation on page 7 of the article is as follows:

Due to Beuys’ representation of “Shaman etiquette” in ancient China and its sac-rificial rituals, he responded to the proposition of “emotional factors” and “deity low-ering ceremony” about witchcraft in a sense. Many titles in his works demonstrate the relationships of him with animals as totems: Living with Wolves (1974), How to Explain Pictures to Dead Rabbits (1965), The Tomb of Rabbits (1964/1979), Animal Oil (1977), and Skulls of Three Animals (unknown age). These titles evoke a sense of mysterious awe of primitive witchcraft toward gods. However, this sense of mysterious awe is not the psychological state of facing the “transcendental” objective existence of God but the mysterious sense of “being with God” (Li 2013, p. 29). “Magic force” is the source of this state. Beuys’ titles, derived from the ancient “Shaman etiquette”, are based on the emotional factors aroused by witchcraft and related sacrificial activities. However, he did not use witchcraft to oppress these gods, nor did he aim to simply intervene in nature through a set of witchcraft rituals, as Frey and other scholars have claimed. The focus of Beuys shifted from the transcendental “two worlds” in which God and man are separated to the “one world” in which man and God are not distinguished. Thus, he used animals as totems as an example and described the activities of spiritual sacrifice under the subconscious mind as the drama, which was also “the performance of an image of human inner mystery.”

Question #12: Pages 3-5: Can you expand this section to contextualize Beuys’s life and work better? Who were his influences? His interlocutors?

Responds：

There is already a substantial body of literature on the life and work of Beuys. I appreciate your suggestion, but we wanted to emphasize the purpose of the article, which is to emphasize the absence of "totems" in contemporary art. Therefore, Beuys' work is used as an example of the mystical nature of the "witchcraft ritual" of totemic art. We will consider presenting the life and work of Beuys next time.

Question #13: On page 6 you write of “Boyce’s art” but you mean Beuys. This typo appears several times. You also talk about what you believe art should be in one place. I suggest revising this section to keep with the more scholarly style of the rest of the paper.

Responds：

I would like to thank the reviewers for reminding me. To improve the language of the paper, we have asked the professional retouching agency "Koto Academic Center" to help us locate a native English speaker who can revise it. Koto Academic Center has been recognized and praised by the international journal community for providing high-quality academic retouching services. A certificate of retouching is included here to confirm that your paper has been professionally retouched. Please let us know if you feel that the revised English is not fluent enough and we will try to correct it again.

Reviewer 3 Report (New Reviewer)

The characterization of modern art and religion fails to take into account some more recent scholarship on religious trends in modern art. I would expand that section or at least cite some of the sources that engage this directly. ( I’d start with Jonathan Anderson’s work).

Author Response

Comments to the Reviewer:

I am grateful for your review of this manuscript; I am pleased that you recognize the creativity of this article, especially in light of its focus on non-Western sources and their connection to shamanism. For your convenience, I have divided the following questions into eight sections and will respond to each section in turn.

Question #1：This article presents problems of form and content. In terms of form, the authors disregard spelling rules, from the very name of the artist in question. Joseph Beuys is spelled Boyce fifteen times (lines 159, 166, 172, 180, 186, 188, 211, 212, 286, 296, 311, 318, 345).

Responds：

Question #2：Apart from grammatical and spelling errors, the content presents some problematic issues of fundamental importance: from the title itself, which confuses the concepts of Witchcraft with the Wiccan movement, to the very term totem, which the authors confuse conceptually with sign.

Responds：

My sincere appreciation goes out to you for your helpful suggestions, perhaps by commenting on our manuscript from a western totemism perspective and offers many helpful suggestions for revision, should we seriously consider whether we need to construct a better bridge between Fraser's perspective on witchcraft and the phenomenon of modern witchcraft worship when discussing the theme of witchcraft worship? As a matter of fact, Fraser is not the only one whose view on witchcraft and the phenomenon of modern witchcraft worship focuses on a better bridge, but also our Chinese scholar Li Zhehou, which proposes that it is important to note that Shaman does not necessarily refer to witchcraft in the Western context, but rather to Shaman in the Chinese context. Moreover, I have written about this topic in a religious journal entitled "‘Ritual and Magic’ in Buddhist Visual Culture from the Bird Totem". I believe that the works of contemporary artist Joseph Beuys represent the exact continuation of Chinese "witchcraft history" worship. As a result, my explanation on page 7 of the article is as follows:

Also in sections 2 and 4, the consistency between witchcraft worship and totem worship is discussed by citing Li Zhehou.

Beuys’ art is also inspired by the worship of primitive religions in the Middle East and other regions in the Neolithic Period, which is a consensus among scholars. This point should be highlighted since primitive worship in ancient China was often closely related to ritual activities, such as Shaman and div-ination, which were primarily devoted to totem gods. Therefore, as a medium, totems not only convey religious content but also become the psychological knowledge—emotional factors in “Shaman etiquette,” the display of “unconscious” strong emotions (Li 2013, p. 14).

Beuys’ totemic art did not originate entirely from primitive witchcraft activities. However, its basic spirit and main features were derived from them. How are these two terms (“Shaman” and “etiquette”) specifically converted and linked? Despite several pieces of related literature in China, with each having its own argument and conclusion, there is no unified conclusion. Here, I offer only a speculative conclusion. The key link to “Shaman etiquette” is the unconscious emotional factor in the ritual characteristics. Establishing this factor is crucial to creating a transformational environment.

From ancient times to the Middle Ages, the worship of gods, totems, and ancestors was unified in China. Historians have different opinions regarding the relationship between ancient Chinese gods and ancestors. Li Zhehou (2013, p. 7) asserted, “the close connection between the two is almost universally recognized”. According to Wang Guowei, Guo Moruo, Zhang Guangzhi, and other scholars, the boundary between man and God is not separate but connected from top to bottom. Prior to the evolution of modern folk customs, ancestor worship continued to be practiced as a form of worship of ancient gods and ancestors . Based on Li (2013, p. 8)’s findings, the “connection”, “correlation”, and “integration” were realized through the way of Shamanism in an-cient times. The important feature of this “Shaman way” is that the emotional factors in the etiquette impart to the “gods” in the ceremony an incomparable and limitless nature of transcendental integration of the body and mind.

Question #3：While this is neither the object of the journal nor the main theme of the article, the authors' text misunderstands the nature of the object of the study: the artistic practice of Joseph Beuys. For example, phrases such as "The work of this artist is not considered "irrational" or "bizarre" as contemporary mankind understands them, but rather a legacy of the lost spiritual heritage of ancient sacred totemizations of mankind” reflect a superficial grasping of the reception of Joseph Beuys’ work. Far from “irrational or bizarre”, Beuys’ art has been widely accepted in the art world and beyond, both in German and Western post- WWII society.

Responds：

Our apologies if this sentence is misunderstood in the text. It is greatly appreciated that the reviewer asked this question in order to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings regarding the idea that Beuys' artistic oddities occur in a Chinese context due to the fact that Chinese audiences do not quite understand his art. An introduction to its context and related explanations are presented on pages 1 and 6 of the revised manuscript (the introduction to Section I and an overview of Beuys's art criticism in Section IV).

In fact，Beuys’ works have been increasingly recognized by art critics on the religious level, particularly in the context of primitive culture and witchcraft.

Question #4：Another example of a controversial statement is: "Beuys's work was analyzed by most of the earlier critics and observers in terms of sociology, pedagogy, and the language of art, which has no meaning" (lines 206-208). Particularly since a major flaw of this article lies in the fact that it does not refer to the primary source: the writings of Joseph Beuys, which are numerous and extensive.

Responds：

Our apologies if this sentence is misunderstood in the text. Please accept our sincere thanks for asking this question, and to assist us in avoiding unnecessary misunderstandings, we acknowledge that there is so much critical literature on Beuys that it appears impossible to substantively explain his works. However, Beuys may be the most iconic example of the new religious movement in totemic research. He received more attention than most other artists in his era. He repeatedly incorporated primitive totemic symbols into his paintings, to which he added a sacrificial theme related to primitive witchcraft. By using “Shaman etiquette” , Beuys demonstrated the power of self-sacrificial activities asso-ciated with the human subconscious, making him a very important focus in the art world.

Totemic art is still discussed in the 21st century. However, we must reassess the defi-nition of this traditional totemic art to adapt it to the contemporary context. The varia-tions leading to this ideological transformation can be summarized as the expansion of the definitions of “art” and “totem” and the changes in “Shaman etiquette” and its sacrifices. Currently, some art is described as totems—not to support the institutional-ized traditional totemic belief (for example, as defined by cultural anthropologists, such as Frazer (1998)’s The Golden Bough) but as a means of expressing and experiencing their “Shaman” belief.

For citing Joseph Beuys' writings, I have already cited several relevant sources, including MESCH C.(in Section 4) and ADAMS D. (in Section 5). While Joseph Beuys is only a small case study of our thesis, citing literature should take into account the main idea and layout of the article. Our dissertation is primarily concerned with the absence of totems in contemporary art. For more information, please refer to the title of our article. We will consider writing about Joseph Beuys' life and work in the next article so that we can discuss it in greater detail.

Question #5：Neither does it review the critical literature on the artist, mentioning only three recent works, while disregarding the extensive body of critical literature on this author, and even the museum dedicated to the artist – Museum Schloss Moyland - with an online archive that can be consulted https://www.moyland.de/en/joseph-beuys-archive/joseph-beuys-archive/.

Responds：

In our next article, we will focus on the artist's museum based on the information you provided. Once again, we would like to thank you for providing us with such valuable information.

There is a similar question to the previous one, which we have already answered. Here is an excerpt from the introduction of the article that explains why we did not review the critical literature on this artist. Prior to that, we would like to thank you for your thoughtful suggestions, which led us to focus the controversy on the article and take a position.

There is so much critical literature on Beuys that it appears impossible to substantively explain his works. However, Beuys may be the most iconic example of the new religious movement in totemic research. He received more attention than most other artists in his era. He repeatedly incorporated primitive totemic symbols into his paintings, to which he added a sacrificial theme related to primitive witchcraft. By using “Shaman etiquette” , Beuys demonstrated the power of self-sacrificial activities asso-ciated with the human subconscious, making him a very important focus in the art world.

Question #6：Had the authors consulted these writings, they would have identified the sources of Beuysian thought: anthroposophy, the philosophers and naturists of the Jena circle and the German Romantics. His reference thinkers were Novalis, Paracelsus, Goethe, and, above all, Rudolf Steiner. Spirituality, anti-materialism, transformation, redemption and shamanism are, indeed, Beuys' great driving forces and his relationship with religion, Christianity and other spiritual currents are well documented.

Responds：

There is increasing recognition of Beuys’ work on a religious level by art critics. As a result of the length of the article and the purpose of the study, we have not referenced valuable references provided by the reviewers, but this does not mean that we ignore their suggestions. In fact, we examine the contributions of theorists from different academic fields to the study of the relationship between totems and art in religious cultures. In the remainder of the paper, I analyze specific examples of Beuys’ artwork in order to examine the extent to which the artist has integrated himself into this debate, particularly regarding the role of animals as totems in contemporary art and the Shaman character of totemic art.

Question #7：Joseph Beuys' biography, his relationship with Nazism and the Holocaust, along with the great wound of German society which he seeks to heal through his expanded art - namely, the notion of redemption - are absent in this approach. The Manresa performance, along with the writings of the theologian and philosopher Friedhelm Mennekes are also curiously lacking in this text.

Responds：

we acknowledge that there is so much critical literature on Beuys that it appears impossible to substantively explain his works. However, Beuys may be the most iconic example of the new religious movement in totemic research. He received more attention than most other artists in his era. He repeatedly incorporated primitive totemic symbols into his paintings, to which he added a sacrificial theme related to primitive witchcraft. By using “Shaman etiquette” , Beuys demonstrated the power of self-sacrificial activities asso-ciated with the human subconscious, making him a very important focus in the art world.

Beuys' "extended art" is discussed in detail in section 4.2 of Totemic Art and Sacrificial Activities.

“The hive, the embodiment of the sense of social warmth and inclusive cooperation, is necessary for the non-hierarchical harmony among human beings and with the rest of nature. The stag, with blood flowing through its branching antlers, is an image of inner strength released through the vitality of the blood from the heart to the head and even outside the head, active with spiritual insight and intuition. The use of felt, beeswax, gelatin and fat are all related on one level to these references to ecological energy and also extend their meaning to the more fundamental ‘sculpture’ forces and world-forming energies” (Adams 1992, p. 30).

Question #8：While this is neither the object of the journal nor the main theme of the article, the authors' text misunderstands the nature of the object of the study: the artistic practice of Joseph Beuys. For example, phrases such as "The work of this artist is not considered "irrational" or "bizarre" as contemporary mankind understands them, but rather a legacy of the lost spiritual heritage of ancient sacred totemizations of mankind” reflect a superficial grasping of the reception of Joseph Beuys’ work. Far from “irrational or bizarre”, Beuys’ art has been widely accepted in the art world and beyond, both in German and Western post- WWII society.

Responds：

Our apologies if this sentence is misunderstood in the text. It is greatly appreciated that the reviewer asked this question in order to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings regarding the idea that Boyce's artistic oddities occur in a Chinese context due to the fact that Chinese audiences do not quite understand his art. An introduction to its context and related explanations are presented on pages 1 and 6 of the revised manuscript (the introduction to Section I and an overview of Beuys's art criticism in Section IV).

In fact，Beuys’ works have been increasingly recognized by art critics on the religious level, particularly in the context of primitive culture and witchcraft.

Question #9：The greatest strength of the article lies in the non-Western sources and their relation to shamanism. If the authors could establish a conceptual link between Beuys, shamanism, spirituality and non-Western mysticism based on a thorough knowledge of the artist's thought, the article would gain in depth and rigor.

Below, I cite a series of references that, in my opinion, would considerably improve the article:

Responds：

Thank you to the reviewers for reminding me of the relationship between the concepts, which I have already summarized in this section of the conclusion: (p. 11).

TISDALL, C. (1979). Joseph Beuys. New York: Guggenheim Museum.
ULMER, G. (2007). Performance: Joseph Beuys in Joseph Beuys The Reader. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. pp. 233–236. ISBN 978-0262633512
Writings by Joseph Beuys:

https://www.thriftbooks.com/a/joseph-beuys/326416/

It is an excellent set of materials, the title is very appealing to me, but unfortunately, I was unable to locate the material, particularly since they are located in another country, and the postal system is very slow.... Whenever possible, I will find a good opportunity to locate the download address, read it carefully, and reference it in my next paper.

-------------------------------------------------

Reviewer 4 Report (New Reviewer)

There are multiple problems with what I take to be the thesis of this article. The closest sentence to a thesis statement that I can find is: “I aim to analyze specific examples of Beuys' conceptual artworks to demonstrate their experience of the “witchcraft etiquette” of totemic" (sic) of totem art and their similarities to theological beliefs.” (p. 1) First, this is not actually a thesis statement. There is no way to dispute that the author has analyzed examples of Beuy’s work. I suggest re-framing the statement so that it is primarily a claim about Beuys’ work rather than what the author will do. Second, the thesis statement is too broad. Which specific examples? “Experience” of totem art is too vague and broad. Which “similarities” to theological beliefs, and which “theological beliefs.” The author sets out to tackle a project that is too broad, and I cannot figure out if the author is furthering an argument because I don't really know what the argument is.

Before the author begins any further revisions, I suggest that the author reconceive the thesis statement and clarify the argument. I think doing this will bring much needed coherence to the rest of the article. I further suggest focusing only on How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare.

It is not clear why the author has chosen to engage Whitehead and Hegel. Shockingly, there is not a single citation of a text Whitehead wrote, and only one from Hegel. I do not have confidence that the author has truly engaged these thinkers.

The author needs to do more to justify the use of totemic beliefs as an interpretive framework for Beuy’s work. The author writes on page 10: “Beuys may not have explicitly stated that his work was related to Chinese shamanism or totemic beliefs, he did draw upon similar ideas and traditions in his artistic practice.” I can find similarities between just about anything. Given the vast cultural, geographic and temporal distance between Chinese shamanism and Joseph Beuys, a stronger argument must be made to justify this connection. As the article currently stands, the author appears to be imposing a foreign cultural framework on Beuys.

The author says that Beuys is a conceptual artist. Because this How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare is described as "performance art," it would help if the author would explain the relationship between performance and conceptual art.

I do not understand why the author gives a partial analysis of How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare on page 5, and then a fuller analysis later in the essay. Why not just have one analysis? Because the first analysis lacks any engagement with interpreters of Beuys’ work, the reader loses confidence that the author has truly studied the work.

Paragraph 4 on page three is not unified and does not hold together. How do Conley and Tillich related to each other? Are they offering different, but complementary approaches to surrealism? Or, are they are odds with one another. The Tillich quote does not directly bear upon the theme of totemic art.

Perhaps a greater engagement with Tillich, rather than Whitehead and Hegel, would be helpful. It is not clear to me that the author has understood Tillich’s theology of art, and he misuses Tillich’s concept of “ultimate concern” on paragraph 2 of page 9.

Author Response

I appreciate your constructive feedback and the opportunity to improve my paper. I have carefully considered your suggestions and revised my manuscript accordingly. In particular, I have focused on clarifying and strengthening my thesis statement, which was the main concern you raised.

You pointed out that my original thesis statement was not clear, specific or arguable enough. You also suggested that I re-frame it so that it is primarily a claim about Beuys' work rather than what I will do.

Please refer to the PDF document for detailed responses below.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report (New Reviewer)

Thank you.

Author Response

To address the reviewer's concern, I appreciate your feedback regarding the quality of writing in my essay. I am aware that there have been some instances of poor wording which may have led to factually incorrect or confusing statements.

However, I would like to assure the reviewer that I have made significant efforts to minimize these issues through two major and one minor revision of the manuscript. In any case, I appreciate the reviewer's feedback and will continue to work on improving the quality of my writing. Thank you for your help.

To address the reviewer's concern, I apologize for any confusion caused by the title. While the title suggests a discussion of contemporary art, the focus of my article is primarily on the works of Joseph Beuys and their theological connotations. However, I have made significant efforts to ensure that the article also explores the topic of totem art, as evidenced by the two major and one minor revisions made to the manuscript. Once again, I apologize for any miscommunication and appreciate the reviewer's feedback.

Please refer to the PDF document for detailed responses below.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 4 Report (New Reviewer)

The revisions did not adequately address my original concerns.

I also wish to add one new concern: The quote from Sol Lewitt about conceptual art in section 4.1 was modified and now is misquoted. I do not understand why the author would do this, but it suggests a potential lack of academic integrity. I consulted the source itself, and the quotation is at best a paraphrase. I think the author must modify the quotation so that it reflects the source, or explain why he or she has significantly modified the language of the quotation.

There are still multiple problems with what I take to be the thesis of this article. The author modified the thesis statement so that it now says: “This paper aims to analyze specific examples of Beuys' conceptual artworks, illustrating their exploration of totemic art's "witchcraft etiquette" and similarities to theological beliefs" (p. 1) First, this is still not a thesis statement. There is no way to dispute that the author has analyzed examples of Beuy’s work. Beginning the sentence with "this paper" dos not reframe the statement so that it is primarily a claim about Beuys’ work rather than what the author will do. Please make an argument about the relationship between How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare, totemtic art and theology. Second, the thesis statement is still too broad. Which “similarities” to theological beliefs, and which “theological beliefs.” The author sets out to tackle a project that is too broad, and I cannot figure out if the author is furthering an argument because I don't really know what the argument is. I further suggest focusing only on How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare.

It is still not clear why the author has chosen to engage Whitehead and Hegel. Please clarify this.

Author Response

Responds to Reviewer’s comments

Question #1：I also wish to add one new concern: The quote from Sol Lewitt about conceptual art in section 4.1 was modified and now is misquoted. I do not understand why the author would do this, but it suggests a potential lack of academic integrity. I consulted the source itself, and the quotation is at best a paraphrase. I think the author must modify the quotation so that it reflects the source, or explain why he or she has significantly modified the language of the quotation.

Responds：

Let's delve into a more detailed comparison to illuminate the differences between the two quotations.

First paragraph:In conceptual art, the idea or concept constitutes the work's most crucial element. When an artist employs a conceptual approach, it signifies that planning and deci-sion-making precede execution, rendering the latter a mere formality. The concept transforms into a machine that generates the art. This type of art is not theoretical, nor does it illustrate theories; rather, it is intuitive, engages various mental pro-cesses, and lacks a specific purpose. It often transcends the artist's craftsmanship skills.

Second paragraph:In conceptual art the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work. When an artist uses a conceptual form of art, it means that all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes a machine that makes the art. This kind of art is not theoretical or illustrative of theories; it is intuitive, it is involved with all types of mental processes and it is purposeless. It is usually free from the dependence on the skill of the artist as a craftsman.

Sentence 1:

Paragraph 1: "In conceptual art, the idea or concept constitutes the work's most crucial element."
Paragraph 2: "In conceptual art the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work."

These sentences are almost identical and express the same meaning. The only difference lies in the synonyms used: "constitutes" vs. "is" and "most crucial element" vs. "most important aspect". Both sentences are clear and grammatically correct, but the first paragraph's choice of "constitutes" may provide a slightly stronger impression of the importance of the concept in conceptual art.

…….

Sentence 5:

Paragraph 1: "It often transcends the artist's craftsmanship skills."
Paragraph 2: "It is usually free from the dependence on the skill of the artist as a craftsman."

The final sentences in both paragraphs express the same idea, but the first paragraph's phrasing is more straightforward and less wordy, making it a bit clearer.

Both passages, for which I must apologize, essentially discuss the same theme: conceptual art. They bear substantial content similarity and are well composed, devoid of glaring grammatical errors. Slight discrepancies, however, emerge in style, clarity, and consistency. These differences prompted my modification of the original quotations. If these changes might raise questions, I choose to cite the original quotations. My gratitude goes to you again for your assistance, which safeguards my manuscript from academic integrity issues.

I have meticulously reviewed the usage of other citations, including (Mesle 2008; Hegel 1998; Mills 2014). For the original Hegel citation, to clarify and validate my interpretation of Hegel's discourse, I adjusted the citation. I chose to quote his original words directly, forgoing any summarization or paraphrasing.

Question #2：There are still multiple problems with what I take to be the thesis of this article. The author modified the thesis statement so that it now says: “This paper aims to analyze specific examples of Beuys' conceptual artworks, illustrating their exploration of totemic art's "witchcraft etiquette" and similarities to theological beliefs" (p. 1) First, this is still not a thesis statement. There is no way to dispute that the author has analyzed examples of Beuy’s work. Beginning the sentence with "this paper" dos not reframe the statement so that it is primarily a claim about Beuys’ work rather than what the author will do. Please make an argument about the relationship between How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare, totemtic art and theology. Second, the thesis statement is still too broad. Which “similarities” to theological beliefs, and which “theological beliefs.” The author sets out to tackle a project that is too broad, and I cannot figure out if the author is furthering an argument because I don't really know what the argument is. I further suggest focusing only on How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare.

Responds：

Acknowledging the reviewer's feedback, a compelling, argumentative thesis statement is necessary, positing explicit propositions about Beuys' oeuvre, notably those intertwined with totemic art and theology. My thesis statement requires refinement to embody a potentially contestable stance, given that it serves as my paper's linchpin.

Considering the particular theological conviction connected with Beuys' work under my scrutiny and the reviewer's commentary, here is a reworked thesis statement striving for increased specificity:

Revised Thesis Statement: Beuys' conceptual artwork, particularly How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare, engages profoundly with the themes of self-consciousness and individuation, as presented in the theology of Alfred North Whitehead and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. This artwork explores totemic art's "witchcraft etiquette, " reflecting Whitehead's emphasis on unconscious processes and interconnectedness, and Hegel's dialectical structure of the unconscious. In doing so, Beuys' work serves as a platform for theological discourse, illuminating the transformative dialogue between human consciousness, divinity, and the complex process of individuation. This intersection of art and theology in Beuys' work offers a novel perspective on the role of art in spiritual discourse and the continuous quest for higher spiritual reality.

This revised statement clearly articulates specific theological beliefs from the philosophies of Whitehead and Hegel, directly linking them to Beuys' work. It also specifies the themes of self-consciousness, individuation, and transformation that the paper will explore (See pp.1-2)

Before the author begins any further revisions, I suggest that the author reconceive the thesis statement and clarify the argument. I think doing this will bring much needed coherence to the rest of the article.

Under your guidance, the statement now exhibits well-honed refinement. I value your resolute input, and the argument indeed appears markedly more distinct and lucid than previously. Let's ascertain whether it allays your apprehensions. Time given is greatly appreciated, and akin to you, I too eagerly aspire to unveil my manuscript, brimming with high-calibre content, before the public.

Question #3：It is still not clear why the author has chosen to engage Whitehead and Hegel. Please clarify this.

Responds：

You've requested a clarified rationale for connecting Whitehead's and Hegel's works in my manuscript, particularly within my proposed argument's context. Here's a revised response:

I value your feedback and your curiosity about my reasons for engaging with Whitehead and Hegel in this manuscript. I've chosen these thinkers due to the enlightening similarities and contrasts their theologies offer within my argument's purview.

Fundamentally, both Whitehead and Hegel offer unique perspectives on self-consciousness, the process of individualization, and the interplay between human consciousness and the divine. Their individual theological perspectives offer essential blueprints for deciphering our impending deliberations.

Whitehead's process theology foregrounds the unconscious as the genesis of existence, and consciousness as its offspring and perceiver. This perspective is indispensable for appreciating the process of self-consciousness and the concept of interconnectedness. It allows a thorough analysis of the "shamanic ritual" concept and its affective components.

Conversely, Hegel's dialectical theology offers a contrasting perspective. His conception of self-consciousness introduces a compelling approach to the dilemma of individual and cosmic separation. Hegel's unconscious dialectical structure proves vital in discussing the individualization process and the shift from physical reality to a higher spiritual realm.

In my engagement with Whitehead and Hegel, I strive for a more holistic comprehension of these complex themes.

This response, I hope, elucidates my decision to incorporate Whitehead's and Hegel's philosophies. Their joint insights, I believe, provide a persuasive framework for examining theological interplay.

For relevant amendments, please see the revised manuscript on page 6.

Question #4：The author needs to do more to justify the use of totemic beliefs as an interpretive framework for Beuy’s work. The author writes on page 10: “Beuys may not have explicitly stated that his work was related to Chinese shamanism or totemic beliefs, he did draw upon similar ideas and traditions in his artistic practice.” I can find similarities between just about anything. Given the vast cultural, geographic and temporal distance between Chinese shamanism and Joseph Beuys, a stronger argument must be made to justify this connection. As the article currently stands, the author appears to be imposing a foreign cultural framework on Beuys.

Responds：

Your concerns about the totemic belief framework's validity for interpreting Beuys' works are acknowledged. Indeed, the gap between Chinese Shamanism and Beuys is massive, culturally, geographically, and temporally. This gap renders any connection exploration both challenging and intriguing. To address this, I plan to present additional evidence and articulate my reasoning.

Recognizing your need for a clearer link between totemic beliefs, shamanism, spirituality, and non-Western mysticism in Beuys' works context, I aim to provide additional evidence and clarify my rationale. I've taken several steps in the revised article to address these issues.

More evidence of thematic and symbolic similarities between Beuys' works and the totemic beliefs under study strengthens the connection argument between Chinese Shamanism, totemic beliefs, and Beuys' works. This evidence supports the selected interpretative framework's validity.

In section 5.1 "Totemic Art and Shamanistic Rituals," the relevant evidence is laid out in paragraphs 4-5. Here, I explicate the connection between the Tatars and Chinese Mongolian Shamanism. Western missionaries' accounts, Marco Polo's travelogue, and the Song Dynasty's Brief Account of Tatars all use the term "Tatar" to denote the Northern Chinese Mongolian Empire. Shamanism, named after the Shaman of the Tungusic Manchu tribes, is the ancient religion of the Mongols, spread widely in Siberia and the Far East. It includes ancestor, totem, and nature worship. Thus, Beuys' reference to Tatar beliefs unmistakably links to totem worship. Beuys' use of materials like felt and fat, symbolically tied to protection and nourishment, mirrors Shamanistic traditions globally.

I also present evidence of Beuys' influences from Eastern philosophy and spiritual traditions, and his integration of these into his art practice and thought. Thompson's book on the postwar avant-garde's engagement with Eastern spirituality refers to spirituality and mysticism in Beuys' works, tied to broader themes of human existence, interconnectedness, and transcendence (Thompson 2011).

Revised Thesis （"in section 4.1, the fourth paragraph from the end）:

In his work, Thompson (2011) delves into the post-war avant-garde's engagement with Eastern spirituality, identifying spiritual, Eastern philosophical, and mystical motifs in Beuys' art. These motifs resonate with extensive themes like human existence, interconnectedness, and reality transcendence.

Thompson recounts Beuys' influential meeting with the Dalai Lama in Geneva, Switzerland, in October 1982 (Thompson 2011, pp.14-15). This interaction left a significant imprint on Beuys' subsequent artistic creations. This evidence supports my argument that Eastern philosophies and spiritual traditions greatly impacted Beuys' work.

The term "Eastern philosophies and spirituality" is a broad umbrella, covering a wide spectrum of traditions, schools, and philosophers. There is interplay and distinction amongst them. Totemic beliefs in ancient Chinese witchcraft and shamanism exhibit diversity and evolution. They have a complex relationship with other Chinese religions and philosophies, marked by exchanges, amalgamation, and at times, conflict.

A footnote for further context: Relationships between Eastern philosophies, spirituality, and totemic beliefs of ancient Chinese witchcraft and shamanism are neither strictly uniform nor antagonistic. Instead, they represent a complex web of interactions and evolution. Certain Eastern philosophical and spiritual traditions, such as Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism, bear the influence of, or have absorbed elements from, these totemic beliefs. For instance, elements of witchcraft surface in Taoist immortals, talismans, and magical instruments. Shamanistic features manifest in Buddhist concepts of bodhisattvas, dharma protectors, and reincarnations. Confucian rituals, ceremonies, and filial piety exhibit links to totemic beliefs. While borrowing from ancient Chinese witchcraft and shamanism, these Eastern traditions have also refined and elevated them to align with their unique theories and values.

This authoritative document is highly cited, reflecting the significant attention given to this topic.

Beuys may not have directly referenced Chinese Shamanism or totemic beliefs, but their thematic and symbolic parallels in his works are worth investigating. I aim not to impose a foreign cultural framework onto Beuys' works, but to shed light on an understudied aspect of his art and theology.

In the revised manuscript, my focus is to provide a more comprehensive justification for the interpretative framework. This involves a deeper analysis of similarities in themes, symbols, and theological ideas between Beuys' works and totemic beliefs, accompanied by a discussion of the wider historical and cultural backdrop that validates such a connection.

Reference：

Thompson, Chris. 2011. Felt: Fluxus, Joseph Beuys, and the Dalai Lama. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Unsatisfied with my previous replies? The academic editor posed a similar urgent query. My response, I trust, will alleviate your concerns. Your insight, fostering further refinement of this issue, earns my deep gratitude.

See Questions from the Academic Editor.

Question #：Most of your connection for Beuys' art and totems rests on the views of one scholar - David Adams. This is unacceptable. Why is he the only voice you draw from? Is his perspective such a minority view among those writing about Beuys that there is no one else to draw from? If so, you need to make the case for why Adams is correct and all the other scholars are missing something significant about Beuys.

Responds：

As mentioned above, the contributions of theorists from various academic fields to the research of the relationship between totemstotem and art in religious culture have been investigated. My analysis of specific examples of Beuys' works in the remainder of this article displays another contribution of animals as totems in theology and the amazing similarities between witchcraft characteristics in totemictotem art and theo-logical experiences. The thought of theologian Taylor Wally and four anthropologists has been fully incorporated into this study. The research results of Taylor Wally re-vealed the surprising similarities between Beuys' art and the German theological vision of the post-war period. In his view, Beuys' artistic practice was ridiculed and supported for its potential spirituality, leading mainstream critics to ignore or deliberately avoid the religious nature of his works (Worley 2009, p.169). The anthropologists believed that the key question in Beuys' work is: How can we awaken our chaotic consciousness to new or forgotten sprouts, which may rejuvenate our existence in the present (Adams 1992, Suquet 1995, Mesch 2017, Jasinski 2019)? As of yet, the idea that Beuys' totemism evokes deep “self-consciousness” associated with theology has not been explored in the study.

As a result, this is an important research goal that I will explore in this paper.

Academic Editor's second reply:

Thank you for following my suggestions so closely and even exceeding them with even better improvements. I think you have made some really great choices in your revisions. I see many, many signs of development, clarification, and refinement here.

These are some of the rich improvements to the article where you have clarified well your particular claims:

…….

- "Overall, these readings demonstrate how Beuys' art draws upon shamanic and totemic

traditions from around the world, including those found in Chinese culture. Through close readings of individual works, these authors provide nuanced and convincing arguments for the connections between Beuys' art and these traditions." p.11

Question #5：

As suggested by the assistant editor, the spelling and grammar errors have been corrected, and the professional English teacher has been asked to improve the paper's language.

Round 3

Reviewer 4 Report (New Reviewer)

I am recommending that this article be accepted with minor revisions. Those minor revisions are:

Provide context around quotations that currently stand alone as a single paragraph. The meaning and relevance of these quotations are not self-evident, and the author should provide further context to help the reader interpret these quotations.

Return to the Sol Lewitt quotation to Sol Lewitt's language. It is clear that the author altered the quotation in order to interpret the quoation. For example, the author writes:

"These sentences are almost identical and express the same meaning. The only difference lies in the synonyms used: "constitutes" vs. "is" and "most crucial element" vs. "most important aspect". Both sentences are clear and grammatically correct, but the first paragraph's choice of "constitutes" may provide a slightly stronger impression of the importance of the concept in conceptual art."

If the author believes that Sol Lewitt's use of "constitutes" could be mis-read (i.e. "provide a slightly stronger impression of the importance of the concept..." by the reader, then the author should say that and not change what Sol Lewitt said. By altering the text in this way, the author implies that he or she has knowledge about Sol Lewitt's intentions in this quotation. However, altering the text of Sol Lewitt's quotation unfairly frees the author of the burden to demonstrate that he or she is correct about Sol Lewitt's intention. Please allow Sol Lewitt's quotation to stand as it was originally written, and provide any needed commentary or interpretation outside of the quotation.

Author Response

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

I am recommending that this article be accepted with minor revisions. Those minor revisions are:…If the author believes that Sol Lewitt's use of "constitutes" could be mis-read (i.e. "provide a slightly stronger impression of the importance of the concept..." by the reader, then the author should say that and not change what Sol Lewitt said. By altering the text in this way, the author implies that he or she has knowledge about Sol Lewitt's intentions in this quotation. However, altering the text of Sol Lewitt's quotation unfairly frees the author of the burden to demonstrate that he or she is correct about Sol Lewitt's intention. Please allow Sol Lewitt's quotation to stand as it was originally written, and provide any needed commentary or interpretation outside of the quotation.

Responds：

Adhering to your request, I have supplemented the citation with requisite context, revisited the original quote from Sol Lewitt, and expounded upon my understanding thereof. Subsequent page 7 modifications, coupled with pertinent additions, have been executed as follows:

> In conceptual art the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work. When an artist uses a conceptual form of art, it means that all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes a machine that makes the art. This kind of art is not theoretical or illustrative of theories; it is intuitive, it is involved with all types of mental processes and it is purposeless. It is usually free from the dependence on the skill of the artist as a craftsman (LeWitt 1967).

After presenting Sol Lewitt's quotation, provide my own analysis or interpretation of it. Explain why I think my choice of words is significant. Therefore, I could say something like:

> “Lewitt's words stress the primacy of ideas in conceptual art, where the notion or concept not merely informs the work but 'constitutes' its most crucial aspect.Using the term 'constitutes' might be more powerful, emphasizing the centrality of the concept in the creation and interpretation of the art piece. It is also noteworthy that Lewitt posits the idea as 'a machine that makes the art,' which seems to reduce the role of the artist to a mere executor of the preconceived concept, thereby highlighting the conceptual nature of such art”.

Finally, thank you again for your hard work and I am glad to hear that you agree that I can be accepted after minor repairs.

This manuscript is a resubmission of an earlier submission. The following is a list of the peer review reports and author responses from that submission.

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The first section which seems like a literature review seems incoherent at times. The second and third sections seem just fine but may need some minor revisions.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

I feel that the refences are a very thin and your argument would be much stronger and more convincing if could draw in more sources to substantiate your thesis.

You also need to explain how you are connecting totemism and witchcraft more clearly. It seems to me that you are arguing that Beuys is engaged in a project of re-enchantment. If this is correct, there is already lots of literature on this subject that needs to be referred to. Because the concept of totemism is not really used in the study of religion anymore, I feel that you need a section describing how scholars have defined totemism and how you define it and how Beuys defined it (if he did). I also do not see any of Beuys’s own writings quoted. Did he write about such topics?

The section about Beuys’s work in connection to the concept of individuation, of rebirth, of Hegel’s idea of the abyss, and other such concepts, is the strongest part of the article and it is very intriguing. On Hegel, the book Hegel and the Hermetic Tradition by Glenn Alexander Magee might be of further help to you there.

My main suggestions are: first, that the article needs to be expanded, especially at the beginning, and more sources need to be brought in to support your claims; second, that the text needs to be proofread again and the language tightened up. Finally, the conclusion needs to be expanded, right now it is only a mere paragraph. Here you need to tie everything together and make it very clear how Beuys’s “totem art” is connected to witchcraft, shamanism, the abyss, individuation, religious experience, theology, and all the other things you referenced throughout the paper. How are all these things connected in Beuys’s art? You begin to do this in the conclusion, but I think a lot more needs to be said about this here. You also need to connect back to the idea of irrationalism and so forth that you brought up at the beginning of the article.

Title: I would change the title to simply: “Totems of Sacred Animals: Joseph Beuys Combines Wiccan Energy with Theology” there is no need to say he is a contemporary or an artist in the title. But do you really talk about energy much in the paper? If not, why is it in the title?

Abstract: I would delete these first two sentences: “A series of animal totems by Joseph Beuys was exhibited at one time, and the meaning 9 behind the totems continued later. In the face of grotesque and irrational influences, he incorporated 10 a variety of animal imagery into the human form.”

Start the abstract with simply… “In this paper, I analyze…”

Keywords: I have never heard of Witchcraft Theory or Theological Philosophy. I recommend simply witchcraft and theology

Page 1, final sentence of first paragraph, I am not sure how something can be based on essentialism. Could you clarify what you mean by this?

Page 2: Shamanism and witchcraft are not the same thing and most religious studies scholars would not equate them. Could you give a bit more background on the difference between shamanism and witchcraft and how you are connecting them, in what ways are they similar? For example, Frazer is an extremely dated source on something like witchcraft, could you bring in more recent sources on the subject? I do not think that “Western cultural anthropologists” still view witchcraft in the way that Frazer and Taylor did. You begin to suggest this when you move into the subject of Wicca, but there is a ton of research on these subjects, and so a better bridge needs to be built from Frazer’s ideas about witchcraft to the modern phenomenon of Wicca, which is technically a New Religious Movement. This means you need to bring in more sources.

The long quote from Taylor here should be separated as a block quote.

Pages 3-5: Can you expand this section to contextualize Beuys’s life and work better? Who were his influences? His interlocutors?

On page 6 you write of “Boyce’s art” but you mean Beuys. This typo appears several times. You also talk about what you believe art should be in one place. I suggest revising this section to keep with the more scholarly style of the rest of the paper.

Reviewer 3 Report

This article presents problems of form and content. In terms of form, the authors disregard spelling rules, from the very name of the artist in question. Joseph Beuys is spelled Boyce fifteen times (lines 159, 166, 172, 180, 186, 188, 211, 212, 286, 296, 311, 318, 345).

Apart from grammatical and spelling errors, the content presents some problematic issues of fundamental importance: from the title itself, which confuses the concepts of Witchcraft with the Wiccan movement, to the very term totem, which the authors confuse conceptually with sign.

While this is neither the object of the journal nor the main theme of the article, the authors' text misunderstands the nature of the object of the study: the artistic practice of Joseph Beuys. For example, phrases such as "The work of this artist is not considered "irrational" or "bizarre" as contemporary mankind understands them, but rather a legacy of the lost spiritual heritage of ancient sacred totemizations of mankind” reflect a superficial grasping of the reception of Joseph Beuys’ work. Far from “irrational or bizarre”, Beuys’ art has been widely accepted in the art world and beyond, both in German and Western post- WWII society.

Another example of a controversial statement is: "Beuys's work was analyzed by most of the earlier critics and observers in terms of sociology, pedagogy, and the language of art, which has no meaning" (lines 206-208). Particularly since a major flaw of this article lies in the fact that it does not refer to the primary source: the writings of Joseph Beuys, which are numerous and extensive.

Neither does it review the critical literature on the artist, mentioning only three recent works, while disregarding the extensive body of critical literature on this author, and even the museum dedicated to the artist – Museum Schloss Moyland - with an online archive that can be consulted https://www.moyland.de/en/joseph-beuys-archive/joseph-beuys-archive/.

Had the authors consulted these writings, they would have identified the sources of Beuysian thought: anthroposophy, the philosophers and naturists of the Jena circle and the German Romantics. His reference thinkers were Novalis, Paracelsus, Goethe, and, above all, Rudolf Steiner. Spirituality, anti-materialism, transformation, redemption and shamanism are, indeed, Beuys' great driving forces and his relationship with religion, Christianity and other spiritual currents are well documented.

Joseph Beuys' biography, his relationship with Nazism and the Holocaust, along with the great wound of German society which he seeks to heal through his expanded art - namely, the notion of redemption - are absent in this approach. The Manresa performance, along with the writings of the theologian and philosopher Friedhelm Mennekes are also curiously lacking in this text.

The greatest strength of the article lies in the non-Western sources and their relation to shamanism. If the authors could establish a conceptual link between Beuys, shamanism, spirituality and non-Western mysticism based on a thorough knowledge of the artist's thought, the article would gain in depth and rigor.

Below, I cite a series of references that, in my opinion, would considerably improve the article:

KUSPIT, Donald. “Fat, Felt and Alchemy” in The critic as artist. Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1984, pp. 344-358.

MENNEKES, F. (ed.), (2022), Joseph Beuys-Manresa: A Spiritual Geography, Tenov Books.

MOFFIT, John. (1988). Occultism in Avant-Garde Art: The Case of Joseph Beuys. Ann Arbor, Michigan: UMI Research Press.

O’LEARY, Timothy: “Fat, Felt and Fascism: The Case of Joseph Beuys”, The Sidney Society of Literature and Aesthetics, 6, (1996), 91-105.<http://openjournals.library.usyd.edu.au/index.php/LA/article/view/5750>

RAY, G. (ed.). Joseph Beuys: Mapping The Legacy. Distributed Art Publishers. ISBN 978-1891024030.

SZULAKOWSKA, Urszula (2006). “The Paracelsian Magus in German Art: Joseph Beuys and Rebecca Horn. Pp. Art and Alchemy. WAMBERG, Jacob (ed.) Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press.

TISDALL, C. (1979). Joseph Beuys. New York: Guggenheim Museum.

ULMER, G. (2007). Performance: Joseph Beuys in Joseph Beuys The Reader. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. pp. 233–236. ISBN 978-0262633512

Writings by Joseph Beuys:

https://www.thriftbooks.com/a/joseph-beuys/326416/

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