Actually some of the villagers do have favorite villagers, who they prefer to talk to and when that villager dies, they'll go to their Totem Pole instead of chosing someone else.

I move my totems all around the island all the time, just because. It's funny (and kind of sad too) when one villager is coming and I didn't see them coming but I was moving the Totem again, and the villager gets there but when they don't find the totem, they get lonely. (Actually, the same thing happens if it's a live one they're after.)

However, there are certain areas of the island that are definitely glitches. Whenever I see one I'm so tempted to quickly start up Paint because "I've got to get a picture of this one!" ...