Several of my villagers have mastered three or more skills, but still no totems or "Esteemed Elders". Was this something not included in the first game? I have "The Lost Children" on my I-pod and can only get my population to 40, but over half of them are Esteemed Elders.

Each chapter in the Virtual Villagers series is different. Esteemed Elders and Totems are a feature of VV2, and are not part of game play in either VV1 or VV3 (although VV3 does have a skills-based achievement).

Thank you for clearing that up. :-)