I just watched as a villager became an elder, but no new totem sprang up. I wonder if it has something to do with an earlier elder having the same name, so there was one totem for that name already? It stinks to have waited so long for it...Has that happened to anyone else?

I had an two people with the same name (male and female) and they each had their own totem. Have you searched the entire island for it?

I did, and it isn't there. Such a bummer...

Have you moved your other totems to see if it was underneath one?

Well I hadn't, but I just did, and it really isn't there...

I read that they're sometimes placed in the middle of the ocean? Have you looked there, too?

I looked everwhere. That elder didn't get a totem

Are you sure the villager is an elder?

How many totems did you have already?

I had nine, and in my statistics, it still says I have nine, even though it should be ten. And yes, I'm sure she was an elder, I kept putting her on building and I watched her because she was so close, so when her status changed, I knew right away, and began looking for her totem. It just nevere registered her accomplishment...

When you click on her, does it say "Esteemed Elder" in her job box?

Yes, it did, and now her grave says it, too.

Hmmmm... strange, indeed.

I just had my 4th villager turn into an elder and no new totem showed up. Looked everywhere, this might be a glich.

He wasn't by any chance fishing at the time? Some people have found their totems, literally out to sea

I found one in the creek between the carved wall and the farm plot.

I have looked everywhere, no totem. Maybe it is a special invisible one, lol.

I had a very strange situation similar to this - I was watching my builder (Shuka, age 61), and she changed to an Esteemed Elder and her totem popped onscreen for a split-second and disappeared! (I've noticed that the totem usually appears at the same spot the villager is at the moment they become an elder.) -- at the SAME moment, a dead body appeared over by the fire. I wanted to change my Elder's clothing right away (I give all the Elders the long white robes to distinguish them), so I did that, then I went looking for the totem. Couldn't find it anywhere. Finally clicked on the bones to see who had died, and it was that villager!! (Shuka, age 61)

Frantically I went looking for her, found her, checked the details, yep, it was the same villager! So she is dead, has the most recent tombstone, and yet is a living Elder, and doesn't have a totem! What is going on??

Ok, so I put the game on pause, and exited it, and copied off the logfile - searched through it, and only found one death - a villager by the name of Hong died of old age - but the only Hong I had in my village is a child. I think one of my older villagers died, but not Shuka, as she is still alive & well... but I have no idea who actually died, since I have over 70 villagers now and it's hard to keep track of them all. Oh well! I'm still diappointed that Shuka doesn't have a totem though.