the Chipewyan hunting unit

Canadian Athapaskan societies have proved difficult to analyze and classify because of the apparent lack of corporate features in the band. This apparent lack of band corporateness is in fact an accurate assessment of the ethnographic reality. Within Canadian Athapaskan society a restricted cognatic...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:American Ethnologist
Main Author: SHARP, HENRY S.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Wiley 1977
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/ae.1977.4.2.02a00100
https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1525%2Fae.1977.4.2.02a00100
https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1525/ae.1977.4.2.02a00100
Description
Summary:Canadian Athapaskan societies have proved difficult to analyze and classify because of the apparent lack of corporate features in the band. This apparent lack of band corporateness is in fact an accurate assessment of the ethnographic reality. Within Canadian Athapaskan society a restricted cognatic descent group, here called the hunting unit, exists that functions as a corporate group. The social boundaries of hunting units are not coextensive with those of the band, and what appear to be bands are simply residential aggregations of unallied hunting units.