Trying to make a life : the historical political economy of Kitsumkalum ...

• Main Author: McDonald, James Andrew
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 1985
• Subjects: Kitsumkalum; Tsimshian; Tsimshian*
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0096731; https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0096731

Anthropological inquiries into the human condition have long been tempered with a concern for the difficulties experienced by non-Western societies faced with prolonged contact with the expanding Western social systems. In economic anthropology, studies of contemporary tribal and peasant societies have turned to the literature on development and underdevelopment to explain the features and processes that are associated with that contact. This dissertation is the result of such research into the social and economic problems on the Northwest Coast. The work examines the history and ethhography of the Tsimshian Indians to determine the underlying social forces that led to and still maintain the underdevelopment of the social and economic potential of Tsimshian groups. Particular attention is given to the form and dynamics of the Tsimshian economy, of the regional expression of the expanding world market economy, and the relations between the two. The dissertation thus explores the socioeconomic aspects of the ...