Northern Athapaskan Social and Economic Variability.

• Main Author: Ives, John Watson
• Other Authors: Ann Arbor
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 1985
• Subjects: Social Sciences; Arctic; Canada; Chipewyan; eyak; Northern Athapaskan; Tutchone
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/160804

This study explores the relationship between social organization and economic arrangements among Northern Athapaskans in northwestern North America, so that the role of social organization in shaping prehistoric archaeological records may be identified. The investigation proceeds first with the analysis of ethnographic information from Beaver and Slavey communities in northwestern Canada, particularly of variability in kin terminology. The principles by which Beaver and Slavey local groups form are isolated, along with the developmental processes influencing local group histories. After an examination of the effects of fur trade activities upon historic Beaver and Slavey societies, a series of propositions derived from these ethnographic principles are evaluated against archival literature for the early fur trade. There are strong indications that social systems structured along ethnographic lines existed at contact. Building upon the distinctions evident in the Beaver and Slavey cases, the same style of analysis is applied to other Northern Athapaskan societies: the Ross River Kaska, the Caribou Eater Chipewyan, the southern Tutchone, the Carrier and the linguistically related Eyak. The principal findings of this work are that: (1) Northern Athapaskan kin systems share a formal identity with Dravidian kin systems of South India, in that they are affected by society wide discriminations of kinsmen who are either affines or consanguines; (2) Northern Athapaskans rework this structural theme in a variety of socioeconomic alternatives; (3) Arctic Drainage Athapaskans exhibit essentially two kinds of social system--local group growth systems feature endogamy and seek economic accommodations through increasing the size of local groups, while local group alliance systems stress exogamy and seek economic accommodations through external ties between smaller local groups. The concluding portion of the work treats the archaeological variability which is projected for local group growth and alliance systems. Principles of ...