Punishment in Pre-Colonial Indigenous Societies in North America [chapter]

This paper was originally presented at the Conference on Punishment of the Jean Bodin Society for the Comparative History of Institutions, Barcelona, Spain, May 1987. The paper as originally presented can be found at http://hdl.handle.net/11122/8276. Using northern Athabascan villages as examples, t...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Conn, Stephen
Format: Conference Object
Language:English
Published: De Boeck Université 1991
Subjects:
Alaska Natives
alcohol & alcohol abuse
bush justice
legal anthropology
rural justice
traditional law ways
Bodin
Athabascan
Alaska
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/11122/9753
Description
Summary:This paper was originally presented at the Conference on Punishment of the Jean Bodin Society for the Comparative History of Institutions, Barcelona, Spain, May 1987. The paper as originally presented can be found at http://hdl.handle.net/11122/8276. Using northern Athabascan villages as examples, the author discusses how punishment in indigenous societies was traditionally interwoven with other societal functions. The influence of alcohol and the western legal process changed post-colonial societies and their methods of punishment because punishment decisions in indigenous societies were traditionally arrived at through group deliberation, whereas the western legal system works in a hierarchical fashion. The author concludes that imposition of western-style decision-making disrupted tradtional law ways in post-colonial society.

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