Indigenous Studies

Mercator and Pieters Projections

Mercator = cylindrical map designed for marine navigation, preserves angles but distorts size

• Maintains shape, distorts relative size

Pieters = maintains relative size of countries but sacrifices shape

Ecozones

Area of the Earth’s surface defined by climate, landforms, vegetation, and human activity

• Frame answers to fundamental human problems

• Environments in ecozones determine how humans feed, clothe, and shelter themselves

Arctic Nation: Inuit

Name the Type (Nomadic/Seasonal), Environment, Subsistence Strategies, Economics, Kinship, Political Organization

Nomadic / Seasonal

Environment: Incredibly varied, tundra, subarctic forests

Subsistence Strategies: Hunt/Gather. Big game such as caribou and sea mammals. Breathing hole sealing

Economics: Reciprocity Systems, Extensive Trade

Kinship: Patrilineal Slant, with both lines recognized

Political Organization: Band

Inuit Language Details

Inuit is a loaded term. Peoples of Northern Quebec and Mackenzie River Delta have unintelligible differences in culture and language

Subarctic

Name the Type (Nomadic/Seasonal), Environment, Subsistence Strategies, Economics, Kinship, Political Organization

Cree, Metis, Innu, Naskapi, Beothuk, Inuit

Nomadic / Seasonal

Environment: Treeless tundra, subarctic forests, temperate rainforests, grasslands, plains

Subsistence Strategies: Big game hunting

Economics: Reciprocity Systems and Extensive Trade Networks

Kinship: Both patrilineal and matrilineal systems found in subarctic

Political Organization: Band and Tribe

Subarctic Groups

Cree, Metis, Innu, Naskapi, Beothuk, Inuit

Northeast

Name the Type (Nomadic/Seasonal), Environment, Subsistence Strategies, Economics, Kinship, Political Organization

Nomadic / Sedentary

Environment: Varied

Subsistence Strategies: Hunt, gather, and supplementary horticulture

Economics: Reciprocity and Redistribution systems, along with extensive trading networks

Kinship: Both patrilineal and matrilineal systems found through the Northeast

Political Organization: Band and Tribal systems

Northeast Groups

~ 40 Nations, Abenaki, Maliseet, Passamaquoddy, Mi’kmaq, Beothuk

Plains

Name the Type (Nomadic/Seasonal), Environment, Subsistence Strategies, Economics, Kinship, Political Organization

Nomadic

Environment: Western plains are arid and devoid of trees.

Subsistence Strategies: Corn, wild rice, and maple sugar were grown in the Eastern Plains and Rocky Mountain Foothills. Buffalo, berries, edible roots, and controlled burning were used in the Central and Western Plains.

Economics: Reciprocity (West) and Redistribution Systems (East) as well as extensive trade networks

Kinship: Both patrilineal and matrilineal, Western plains mostly patrilineal

Political Organization: Bands and Tribes

Plains Groups

Blackfoot, Plains Cree, Assiniboine, Ojibwa

Plateau

Name the Type (Nomadic/Seasonal), Environment, Subsistence Strategies, Economics, Kinship, Political Organization

Sedentary

Environment: Forested mountains and desert, varied

Subsistence Strategies: Hunting and gathering big game, berries, as well as fishery management and fenced deer management

Economics: Reciprocity and Redistribution

Kinship: Patrilineal and Matrilineal across regions.

Political Organization: Tribes and chiefdoms

Plateau Groups

Kutenai, Okanagan

Northwest Coast

Name the Type (Nomadic/Seasonal), Environment, Subsistence Strategies, Economics, Kinship, Political Organization

Sedentary, high concentrations

Environment: Coastal rainforests, boreal rainforests,

Subsistence Strategies: Hunt and gather, with large cedar plank houses

Economics: Internal reciprocity and external redistribution

Kinship: Dominantly matrilineal

Political Organization: Chiefdoms with elaborate ceremonies (potlatch)

Northwest Coast People

Bella Cools, Haida, Tlingit, Tsimshian, Kwakiutl

Indigenous Ways of Knowing

Based on the notion that individuals comprehend their environment based on collective living and wisdom

First Nations Epistomology

Ecologically-specific patterns, rhythms, and events

• Ways of knowing

• By the mid-20th century, scholars were aware that FN and European ways of knowing were different

Importance of the 1960s

1964 - Founding of Minnesota’s Native Studies Dept.

Vine Deloria Jr. (Lakota) Publications:

1969 - Custer Died for your Sins

1973 - God is Red: A Native View on Religion

1977 - The Metaphysics of Modern Existence

Leroy Little-Bear

Kainai

Held discussions which clearly articulated Native philosophies, expanded Native philosophy beyond world view and religion

Leroy Little-Bear Dialogue Results

Dialogues initially held in Michigan

• Western ideas must be injected into NA philosophies in order to understand NA philosophical intricacies

Role of Philosophy in Society

Societies have fundamental assumptions about life and reality

• Guide how a society operates on all fronts

Indigenous Philosophy and Land

Land is

• the heart of creation

• the source of indigenous identity

• variations lead to unique ecological philosophies

Main schools of Indigenous Philosophy

Native Science

• uses language of quantum mechanics, relationships, spirit, and flux

Indigenous Ethics and Codes of Conduct

• Native values used to examine different responses to environments (social, physical, political)

Five Ways of Knowing in Indigenous Science

1. Space / Land

2. Constant Motion / Flux

3. All things are animate and imbued with spirit

4. Relationship

5. Renewal

Tenet 1: Space

• Creation is the primary source of identity

• Each FN has a unique relationship with Creation

Tenet 2: Constant Motion / Flux

• Creation remains in a constant state of flux

• Trickster as flux

Tenet 3: All is animate and imbued with spirit

• The environment is sentient

• All of creation is one spirit, therefore related

Tenet 4: Relationship

• Universe is personal

• Every entity must seek out and balance relations with every other entity

• Relationship is circumscribed by responsibility

Tenet 5: Renewal

Equilibrium on Earth must be maintained, which requires renewal

• Renewal is also found in ceremony, which facilitates knowledge and understanding

Natural Law

Humans must adapt to the natural law as it cannot be altered by human actions

FN Codes of Conduct: 3 Major Categories

1. Noninterference

2. Emotional Restraint

3. Sharing

FN Codes of Conduct: 4 Minor Categories

1. Doing when the time is right

2. Avoiding public praise

3. Ordering social relations by complex rules

4. Learning by doing; teaching through immersion/experience

Adaptation: 2 Definitions

• Shifting balance between needs of a population and potential of the environment

• Changes an organism makes in response to its environment and vice versa

Cultural and Physical Adaptation

Adaptation is both cultural and physical

• Cultural: technological advances

• Physical: sickle cell anemia in African Americans to protect against Malaria

Parallel Evolution

Similar cultural adaptations are achieved in similar environments by people whose ancestral cultures were quite similar

• Origination of analogous traits in distinct species living in equal environments

• Comanche

Convergent Evolution

Development of similar cultural adaptations in similar environments by people whose ancestral cultures were quite different

• Independent evolution of analogous structures in unrelated species

• Cheyenne

Culture Area

Geographical region where numerous societies follow similar patterns of life

• Great Plains, where 31 politically independent peoples rely mainly on Buffalo

Ecological Context

Subsistence strategies arise in response to distinct environments

Political Economy in Indigenous Context

Specific indigenous political and economic strategies arose in response to specific environments

Ecology and Epistomologies

Different environments created different epistemologies, from which

• Indigenous identities

• societal structures

• spiritualities

• languages

• social philosophies

• governance and economic models

all emerged

Youngblood Henderson and Indigenous People and their Environment

Indigenous people relate to their environments differently

• Land is not property

• Responsibility over control

• Knowledge comes from long-term interactions with place

Youngblood Henderson and Indigenous Epistomologies

Argues that

• Indigenous epistemologies are distinct and not invalid

• Knowledge is place based, holistic, and dynamic

Great Game Extinctions

Sudden extinctions of large game in North America and Australia around the time of human colonization

• occurred 10,000 years ago, shortly after the Younger Dryas

The following animals went extinct

• All weighing over 1000kg

• 75% of herbivores weighing 100-1000kg

• 41% of animals weighing 5-100kg

• 2% of small animals

Subsistence

How we stay alive

• Specifically, how we feed, clothe, and shelter ourselves

Categories of Subsistence

Hunting (small and large game, terrestrial and marine)

Gathering

Pastoralism (transhumance)

Horticulture

Agriculture (Dryland and Irrigation)

Hunting and Gathering

Oldest strategy from which all humans evolved

• Groups move in response to resources

• Groups stay small due to carrying capacity and complex social relations

• Groups make long term and short term adjustments to resources

• Population control through long-term nursing and spacing between children

Hunting and Gathering Impacts on Human Society

1. Sexual Division of Labour is Culturally Defined, not Biologically Defined

2. Emphasis on sharing and not competition

3. Cultural Adaptations and Material Technology must be mobile

4. Egalitarianism

Horticulture

Cultivation of crops using hand toold

• plots are cycled through in rotation

• for subsistence, not surplus

Two Forms of Farming

Swidden - slash and burn, low population with large amounts of land

Dryland -

Intensive Agriculturalists

Modifies landscape and ecology through fertilizers, irrigation, technology

Provides for subsistence and surplus

Found in societies which employ specialists, societies with cities

Types of Intensive Agriculture

Crop Cycles adapted to

• Seasonal Uplands (changing seasons, wheat, flax, rye)

• Tropical Wetlands (Rice, tubers, Yams, Yaro)

Pastoralism

Societies that regard animal husbandry as the ideal way of living; movement of part or all of the society is a normal way of life

• effective way of living in places too rocky or arid to be farmed

Transhumance

Moving livestock from one location to another in a seasonal cycle

Economics

Seeks to ensure every man, woman, and child will be fed, clothed, and sheltered

Three Main Forms of Economics

Reciprocity, Redistribution, and Market Exchange

Forms of Reciprocity Economics

Generalized - Intra-community

• I give to you today so that you can give to me when you have

Balanced - inter and intra-community

• I give to you today so that you can give to me on a certain date

Negative

• I give in order to take advantage of you

Types of Subsistence Systems and Their Economic Systems

H / G - Reciprocity and Redistribution

Horticulture - Redistribution and Market

Intensive Ag - Market

Pastoralists - Redistribution and Reciprocity

Four Principles Underlying Kinship and Reproduction

Robin Fox

1. The women bear the children

2. The men impregnate the women

3. Men usually exercise some social control

4. Primary kin do not mate with each other (incest taboo)

How Do Patrilines / Matrilines Evolve?

Patrilines

• when the men stay together

• Males and females belong to their father’s kin; only males pass on their family’s identity

• H / G societies

Matrilines

• when the women stay together

• Only daughters pass on their family identity

Role of Mother’s Brother (MBr) in Matriline Society

MBr would have the role of a European father, while the biological father would have that role over his sister’s children

Cross / Parallel Cousins

Parallel Cousin - Children whose parents are the same-sex siblings of the Ego’s parents

Cross Cousin - Children whose parents are opposite-sex siblings of the Ego’s parents

Cognatic Bilineal and Ambilineal Descent

Cognatic Bilineal - Hybrid of matrilineal and patrilineal descent

Cognatic Ambilineal - Descent from either males or females is recognized, choice of the individual

Lineage

A corporate descent group whose members trace their genealogy back to a common ancestor

Clan

A non-corporate descent group whose members claim descent from a common ancestor, without knowing their link to the ancestor

Phratry

Unilineal descent group composed of two or more clans that claim to be of common ancestry

Moiety

Each resultant group from a clan splitting in half

Apical Ancestor

Founding/legendary ancestor of the clan

Totem

A natural object/animal adopted by a society, believed to have spiritual significance

Exogamy and Endogamy

Exogamy - Lineage members must find their marriage partners in other lineages

Endogamy - Lineage members can marry inside the lineage

Residency Patterns

Where one lives after marriage

Patrilocal - residence of my husband’s family

Matrilocal - Residence of my wife’s family

Ambilocal - with relatives of either the husband or wife

Avunculocal - Mother’s brother’s place of residence, found in matrilineal societies

Neolocal - In a brand-new place

Natolocal - everybody stays home

Exchanges at Marriage

Gift exchange

Bride service

Bride price (bridewealth)

Dowry

Four Political Systems

Non-centralized

• Band

• Tribe

Centralized

• Chiefdom

• State

Coming of Age

Humans came of age in the Band system

• associated with hunting/gathering

Elements carried into other systems included

1. Culturally-defined sexual division of labour

2. Food sharing - emphasis on cooperation

3. Cultural adaptations

4. Egalitarianism, where status differences do not imply inequalities

Carrying Capacity

Maximum number of people the resources of a land can support

Bands ensured carrying capacity numbers through splitting into smaller groups and birth spacing as well as prolonged nursing

Conflict Resolution in Bands

Conflict resolution within bands aims to have an outcome agreeable to everyone

• Decisions are made by community consensus

• Settled by gossip, ridicule, negotiation and mediation

• Members in conflict can live in another band where there are relatives

Density of Social Relations

Number and intensity of interactions of members in a group

Characteristics of Band Political Structure

Least complicated

• Members of a band separate into smaller units

• Practice ambilocal residence

• Low populations mean there is no need for a centralized political system

• Getting along is a high social value

How decisions were made in bands

Community and Consensus

Leadership in Bands

Leaders led by charisma - not by force, but by example and confidence

Which political systems were found/utilized in the Americas?

All four (Tribe, Band, Chiefdom, State)

How are Tribes Organized?

By kinship and association