Carr, Malcolm, Katherine Spencer, Doriane Woolley.     Navaho Clans And Marriage At Pueblo Alto. American Anthropologist 1939 Vol.14(13):245-257.

The article, Navaho Clans And Marriage At Pueblo Alto by Malcolm Carr, Katherine Spencer and Doriane Woolley explored the relationship between marriage preferences and the Navaho clans in an area of New Mexico. In answer to their query, the authors found that more information was needed to decipher the role that other factors played in determining marriage preference. The purpose for the clan and the role it fulfilled for its members, along with the localization of clans are relevant issues surrounding the relationship between the Navaho clans and marriage at Pueblo Alto.

Carr, Spencer and Woolley conclude that kinship and an affiliation to a specific clan was proven to be a basis for marriage preference in the Navaho Clan. The clans traced their lineage through the mothers' family (matrilineally). The authors suggested that it was common for siblings of one clan to marry siblings from another clan. Men often chose the daughter, sister or niece of their first wife for their second marriage. Marriage between one clan’s family members and another’s created an alliance or relationship between the clans. An environment was produced where both parties were surrounded by family. Having kin in a different clan generated peace between clans and a sense of solidarity. No one clan which was studied revealed feelings of superiority towards other clans. This situation brought people together which fulfilled the main function of the clan.

The Navaho were exogamous. Clans within close proximity to one another formed marriages between them. Statistics have shown that localization among Navaho clans in Pueblo Alto occurred.

Confusion over data and lack of evidence were the problems the authors faced in this study. In some cases, it was difficult differentiating between one clan and another. Some clan members would claim membership in two clans. Establishing who were ‘typical Navahos’ was also an issue at Pueblo Alto, in order to classify each individual. While these problems existed for the authors, the Navaho saw themselves as ‘all the same people’.

The article was confusing and difficult to understand. I found it to be confusing to pinpoint the main topic of the article and the purpose of the article, since there was so much that was left unexplained. The charts added to the confusion.

CLARITY: 3

TEENA SEREDA University of Alberta (Heather Young Leslie).

Cooper, John M.     Is the Algonquian Family Hunting Ground System Pre-Columbian? American Anthropologist 1939 Vol.41: 66-90

In this article, Cooper sets out to explore the evidence for and against the aboriginality of the family hunting ground system of the northern Algonquian people. The question of aboriginality refers to whether or not the family hunting ground system was in place before the settling of the Europeans, or as Cooper states, pre-Columbian. He describes the system, as he knows it, among the TLte de Boule Cree of the upper St. Maurice River in Quebec. He argues that other northern Algonquian bands have similar systems, and points out any significant variations.

The description of the hunting ground system leads to a lengthy discussion regarding the classification of the system. Cooper struggles with two questions: whether the exclusive exploitation of land constitutes ownership or merely usufruct, "a limited right of exclusive possession, use, or enjoyment of the advantages of property belonging to another" (p. 68); and if exclusive exploitation of land constitutes ownership in severalty or territorial sovereignty. Through discussion of evidence in this area, he argues that ownership is present rather than usufruct, but that the evidence supports territorial sovereignty rather than ownership in severalty.

Cooper presents his discussion of the aboriginality of the family hunting ground system by laying out the evidence both for and against it. His method of presenting the evidence is organized as follows: he explores the external evidence, looking at the hunting ground and the allotment systems, and looks at controverted evidence of both; he then investigates the internal evidence, which he has broken down into the subcategories distributional, structural, and functional. Cooper concludes the article by arguing that the evidence he presented provides for a reasonable assumption that the family hunting ground system of the northern Algonquian people is mainly aboriginal and pre-Columbian.

Cooper’s article follows a reasonable and logical sequence. His evidence is both reasonable and supported by the opinions and writings of others. There are, however, a few points in the article where comprehension may fall short. There are many quotes from other explorers and anthropologists in the article, that are meant to support his argument, that are written in French, in spite of the fact that the main body of the article is written in English. It would have been very beneficial to the reader had these passages been translated into English, for it the reader does not understand French, then the supporting statements he has included in the article are lost.

CLARITY: 4

CARMEN MONCRIEFF University of Alberta (Dr. Heather Young Leslie)

Cooper, John M.   Is The Algonquian Family Hunting Ground System Pre-Columbian?   American Anthropologist  Jan-March  1939  Vol. 41(1):66-90

Cooper has written he article in a very clear and systematic format.  In the beginning he mentions that he is going to explain the hunting system as it was at the time of his writing.  Later he attempts to lay out the evidence for and against the aboriginality of the hunting ground system.

Cooper provides basic information about the hunting system in its present state:   who owns it, how it is divided up, and the rules that are implied when dealing with the land ownership.  Two very important questions are discussed: 1) whether there is proper ownership or usufruct and 2) is it ownership or territorial sovereignty?  The remainder of this paper goes to discuss these two issues in detail  providing evidence from the past and the present.

Ultimately Cooper concludes that there is no usufruct and that for the most part, despite a few exceptions, there is a thin line between family ownership and territorial sovereignty.  He comes to these conclusions based on the comparisons made from the present hunting system and the documented accounts he was able to find.  Cooper also concludes that “in view of all the evidence as given and discussed above, it seems reasonably probable, although not finally established by any means, that the family hunting ground system as found among the northern Algonquians is in its main lines aboriginal and pre-Columbian”(p.89).

CLARITY RANKING: 4

ASHLEY CASS   Southern Illinois University Carbondale   (Jonathan Hill)

Cooper, M. John.     Truman Michelson. American Anthropologist July, 1939 vol 41(19): 281-283.

Cooper’s obituary outlines the life and career of a very respected linguist and ethnologist by the name of Truman Michelson. Cooper has the utmost respected for Michelson and presents his life in a simple yet concise manner.

According to Cooper, Truman Michelson had an outstanding education that resulted in a doctor's degree at Harvard University. He also spent two years learning from one of the most well known anthropologists, Franz Boas. With his pristine education, he managed to land a job working as an ethnologist in the Smithsonian. His job at the Smithsonian led him to work at George Washington University as a chair of ethnology. He also held a high position for two years as the president of the Anthropological Society of Washington.

Michelson’s interests began with his work in Indo-Aryan. He published over 20 papers in this area. His most notable publications dealt with the inscriptions of Acoka, an ancient written language. He also did some Algonquian fieldwork. In this subject area his most important work came from his classification of the Algonquian languages. He accomplished this classification by using an Indo-European technique of primitive language reconstruction.

Cooper says that he was a prolific writer who wrote short and concise papers without wasting any words. He was regarded as being a gentleman that displayed the utmost kindness and professionalism to his colleagues, friends and students.

CLARITY RANKING: 5

ALAN SUKONNIK University of Alberta (Heather Young Leslie)

Cooper, John M.   Truman Michelson Obituary,   American Anthropologist   April-June, 1939   Vol.41(2):281-285

John Cooper offers the discipline of Anthropology a brief obituary and complete listing of publications for Truman Michelson.  A Harvard educated Boasian, Michelson was an ethnologist for the Smithsonian Institution and served as chair of ethnography at George Washington University. He passed away July 26 1938.  Deemed a “foremost international authority” in the field of Algonquian culture, Michelson published 110 articles addressing American Indian linguistics and ethnography, providing the initial scientific classification of the Algonquian languages.

Michelson’s published works were brief, and concise and they tended to address particular facets of larger questions, in contrast, he preferred to expand into broader issues of ethnography and linguistics during personal discussions

Cooper supplies 115 articles of Michelson’s work published prior to his death in an annotated bibliography.  Of further note, the majority of Michelson’s writing collected from fieldwork dating from 1910-1938 remained in unpublished manuscript form.

 CLARITY: 5

CHESTER LUNSFORD    Southern Illinois University at Carbondale  (Jonathon Hill)

Densmore, Frances.   Musical Instruments of the Maidu Indians.   American Anthropologist   January-March, 1939   Vol. 41 (1):113-115.

Frances Densmore’s article on Maidu musical instruments is based on two informants that were interviewed: Mrs. Amanda Wilson and Pablo Sylvers.

The Maidu used musical instruments for specific purposes; one instrument was unique to the Maidu; their foot-drums (ki’le) which were made from a hollowed Sycamore.  Densmore details how the log was cut and who was involved in the process.  There was an explicit account of the ritual of playing the drum and the sounds it produced.  Maidu flutes were played for entertainment and courtship purposes only; whistles were used for social functions (dances); descriptions were provided.  A section on the distribution of whistles throughout parts of China and Panama.

Rattles (washo’sho) were an important instrument to Maidu doctors; used to send for other doctors when a cure was ineffectual.  One informant briefly mentioned that one of her family members was treated by a doctor who used a washo’sho.  The other informant created another type of rattle .  This section was very mystical; giving the reader the impression that Maidu doctors were magical and spiritual healers.  A stringed musical bow was used for supernatural purposes among the Maidu and other California Indian groups.  Individuals would use a hunting bow to communicate with the spirits and Densmore describes the technique used to play the musical bow and Mr. Sylvers was able to reproduce this.

This article provided some explicit and implicit descriptions of Maidu musical instruments.  It provided the reader with enough information to keep their attention, but after reading the article, it makes the reader want to learn more about how ethereal practices were among the Maidu.  It was excellent to know that Densmore had informants that had first hand knowledge of Maidu instruments, their practices and sounds they produced.

CLARITY RANKING: 5

KARA FIRESTONE      Southern Illinois University at Carbondale   (Jonathan Hill)

Frances Desmore.     "Musical instruments of the Maidu Indians".  American Anthropologist. 1939. Volume 41(8)

In what the author states as a hastily constructed article, "Musical instruments of the Maidu Indians", Frances Desmore attempts to describe the variety of instruments used in the daily lives of the Maidu Indians. These instruments include the flute, foot drum, whistle, pipe, and musical bow. However, the article has either been rewritten by someone other than Francis Desmore, using her research, or she has written the article using someone else’s data; this was never made clear.

Using the knowledge of two informants within the tribe, the "mystery researcher" goes into tremendous details describing the instruments in general. Whether it is the foot drum carved from the stump of a large old tree, then covered with stretched animal hide, or the type of wood used in the making of flutes and whistles, the research is expertly done. However, these descriptions seem somewhat marred by the incessant "guess-work" made of the data by the actual writer of the article; in one such example, the writer attempts to use their knowledge of science to explain that it is the zinc surrounding the foot drum that truly gives it its’ resonance. When speaking of the use of whistles, the author again "quips" of how he/she suspects the whistles were probably made of different lengths, and each man blew each others whenever desired, then goes on to say, "…her notes, however, do not make this a definite statement." The reason behind this constant narration by the writer was probably intended as an interpretive method to make sense of the data that was being transcribed, but ends up muddling the article more than expected.

All in all, this article has within it a few fascinating insights made by the actual researcher, such as the comparison of the Maidu pan pipes to those of the ancient Chinese, and going so far as to suggest there was a connection between the two, but the constant "critiquing of the researcher by the writer leaves the reader quite confounded as to what to truly make of the article.

CLARITY: 2

BODHI (DIETER) RADL University of Alberta (Dr. Heather Young Leslie)

Driver, Harold E.     The Measurement of Geographical Distribution Form. American Anthropologist 1939 Vol. 41(34): 583- 588

This article was written for the purpose of adding to already existing theories and writings on measurements of geographical distribution. It was meant for use in adding information to these ideas and helping to clarify them. For these reasons this article is extremely difficult to understand if you are not familiar with other writings on the subject. Most important for full understanding is to have read works by Wissler, Dixon, and Spire. These are repeatedly referred to throughout the article and given as footnote information.

As far as can be understood without any background knowledge in the field, Driver seems to be stating that social patterns are based in the center of the geographical area in which they are found, referred to in the article as the "center of gravity". The frequency of these social patterns then become less as you travel outward from the center of gravity. However, the important factor seems to be that the frequency does not diminish in a circular spiral, but rather in an elliptical one. He also gives mathematical formulas with which exact frequencies can be calculated. To show how these equations work he gives a detailed example using the Sun Dance of Native American tribes. Driver does not explain these theories verbally; rather, he provides a number of charts, graphs and mathematical equations as proof. In most cases he refers to explanations given in other papers but does not give them himself. He also states that he is working under the same assumptions used by the authors named above, but he does not list these assumptions.

Driver’s article is obviously written with a certain audience in mind. Unfortunately, if you are not familiar with the work of his predecessors this article becomes nearly incomprehensible. He does not explain the ideas that his work is based upon, but rather, makes references to other author’s writings. It is my impression that this article could be very useful in combination with these other papers but on it’s own is very difficult to understand.

CLARITY: 1

KATHERINE ANDERSEN University of Alberta (Dr. Heather Young Leslie)

Drucker, Philip.   Rank, Wealth, and Kinship in Northwest Coast Society.   American Anthropologist. January-March, 1939 Vol. 41(1):55-65.

This article is concerned with class and social status among indigenous groups of the Northwest Coast of North America. Drucker begins his discussion by differentiating between two primary classes of individuals. These classes were the “freemen” and the “slaves.” While Drucker recognizes that the freemen and slaves belonged to separate social classes, he maintains that among freemen in Northwest Coast Society, there were no social classes. Instead, there existed a series of graduated statuses that formed a social continuum within the same social class.

When describing the social continuum, Drucker emphasizes that there were individuals with high social status and others with low social status. However, he maintains that all individuals belonged to the same group and the difference between individuals was a difference in extent of participation within the group, not a difference in kind. Furthermore, Drucker asserts that no two individuals within the group could share the same social status. He uses the example of the potlatch to illustrate this point by maintaining that giving took place on the basis of rank and if two individuals were considered to be of equal status, the potlatch would not function properly.

Drucker emphasizes kinship in his discussion of social status. He maintains that all of the Northwest Coast groups were actually extended families. As a consequence, the individual of highest rank in the group was related to the lowest ranking individual. Drucker states that such relationships resulted in economic wealth being passed to the direct descendents of a single line. Consequently, heredity and wealth were two important factors in determining social position. Drucker concludes by maintaining that throughout the Northwest Coast, wealth was the basis for social gradation and since wealth was inherited, social status was also inherited.

CLARITY RANKING:   4

DANIEL BAUER      Southern Illinois University Carbondale   (Jonathan Hill)

Embree, John, F.     New and Local Kin Groups Among the Japanese Farmers of Kona, Hawaii. American Anthropologist, 1939 Vol. 23 (41): 400-407.

In his article entitled, New and Local Kin Groups Among the Japanese Farmers of Kona, Hawaii, John Embree looks at two significant aspects of social organization: kin and geographical relationships. Embree believes that, "kinship ties are among the most important of human relationships" (p. 400). He argues that when someone relocates away from their homeland, attempts are made to create the same kin and geographical relationships he or she had in their homeland. These relationships are created despite the fact that the recent immigrants do not have kin groups to form relationships with. Instead people take on "kin substitutes" who take the on the roles of the original kin group.

Embree compares the kin and geographical relationships of a rural community in Kumamoto, Japan with the relationships of Japanese men who have immigrated to Kona, Hawaii to show the similarities and differences of the two forms of relationships. Embree defines kin and geographical relationships as they exist in Japan. The kin relationship is made up of extended kin who live within the village and in nearby villages. The geographical relationships consist of fifteen to twenty households that are closely located to each other within the village called buraku.

The extended kin groups serve very important functions in the lives of their relatives because kin partake in what Embree calls the three crises of life: marriage, death and disaster. Embree describes in clear and specific detail how the kin members are involved in marriage and death arrangements and ceremonies but he does not give any information about their involvement in disaster situations. Extended kin groups also participate in other functions that are not considered to be crises. These include the annual New Year’s Festival, Bon – the festival of the dead - and family council, which is when a man calls upon the council of his extended family because he is contemplating an important decision in his life.

The role of the buraku within the village serves a different but just as important function. Embree explains the buraku’s function as a cooperative entity. He gives five examples of how members from each of the fifteen to twenty households cooperate to achieve various means. The five examples include: civic cooperation, helping cooperation, exchange labor and the rotating responsibility for certain buraku affairs by small groups. Many of the cooperative tasks include a drinking party at completion of the task funded by all the members of the buraku involved or by the person who assistance was given to.

The differences between kin and geographic relationships that a Japanese would have in Japan, compared to the relationships he has in Hawaii, are many. Because the immigrants Embree refers to are the first generation of Japanese to move to this area, there are little or no kin relatives. Instead, the Japanese of Kona consider someone who has lived in the same or neighboring village a type of kin relative. They also form their own versions of buraku with people in the community despite the fact many of them do not live as close as the members of a buraku in Japan would. These new versions of kin and buraku groups participate in the same celebrations such as the three crises of life, the annual New Year’s Festival, Bon, and family council but they participate in different capacities. Embree shows that the general idea of community involvement and cooperation among Japanese relations is still present although it is among a different group of Japanese in another country.

Embree’s article proceeds clearly. It is easy to follow the comparisons he makes between citizens in Japan and the Japanese immigrants in Hawaii.

CLARITY RANKING: 4

CRYSTAL TRACY University of Alberta (Heather Young Leslie)

Embree, John F.   New and Local Kin Groups Among the Japanese Farmers of Kona, Hawaii.   American Anthropologist   July-Sept, 1939   Vol. 41(3):400-407

The author examines the distinction between the social relationships of a Japanese immigrant farming society in Kona, Hawaii and their counterparts in rural Japan.  He uses a years worth of data he compiled while living in a small village in Japan to show how functions of kin relationships from the “old country” are used in the new “kin-less” social structure.

In a rural Japanese village, or mura, the most important groups are the household, which is patriarchal and consists of the master and his wife, their first son and his wife and kids and their unmarried children, and the buraku, made up of 15 to 20 households.  The household and extended family function together for occasions such as marriage, funerals, New Year, Bon (festival of the dead), and important life decisions like sale or purchase of land.  In the buraku the households cooperate to repair roads, build or repair houses, plant crops, and handle other small affairs for the mura.  In Kona they have formed groups, kumi, much like buraku.  Very few first generation settlers have blood ties.  They live far apart with many not knowing all the members of their kumi.  This, along with the capitalist environment, allows for less cooperation.  Nevertheless, occasions such as weddings and funerals will bring a kumi together.  A closer relationship is the kin substitute, or tokoro- mon, being a person from the same region in Japan.  The closer they lived, the closer the friend.  They replace what is missing in kinship.

Embree’s comparison gives a clear view of how members of a new society attempt to keep social structures and relationships intact and how they attempt to replace what they have lost.

CLARITY RANKING: 4

STEVE CUTRIGHT   Southern Illinois University  Carbondale (Jonathan Hill)

Forde, Daryll C.     Kinship in Umor - Double Unilateral Organization in a Semi-Bantu Society. American Anthropologist October-December, 1939 Vol. 41(4): 523-553.

In C.Daryll Forde’s article, Kinship in Umor-Double Unilateral Organization in a Semi-Bantu Society, the Umor village in Nigeria is closely analyzed for the significance it places on kinship relations. The article provides an in-depth explanation, with diagrams, on the Umor culture and its functions according to patrilineal and matrilineal principles in 1935. From personal contact with the Umor people, Forde describes how the patrilineal and matrilineal kin of the Umor people effected not only the composition of the village, but also the manner of its every day activities. Many examples are provided with Umor terminology to specify specific relations in kinships. For example "Kepun" denotes patrilineal kin, "Lejima" denotes matrilineal kin, and "Yabot" indicates "the leaders".

Forde begins the article with brief descriptions of patrilineal and matrilineal kin. He explains the rights and obligations of the matrilineal groups, which do not formally conflict with those of the patrilineal kinship. In the article, a large emphasis is placed on describing the matrilineal and patrilineal division into different clans. Through observation, Forde uses his personal accounts to describe individual matrilineal kin groups, such as the small Yabot 11 lijima, and illuminates in further detail with complex diagrams. In the body of his article, Forde does admit, however, that lack of detail makes some of the material obtained incomplete.

The importance of the matrilineal group as vehicles of ritual power and legal authority is stressed in the article. Forde demonstrates the dominance of the matrilineal kin by using examples such as adoption, marriage payments and matrilineal land rights. This dominance of matrilineal kin indicates to Forde, older elements of a dual unilateral social system. The Umor, according to Forde, indicate unilineal kin groups, which are recognized for developing in a series of stages from the more primitive to the more advanced. Forde observed that the patrilineal principles of 1939 were overcoming, in some aspects, the matrilineal ascendancy. Evidence of this is presented in Forde’s observation of marriage payments and the acknowledgement of the elders in the settlements of village affairs. In Relation, Forde concludes that economic and political changes are the main contributing factor to a sway in patrilineal principles over matrilineal ascendancy.

Considering this article was written in 1939, many of Forde’s ideas about kinship parallel those of today. Forde clears up any confusion in the body of the article, with the assistance of diagrams and charts that describe each of the different maternal and paternal kinships.

CLARITY RATING: 4

MEGAN WEST University of Alberta (Dr. Heather Young Leslie)

Forde, C. Daryll.   Kinship in Umor—Double Unilateral Organization in a Semi-Bantu Society.   American Anthropologist Oct-Dec. 1939.   Vol. 41(4):  523-553.

In this article, author C. Daryll Forde discusses the double unilateral descent of the Yako people of Umor, an area in southern Nigeria.  He begins by describing the patrilineal kin, a group called the kepun.  The men usually obtain land and forested areas, as well as a locality in which to live and raise a family through their patrilineal relatives, or those on the father’s side.  The residence of married couples is patrilocal, meaning the new couple moves to live on the husband’s father’s land.  Marriage is strictly exogamous among the kepun, which is not a problem, since all the men who are related to each other live in the same compound.  This is the lineage and genealogy that has been studied more frequently, but the author contends that matrilineal descent plays a strong part in the stability of the community.

Forde goes on to describe the women’s lineage, called the lejima.  These groups are necessarily mobile and spread out through the villages, and members may retain only cursory knowledge of all but their close matrilineal kin.  Still, there are rights and obligations that arise because of these affiliations.  The matrilineal kin of the prospective husband provides most of the bride price for a woman.  The dowry is, in turn, given to the matrilineal relatives of the wife, to be repaid by them if the bride runs off with another man or dies prematurely.  Also, much of the movable items that a person may inherit are inherited through the mother’s lineage.  The matrilineal kin must repay any outstanding debts of a person if he or she dies or fails to repay the creditor within a reasonable amount of time.  The kin of the mother’s family has other responsibilities as well.  The murder of a man (or a woman) is held accountable to be repaid as if it were a debt of the matrilineal side of the murderer, and they may be required to submit a marriageable girl to the dead man’s lejima by way of repayment, although the patrilineal relatives do not receive any such compensation.

This article was very clearly written and easily understandable, and provided insights into the “other side” of lineal descent among people in Nigeria.

CLARITY RANKING:  5

JENNIE KANYOK    Southern Illinois University (Jonathan Hill)

Fortune, R.F.     Arapesh Warfare. American Anthropologist 1939 Vol.41:22-41

This article examines the social practices and conventions of New Guinea’s Arapesh tribe with respect to warfare. This article contains important data and insight about the indigenous peoples of New Guinea, and helps to distinguish the practices of people in a particular locality from those of their neighbors. While early colonial powers in the area may have viewed New Guinea’s indigenous people as a homogeneous group of vicious headhunters, it is clear from this article that this is an ignorant viewpoint. In contrast, there were distinct groups that had unique cultures and languages. This article therefore is an important part of the documentation of the Arapesh customs. As warfare among the New Guinea tribesman had been suppressed by the German colonial powers since 1914, only older members of the tribe could recall actual incidents and thus it was important to document this information before it was lost.

I assume that Fortune’s data is a result of participant observation. The author never states the nature of the research, but he/she does speak the language, which leads to my afore mentioned assumption. The data is presented in a roughly sequential way. The author outlines the boundaries of Arapesh land, and how said land was divided between clans. Also noted is how the land was passed down through lines of patrilineal decent. The author continues with the reasons that warfare was usually declared. Unlike western nations, land annexation was apparently not a motivating factor. Arapesh warfare appears to have served a social function in their society, and the major objective of war was to deplete the adjacent tribes of people, whether by taking the heads of their men, or abducting their women.

A common catalyst for warfare was "piracy" of women from neighboring tribes. These incidents were not simply kidnapping, but orchestrated events in which women from a different locality could divorce their husbands. Fortune proceeds to describe the nature of warfare, and the conditions required to declare it. Also included is a traditional speech that was given by one of woman’s male relatives after she had been taken. The speech appears in English as well as a transliterated version in the Arapesh language. The author describes the methods of war from battle to sorcery, or black magic. Also addressed is the Arapesh preference for spousal monogamy, even though polygamy was commonplace, and the process of arranged marriage in Arapesh culture. The article closes with another transliterated speech that preaches the benefits of monogamy, and the dangers of marring a widowed or divorced woman.

CLARITY: 5

MIKE METCALF University of Alberta (Heather Young Leslie)

Fortune, R.F.   Arapesh Warfare.   American Anthropologist     January, 1939   Vol.1 :22-41

In this article R.F. Fortune discusses the Arapesh tribe and their form of warfare.  The Arapesh inhabit a small strip of land in the northwest of New Guinea.  This tribe and the tribes that surround it have very little political unity; a word for this unity does not even exist in their vocabulary.  These tribes are divided by internal frontiers as well as very strict moral codes.  Family is extremely important to the Arapesh people. The piracy of women seems to be the cause of most of the violence, and though there may be other issues bride-capture does play a role in war.

Fortune illustrates the importance of family by discussing the importance of children.  It is more important to have children than it is to have land for those children.  Women are the ultimate loss to a family or locality.  Female family members are the cause of war.  They are allowed to go willingly to another family on some occasions and in other occasions the women are sent back to the family they have left.  The only time the Arapesh will go to war is when the majority of the locality has agreed to fight for a woman.

These wars take place on cleared land that is located on cleared areas that border the warring localities’ land.  The use of magic and sorcery are an often-used alternative to physical violence.  These forms of sorcery are used to kill and wound members of the opposing group.  Though physical skirmishes may be quite violent the loss of one or two members may be enough to stop one side from fighting.  Betrayal is also very common during these wars.

Fortune ends that article by discussing the structure of the Arapesh family.  A man’s first wife is most often chosen for him by his family and the family of his wife to be.  The parents decide who is to be married and the children are raised together at the end of their childhood.  The daughter-in-law owes a great debt to this new family.  These debts include debt for food, housing and everything else that the husband’s family has provided.  Because of this debt the young wife may have very few rights.  Wives entering the picture by choice at a later date may not incur these debts therefor having much more power in their newly obtained family.

Fortune’s article not only discusses the warfare of the Arapesh, but also their social structure, and their strong feelings about family especially women.                                                                                                  

CLARITY RANKING:   3

LAURA WARREN     Southern Illinois University   (Jonathan Hill)

Haas R. Mary.     Natchez And Chitimacha Clans And Kinship Terminology. American Anthropologist, 1939 Vol (41): 597-610

Mary R. Haas’ purpose for writing this article was to share new information about Natchez and Chitimacha clans and their kinship terminology. Most of Haas’ information in the article was obtained from Watt Sam and Nancy Raven who were the last remaining speakers of the Natchez language.

The general concern discussed is which source the Natchez clan system was taken from. Haas discussed the Creek tribal town of Abihka, which consisted of Indians of Creek, Natchez and Cherokee ancestry. It is interesting to note that the Cherokee were considered to be temporary members. From her research, Haas concluded that the Natchez clan system was a recent innovation. This meant that the Natchez clan system had likely been incorporated from some other tribe. What Haas discovered when she compared the Natchez clan system to that of the Cherokee and Abihka was that the Natchez clan system was more similar to the Abihka. For example, Natchez clans and Abihka clans had the same clan names like Raccoon, Wind, and Bear. In comparison, the Natchez clan system and the Cherokee clan system did not have any similar clan names.

The kinship terminology of the Natchez is also discussed. Upon comparing the Natchez terminology to that of the Creek, Cherokee and Abihka, Haas found the Natchez kinship terminology to be more similar to that of the Creek. In only two features did the languages of the Natchez and