NORTHWEST COAST
Intro
Several entire courses on UW campus devoted to aspects of NW Coast Indians (including Robin Wright's series on art, and Marvin Oliver's studio courses, as well as AIS 311 and Alexandra Harmon's courses)
My own coverage is slanted towards sociopolitical aspects; I'll first summarize major features of traditional NW Coast culture, then discuss certain aspects in greater depth (potlatch; cultural complexity)
Start with a brief orientation
to NW Coast as a culture area [S1. Culture Area
Map]
[note: S1, etc. refer to slides shown in lecture]
NWC culture area extends from SE Alaska (Yakutat Bay, where Pacific Eskimo & Athapaskan Indians take over) to either So. Oregon or No. Calif. (fuzzy ecol. & cult. boundary) and from Pacific tidelands to Cascades/Coast Range crest
Within this culture area, scholars have long recognized regional cultural & linguistic differences or subareas
Simplest useful division is Northern (Tlingit/Haida/Tsimshian), Central (Kwakiutl, Haisla, Bella Bella/Coola, Nootka, Makah), and Southern (Coast Salish, Chinook) [S2. Language Map]
Linguistically, no single language stock dominates, altho Salish and Wakashan families have many representatives
Subsistence and Settlement
As has long been noted, boundaries of NW Coast Culture Area closely match those of temperate rain forest biome of Western No. America
In simplest terms, can say that NW Coast culture is found wherever there are both cedar & salmon [S3. Splitting cedar planks from live cedar (painting)]
Cedar was critical for housing, clothing, containers, transportation, and art
Salmon (5 species) was staple of virtually all NWC groups, provided very abundant but logistically complex resource base
Descriptively, NWC subsistence emphasized marine & riverine resources: important resources besides salmon include marine mammals (seals & whales), bottom fish (halibut, etc.), shellfish; surprisingly little reliance on terrestrial foods, tho greens, roots, & berries were gathered in season, and some hunting of deer, elk, etc.
More abstractly, can summarize resource base & production system as follows:
Resources characterized by 1) dense spatial concentration (locally abundant patches), and 2) large amount of temporal variation (due to seasonality, resource movement/migration, weather conditions, etc.)
In response, NWC subsistence production characterized by 1) organized and intensive labor to harvest & process resources in times/places when they were abundant, and 2) ownership claims (property rights+) for resource-harvest sites
[S4. Candlefish (eulachon) harvest drying in Tsimshian village]
Let me expand on these points a bit
Salmon runs (or eulachon on Nass R.) were massively abundant most years, but only occurred a few weeks of each year; hence making full use of them meant seasonal peaks of labor to catch, process, and store
Efficient exploitation of salmon fishery also required construction of weirs and other facilities, as well as careful coordination of labor force (reflected in social organization, as detailed below)
Access to resources was controlled by a different system than we've seen in other 4 culture areas -- neither open access like central Basin or central Arctic, nor group territories like California or Alaska
Instead, NWC characterized by kinship-based ownership of specific resource-harvesting sites (rather like some Plateau fishing sites, but extended to wide variety of resources)
These owned & defended sites included fishing streams, clam beds, root patches, halibut grounds, even beaches (for drift whales) -- any locale that offered dense & predictable resource potential [S5. Nootka clam gatherers]
In some cases, even the right to pursue certain resources was restricted, based on inherited privileges and esoteric knowledge
[S6. Makah whaler, 1915 (note harpoon, sealskin float, bearskin cloak)]
Ownership generally in hands of some corporate descent group (lineage, clan, etc.), but access generally controlled by subsets of these groups consisting of individuals of high rank (see below)
Settlement system was variable & complex, but basic pattern involved winter aggregation into large permanent villages of several hundred to a thousand people, with seasonal dispersal by several component groups to several resource-harvest sites
Permanent winter villages were located at protected sites (from both raiders & winter storms), and featured large multi-family plank houses, large caches of food, and ceremonial & wealth items (incl. totem poles in central & northern regions)
[S7. Haida village of Skidegate, Queen Charlottes, 1881]
Social Organization
Distinctive features of NWC social organization:
1) "House group" = unit of production & distribution
2) Ranking system based on inherited titles
3) Class stratification, including slavery as an economically significant institution
All these more pronounced in central & northern regions of NWC than in southern, a point we'll return to at end of these lectures
The structure of corporate group controlling production & distribution varied, but usually a multi-family unit housed in a cedar-plank longhouse
[S8. Reconstruction of
Southern Kwakiutl house interior (BC Prov. museum)]
[S9. Tlingit household at Sitka, 1827]
Corporate group could be unilineal (matrilineal in north, patrilineal in far south) ambilineal (Wakashan), or bilateral (Coast Salish); but in any case membership was never strictly defined by genealogy, since individuals & families could (by invitation, given some kin connection) move between houses, and houses vied to attract productive members, sometimes even unrelated ones
[S10. Coast Salish lodge, 1847 (woman weaving dog-fur blanket)]
Each corporate group headed by a senior title-holder or "chief" who was genealogical head of largest or highest-ranked kin group in house; decided on seasonal moves, co-ordinated group labor (e.g., salmon harvest), managed affairs of house (distribution of foods, ceremonial events, etc.) [S11. Tlingit chief's headdress]
Most winter villages had several house groups, and hence several chiefs, but no evidence that these villages or larger units had single chief prior to contact; instead, each house group was politically autonomous
[S12. Crest hat (Tlingit, early 19th cent.): Chief Shake's Killer Whale Hat, royal crown of the Nanyaayi clan of the Stikine Tlingit]
Socioeconomic inequality of NWC is complex and confusing, in part because it consists of 2 distinct elements:
One element is the system of social rank, where inherited titles, property, and privileges were arrayed in hierarchical order within each local group
[S13. So. Kwakiutl chief's daughter, seated on house bench (bench supports symbolize slaves who upheld elite through their labor)]
The other element is political & economic stratification into nobles, commoners, and slaves, each class or stratum having very different degrees of political power and access to resources
[S14. Cowlitz head flattening (note cradleboard): many NWC peoples saw this as mark of beauty, but also distinguished free-born from slaves]
Complexity results from fact that these two systems of inequality were totally intertwined in practice; confusion due to conflating the two elements
Thus, some have denied that NWC groups stratified into distinct classes because gradation of ranks put "each individual in his own distinct class"
But this objection overlooks important fact: ranking system only applied to members of the nobility (traditionally a small minority of group)
Diagram of ranking + 3-class stratification:
_______________
Highest rank
NOBLES 2nd rank
_______________ 3rd rank, etc.
COMMONERS
_______________
SLAVES
_______________
In principle, hereditary titles (and associated rights and property) were owned by kin groups; but in practice, individuals exercised these privileges (control over access to resource sites, prerogatives at potlatches & other ceremonies, control of slave labor, etc.), and these individuals formed a distinct hereditary stratum (nobility)
Hence, in practice the nobility had considerably more power, wealth, and prestige than commoners (let alone slaves), even though this was somewhat obscured by the ideology of group ownership
Ceremonial Patterns
NWC ceremonial life intimately connected with rank/prestige system & economic organization in several different ways:
Great emphasis on accumulation & ceremonial redistribution of wealth objects; some of this wealth obtained thru raids for booty & slaves
[S15. Tlingit war helmet (Angoon, ca. 1900): killer whale eating seal (war helmets invariably depict fierce or terrifying beings)]
Elaborate art styles focused on inherited status and privileges; in the traditional context, NWC art was used to validate social ranking in three main ways:
1) rank of nobility symbolized in crests & titles, displayed in various forms (e.g., house screens, totem poles);
[S16. Tlingit housescreen (bear clan crest)]
These objects = material reminders of inherited rights & privileges supernaturally granted in ancestral times
[S17. Totems w/ clan crests (Skidegate, 1881)]
2) art objects (in form of coppers, rattles, furs, jewelry & headdresses, woven blankets, etc.) also demonstrated wealth (and hence underlying economic productivity) of the nobility & the house-groups they headed in contexts such as potlatching
[S18. Bella Coola dancing headdress (cf. Tlasila dancers, S19)]
3) Major ceremonies involved masked dancers & performers (plus other special roles); the privilege to perform & play each role or to display each particular mask depended on rank & specific inherited titles
[S19. Two Tlasila dancers ("peace dance," part of Kwakiutl Winter Ceremonial; obtained thru marriage from Tsimshian): sea-lion whiskers, ermine pelts, Chilkat blanket, eagledown which floats out in "gesture of greeting and good will."]
In some cultures there were so-called "secret societies" (associations one could join by invitation & initiation only); their membership was drawn from within the elite class, and these associations dominated certain aspects of NWC ceremonial affairs
Slides on Hamatsa & Kwakiutl Winter Ceremonial: S20-25
Example is Hamatsa Association among Kwakiutl; Hamatsa initiates performed important roles in Kwakiutl winter ceremony, & held closely-guarded knowledge as privilege of membership [S20. Hamatsa initiates w/ blackened faces, Fort Rupert, 1894]
(Note: "Kwakiutl" or even "Kwagutl" [pronounced "Kwagiulth"] is a misnomer, and speakers of Kwa'kwala language more accurately called Kwakwaka'wakw ; similarly, "Nootka" more properly known as Nuu-chal-nuth; but for simplicity I will often use more easily recognized if inaccurate names here)
Hamatsa initiates became possessed by cannibal spirits in wanderings in the forest, had to be "tamed" by other Hamatsa lest they devour everyone [S21. Note hemlock boughs (symbolizing forest), trance state (spirit possession)]
The Hamatsa members also performed as various spirits allied with cult, such as dangerous bird spirits shown here [S22. Hoxhok on right, uses long beak to crack open human skulls and suck out brains; Raven on left, eats his victim's eyeballs]
S23. Galokwudzuwis (Crooked Beak of Heaven); Kwakiutl, ca. 1920
The Hamatsa, protegé and personification of the Man-eater, returns from the monster's house and is captured and tamed by members of the group. His gradual return to human sense in a series of dances is disrupted when he loses his self-control and runs wildly around the firelit floor and out behind a painted curtain stretched across the back of the house. From behind that screen the snapping of a great beak sounds, the singers begin their song, and a figure, hung with heavy fringes of red-dyed cedar bark and wearing a great bird mask, appears. First stepping high from side to side, then circling in crouching jumps, and finally sitting on the floor, the dancer moves the great mask, sweeping and cocking the beak from side to side and finally snapping the voracious jaws. At each new verse another dancer appears and performs until as many as four are on the floor at once. Then they leave one by one and the Hamatsa returns for his final series of dances by which his wildness is removed and he is brought back to a tame, human state. [Holm, Spirit and Ancestor, p 100]
S24. Hamatsa dancers (L-R: Hamatsa, Raven, Weather Woman, Galokwudzuwis (Crooked Beak of Heaven), Grizzly Bear, Hoxhok, Mt. Goat, various others) [E.S. Curtis photo, from his film]
S25. At end of Kwakiutl Winter Dance, chief dons special mask (representing Tsonoqua, "wild woman of woods") and displays copper while his speaker orates of his greatness and chief shouts vocables imitating Tsonoqua's cries.
Potlatch
Potlatch is certainly most famous institution of NW Coast culture, both to public and among scholars
"Potlatch" is term from Chinook Jargon (trade language on NWC), probably derived from Nootka verb "to give"
Potlatch can be defined as "a distribution of property, accompanied by speeches, that marked the conclusion of any ceremony . . . marking a change in the status of one or more members of the host's family" [Suttles 1991]
Thus, components of a potlatch include 1) hosting of outside guests by a house or local group (and especially by group leader or chief), involving 2) ceremonial feasting, performances, speeches, and 3) distribution of large amount of gifts (food & wealth objects), all in connection with 4) public announcement & validation of 5) an event of major social significance (e.g., marriage, birth of heir, inheritance of title & ranking following death, etc.) in life of a member of the nobility
Many aspects of formal organization & etiquette for potlatch, and these varied form one group to another, but consistent role of validating change in status of some high-ranking person, and increasing or maintaining prestige (if not formal rank) of host
Series of slides on potlatch (sequential but from various tribes) [S26-32]:
S26. Haida noble's coffin, with mountain goat motif (bentwood cedar box)
S27. Tlingit house readied for potlatch [note piles of trade blankets; boxes full of food & wealth; worm feast-bowl; carved heads; elaborate house-screen and posts]
S28. Southern Kwakiutl guests arriving for potlatch, dressed in finery
S29. Hosts are also dressed in finest ceremonial robes (here, Sitka Tlingit)
S30. Haida copper; at potlatch, much wealth will be distributed, including perhaps rare & valuable coppers (which Haida broke up and distributed to symbolize "bones of deceased" at funerary/title-transfer potlatches)
S31. Tlingit ceremonial rattle, showing shaman riding on Raven's back and speaking through Eagle; used to punctuate oration at ceremonial events
S32. Kwakiutl chief (Ft Rupert?) displaying copper (note Hamatsa neck-ring)
S33. Chief orating at potlatch distribution of HBCo blankets
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=
Ruth Benedict (student of Boas, colleague of M. Mead) chiefly responsible for popularizing potlatch (via Patterns of Culture, a huge seller still in print 75 yrs after first publication)
Benedict dealt with Kwakiutl version, and portrayed Kwakiutl as example of "Dionysian society" where emotional display and aggressive individualistic competition (for wealth & status) taken to extremes (in contrast with "Apollonian" Pueblo)
Potlatch was seen as epitome of Dionysian social institution, a reflection of personality (itself a product of Kwakiutl culture, so whole thing is rather circular)
Benedict relied on some striking accounts from historical era (including those of her mentor Boas), where potlatches often involved destruction of large amounts of wealth (burning oil & other food, smashing canoes & coppers, killing slaves, ripping up blankets, etc.)
Potlatch host portrayed as megalomaniac, obsessed with proving his high status & wealth, extravagantly boasting of his riches, denigrating rivals (incl. high-ranking guests)
Benedict admitted that potlatch guests were expected to reciprocate at some future date, or else lose face; but potlatches she described seem designed to humiliate guests, make it virtually impossible for them to equal host's extravagance
Despite popularity of Benedict's account, and colorful description she offered, NW Coast specialists now agree there are at least 2 major problems with it:
1) Potlatching took many forms within Kwakiutl society, and competitive form summarized by Benedict was only one of these, not archetype
2) Historically-known potlatch probably considerably altered and much more competitive and elaborate ("Dionysian") than aboriginal forms; this change due to "intensification" following contact with Europeans
Let's look at each of these issues in more detail
Types of Potlatching
Many diff. types of potlatching, or contexts for potlatching, even in a single "tribe"
Benedict focused on most sensational situation: rivalry potlatch
This carried out when there were protracted, unresolvable conflicts over proper heir to particular title or rank (e.g., usually precipitated by death of obvious heirs, but could also arise when relative rank of two title-holders was not clear -- see below)
Rivals each tried to outdo each other in potlatching, by inviting chiefs & others of high rank and giving away or destroying large quantities of wealth, boasting of high status & noble ancestry, denigrating rival, etc.
Rivalry might end with one claimant going "bankrupt," or with chiefs recognizing one of rivals as valid heir to title (due to wealth, ancestry, or oratory abilities, etc.); note that bankruptcy implies smaller, poorer, or less supportive set of kin & followers
Rivalry potlatch very colorful, but not practiced by all NW Coast groups, and probably quite rare in pre-contact times
More commonly, potlatch simply validated an undisputed claim to title or change in status (e.g., marriage, birth, inheritance at funeral)
Potlatch Intensification
NW Coast ethnographers like Boas presumed they were observing something close to a traditional institution in aboriginal (equilibrium) setting; but by the time of good descriptions (late 19th century), the situation was greatly altered, and certainly very far from equilibrium
In fact, several historical changes due to European incursion led to marked intensification of potlatching:
1) depopulation due to introduced diseases (smallpox, measles, influenza, venereal)
2) influx of wealth due to trade with Europeans, HBCo, etc.
3) concentration of settlements at trading posts
Magnitude of depopulation subject to considerable uncertainty, but clear that it was sometimes catastrophic, particularly in the 3 major smallpox epidemics that struck all along the coast in 1770s, 1801, & 1862-63 (Boyd popn graph, HNAI 7:147]
This depopulation estimated to have reduced NWC native popn by about 85% over single century (~185,000 to ~35,000, from 1775-1875)
Of immediate relevance to potlatching is that depopulation created large no. of vacancies in ranking/title system, with many ambiguities over proper heirs, which resulted in considerable conflict over inheritance of these titles
Depopulation also had effect of increasing durable wealth per capita; since NW Coast culture emphasized circulation of wealth, this factor alone would act to increase frequency & scale of potlatching
Meanwhile, involvement in trade (with Russians & then Euroamericans) led to great influx of new forms of wealth (trade goods), much of which was channeled into potlatching system & status competition
Recent studies indicate much rivalry potlatching & other intensification fueled by this trade-wealth influx, as elite "establishment" tried to maintain their position in face of "nouveau riche" (commoners grown wealthy thru fur trade)
The flood of wealth from fur trade = unprecedented amount & variety of goods (fabrics, guns, tools, jewelry, blankets, etc.), and no doubt encouraged not only rivalries but also sense that wealth was limitless, thus wealth destruction more acceptable act (esp. for those competing for titles)
Finally, as more & more local groups abandoned winter villages and clustered around a few trading posts, ranking system suffered further disruption: since ranking system was hierarchical but relative, amalgamation of distinct social groups led to ambiguity, & this dealt with by intensification of rivalry potlatching
For example, at Fort Rupert several formerly-autonomous Kwakiutl societies were gathered together & had to work out new ranking of what were previously separate ranking systems;
Thus, at community-wide events (potlatches, etc) Fort Rupert Kwakiutl had to come up with proper protocol for seating 658 title-holders in rank order (and note that these 658 titles were distr. among approx. 1,000 people, many of them small children, whereas previously there had probably been at least 8,000 people in these four societies -- graphic example of effects of depopulation)
In summary, many of the seemingly irrational and destructive aspects of the potlatch system recorded by Boas and others ca. 1900 were probably absent or rare aboriginally, and only arose from radical alterations induced by European contact (depopulation, fur trade, popn concentration)
Explaining Cultural Complexity
Whether focus is on elaborate ceremonies, stunning arts & crafts, elaborate system of inherited rank, or striking institutions such as potlatch or masked dance ceremonies, NW Coast has drawn lots of anthropological (and popular) attention
Cultural complexity found here is equalled in only a few areas of NNA (SE, and to lesser extent NE & SW), yet unlike these areas, NW Coast not influenced in any way by MesoAmerican civilizations, nor based on agricultural economy
Even more than California, NW Coast violates every generalization people usually make about hunter-gatherer societies
And despite attempts to show early influences from other complex cultures (China, Polynesia, etc.), archaeol. record shows NWC culture to have developed indigenously, with no significant external stimulus
Various attempts have been made to account for this striking divergence of NW Coast society from adjacent culture areas, & for level of complexity unique among hunter-gatherers worldwide
Longest-lasting, and perhaps still most common viewpoint is that found in text by anthropologist Philip Drucker, who states it clearly:
Studies in culture history the world over have shown that only where man can produce storable surpluses of a basic foodstuff, thereby relieving himself at regular intervals from a day-to-day food quest, can cultures be elaborated to higher levels. As a rule, leisure has been a concomitant of the invention or introduction of agriculture. The North Pacific Coast is unique among areas where man lived on the so-called "hunting and gathering" level in that the inhabitants developed a rich culture, and this circumstance can be traced directly to the nature and abundance of the area's basic food source, the salmon.
[In comparison,] the neighboring inland cultures were "lower" or "simpler," that is, less complex or less elaborate. The mere business of keeping alive in rigorous, inhospitable inland climes may have taken all the people's time, leaving them neither leisure nor energy to develop craftsmanship, art, ceremonialism, and other refinements that typified coast culture. (Drucker 1965, pp. 13-15, 109)
Essence of Drucker's view: abundance of natural resources leads to economic surplus + leisure time, resulting in flowering of complex culture
There are several dubious assumptions in this argument:
1) NWCoast had extraordinary resource abundance; but abundance significantly greater in much of Calif. (judging from popn density and environmental productivity); even within NW Coast, cultural complexity highest in northern end, but resource density actually declines as move north (see Suttles reading)
2) Leisure time did occur, but unclear that it caused cultural complexity; abundant "leisure time" has been documented among many H+G societies, and in fact may be more common there than among (more "complex") agricultural societies
Even big blocks of leisure time based on stored surplus can occur without any great elaboration of material, ceremonial, or political features (e.g., Plateau culture area)
Drucker's view represents old orthodoxy, based on "common sense" view that if leisure time increases then people will automatically or at least normally use it to elaborate social, political, ceremonial, and artistic activities -- but why? Could just as well sleep more, or gamble, or emphasize elaboration of myths or shamanic seances (as happens among many other H+Gs)
Drucker also makes the rather ethnocentric assumptions that cultural complexity = material wealth & durable art, and that cultures inevitably evolve from simple to complex
In sum, while resource abundance undoubtedly has something to do with development of cultural complexity on NW Coast, there are big problems with "leisure time" argument -- problems that become clear when we take a comparative view
Thus, we need alternative explanations for development of cultural complexity on NWC
Anthropologists have suggested two main alternatives:
1) Complexity as insurance against resource failure
2) Complexity as byproduct of resource competition
Cultural Complexity & Resource Variability
This first view developed by Wayne Suttles (first UW PhD in Anthropology, ca. 1955)
To examine this view, need to look at variability in resources in both time and space, and examine how this might affect complexity of social forms within NW Coast culture area [Map overhead]
Resources show 2 general trends, from south to north:
1) decrease in variety (less different species & types in north), including decline in terrestrial animals & plant resources
2) increase in localized concentration of particular resources (e.g., salmon runs bigger but in fewer streams)
This has several consequences for subsistence economy:
1) More dependent on each resource (less options to fall back on if one resource fails)
2) More dependent on particular locations (due to more concentrated resource distn.)
3) Therefore, increased chance of localized failure of resource harvest due to resource fluctuations or labor force problems (illness, weather, etc.)
Key features of social organization also show general south-north trends:
1) Increasing size & membership specificity of corporate property-owning units
2) Increase in importance and formalization of ranking system
3) Increase in scope of potlatching & other forms of redistribution
This correlation btwn resources, subsistence, and social organization is not simple to interpret, but suggests that something about the increase in local abundance and unpredictability drives a corresponding increase in the size & complexity of local groups, as well as in the amount of resource redistribution
Complexity as Insurance against Resource Failure
Suttles (1960, 1968) & others argue this pattern can be explained as follows:
1) As unpredictability increases, wider network of redistribution (both resources and people, via descent grps) called into play to reduce local vulnerability: generous sharing = insturance to buffer local failures
2) But in order for system to work, groups with temporary abundances must be motivated to harvest & store surplus well beyond what they need (insurance policy)
3) Conversion of generosity (potlatching, support of artisans, etc.) into status (elite rank & privilege) is trick by which wealthy motivated to accumulate necessary surplus, as well as convince followers to do the work
Suttles et al. view of NWC complexity sees everything as operating to support smooth operation of social system, adaptation to environment, and resulting ability to support larger population (thru redistribution)
But certain elements of NWC culture don't fit the Suttles model
First, inter-group hostilities (warfare, territorial aggression, raids to capture slaves & booty) also increase from south to north along NWC, a trend unexplained by "insurance" view
There is also the problem that potlatching primarily distributed resources within the elite rather than between elite and commoners, and in any case did not seem to function as a welfare system to help groups short on food; such groups would lack wealth & prestige to participate in potlatching system
Complexity as Byproduct of Resource Competition
In light of these problems with "insurance" view of potlatching, alternative view proposes that growth of larger, more complex sociopolitical units driven by competition both within and between local groups:
1) Fewer but more concentrated resources in north leads to productive intensification:
a) one form of intensification involves greater coordination of labor force via increased authority of house chief to manage production and distribution;
b) another involves increase in size of labor force working under direction of elites, through accumulation of wealth & prestige (to attract followers) and slaves
2) Demand for labor (due to intensification) motivated raids to obtain wealth (to attract more followers) and slaves
3) Localized abundances, tho they sometimes fail, are more likely to be worth fighting over than more evenly-dispersed resources of southern region; hence expect to find greater amount of territorial aggression in north
4) Increased warfare provides pressure to extend alliances, which in turn fuels more wealth accumulation & redistribution (to cement alliances)
5) All these developments provide opportunities for nobility to increase wealth & power differentials (internal socioeconomic stratification)
In sum, NWC intensification appears to have taken a California-like system of social & economic organization and (given the pressures generated by within- and between-group competition) pushed it into a realm of greater sociopolitical stratification and economic productivity
Economic and political administrators not only claim some of surplus production of their group as "managerial fee" (in manner of California elites), but 1) begin to exploit labor in form of slavery and tribute (mandatory share of catch), and 2) claim supernaturally-granted control over resource access (inheritance of titles validated by totemic spirits)
Summary
Conventional view of traditional NWC society stresses abundant resources, extravagant distribution or even destruction of wealth, and rich artistic achievements
This view is not "wrong," but I've tried to show how it is incomplete and even somewhat misleading
Resource abundance depended on coordinated labor, and encouraged competition for ownership as well as for hierarchical control of production
Extravagance of historic potlatching reflects disruptive effects of European trade and disease as much as aboriginal social situation or "Dionysian" psychology
Rich artistic achievements are undeniable, but this is not "art for art's sake" ) rather, it is the material manifestation of the system of hereditary privileges and sociopolitical competition fundamental to NWC culture
Perhaps the romanticization of NWC culture tells us as much about European fixation on material things as about this culture itself: any people with so many goods must be more "civilized" than the materially "impoverished" and wandering Shoshone, even if they do have these "bizarre" habits of celebrating their wealth by destroying it or giving it away
I have tried to challenge some of these popular notions, and to provide a fair summary of the major features of traditional NWC culture:
1) specialized and intensive foraging economy focused on abundant but logistically demanding marine resources
2) access to resources controlled by system of sociopolitical hierarchy, and justified by ideology of hereditary and supernaturally sanctioned ownership
3) "house group" = main unit of production and decision-making
4) stratification into slaves, commoners, and individually-ranked nobles
5) emphasis on accumulating and redistributing wealth for purposes of validating status and forming alliances
6) artistic traditions that symbolize and reinforce sociopolitical hierarchy and inherited privileges
References:
Ames, Kenneth M. (1996) Life in the big house: household labor and dwelling size on the Northwest Coast. In People Who Live in Big Houses: Archaeological Perspectives on Large Domestic Structures, ed. G. Coupland & E.G. Banning, pp 131-150. Madison, WI: Prehistory Press.
Ames, Kenneth M. and Herbert G. Maschner (1999) Peoples of the Northwest Coast: Their Archaeology and Prehistory. London: Thames & Hudson.
Benedict, Ruth (1934) Patterns of Culture. New York: Houghton Mifflin.
Boas, Franz (1909) Kwakiutl of Vancouver Island. American Museum of Natural History Memoirs No. 8, Part 2: 301-522. (Reprinted New York: AMS, 1975.)
Boas, Franz (1966) Kwakiutl Ethnography. Ed. Helen Codere. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Codere, Helen (1957) Kwakiutl society: Rank without class. American Anthropologist 59: 473-86.
Cohen, Mark N. (1981) Pacific coast foragers: affluent or overcrowded? In Affluent Foragers, ed. S. Koyama and D.H. Thomas, pp. 275-95. Senri Ethnological Series, No. 9. Osaka: National Museum of Ethnology.
Donald, Leland (1997) Aboriginal slavery on the northwest coast of North America. Berkeley: U. of California Press.
Donald, Leland and Donald H. Mitchell (1994) Nature and culture on the northwest coast of North America: The case of the Wakashan salmon resources. In Key issues in hunter-gatherer research, ed. Ernest S. Burch, Jr. and Linda J. Ellanna, pp. 95-117. Oxford/Providence: Berg.
Drucker, Philip (1965) Cultures of the North Pacific Coast. New York: Crowell/Harper and Row.
Ferguson, Brian (1982) Warfare and redistributive exchange on the Northwest Coast. In The Development of Political Organization in Native North America, ed. E. Tooker, pp. 133-47. Washington, D.C.: American Ethnological Society.
Holm, Bill (1972) Crooked Beak of Heaven: Masks and Other Ceremonial Art of the Northwest Coast. Seattle: Univ. of Washington Press.
Jonaitis, Aldona (ed.) (1992) Chiefly Feasts: The Enduring Kwakiutl Potlatch. Seattle: University of Washington Press. <nw>
Maschner, Herbert G. D. (1991) The emergence of cultural complexity on the Northwest Coast. Antiquity 65:924-934.
Mitchell, Donald H. (1984) Predatory warfare, social status, and the north Pacific slave trade. Ethnology 23: 39-48. <nw>
Ruyle, Eugene E. (1973) Slavery, surplus, and stratification on the Northwest Coast: the ethnoenergetics of an incipient stratification system. Current Anthropology 14: 603-31.
Suttles, Wayne (1960) Affinal ties, subsistence, and prestige among the Coast Salish. American Anthropologist 62:296-305. (Reprinted in Suttles 1988.)
Suttles, Wayne (1968) Coping with abundance: subsistence on the Northwest coast. In Man the Hunter, ed. R.B. Lee and I. DeVore, pp. 56-68. Chicago: Aldine. (Reprinted in Suttles 1988.)
Suttles, Wayne (1988) Coast Salish Essays. Vancouver/Seattle: Talonbooks/University of Washington Press.
Suttles, Wayne, ed. (1990) Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 7: Northwest Coast. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian.