Thesis (M.A.)--University of Illinois, 1937 / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 68-70). Also issued in print and microfiche.

The problem that this thesis begins with is: Why did the Kwakiutl and Nootka not have feud-indemnities, whereas the other nations of the Northwest Coast had them? The method chosen is that of proposing a hypothesis and then seeing if the data bear it out. The first chapter of this thesis puts forward the hypothesis in question: that the Kwakiutl and Nootka did not have feud-indemnities because they had instead a high degree of individual geographic, inter-group mobility; such that if a person were not getting along in the group he lived with, he would simply depart to another group before disagreements and resultant tension burst out into open violence and so began a feud. Feud-indemnities, so the hypothesis suggests, act as an honourable way of ending or avoiding a feud, and so render it, by reducing its chances of disrupting the society, a more efficient method of legal enforcement. But unless feuding is relatively frequent there will be no need for the social group to adopt feud-indemnities in order to survive. High individual geographic mobility among the Kwakiutl and Nootka, so runs the hypothesis, reduced feuding and removed the necessity for feud-indemnities; therefore feud-indemnities did not arise among these tribes. And we should expect to find that the other groups which had feud-indemnities, were without high individual geographic mobility. The next six chapters describe the socio-political systems of the Nootka, the Kwakiutl, the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian, the Bella Coola and Coast Salish, the Chinook, and the northwestern Californians—confirming the hypothesis and so answering the question that began the enquiry. The Kwakiutl, Nootka, Bella Coola, and Upper Stalo (a Coast Salish group) had high individual geographic mobility and no feud-indemnities, while the rest of the Northwest Coast nations had feud-indemnities and low individual geographic, mobility. / Arts, Faculty of / Anthropology, Department of / Graduate

This study examines the development of a comprehensive transcription method for Northwest Coast Native music. In the past, ethnomusicologists have presented methodologies which sometimes lacked data useful for present comparative studies. For this reason, research for this study was conducted in the field to gain a more complete understanding of both musical and cultural characteristics. Eighteen songs were recorded for this study between November 1990 and February 1991. They were sung by Mr. Peter Webster, an Ahousat elder of the Central Nuu-chah-nulth people located on Flores Island near Tofino on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Melodies, drum rhythms and song texts were discussed in depth with Mr. Webster, thus providing many musical and cultural insights from an 'emie' (inside) point of view. Much of this information is included with the song transcriptions and analyses. Song texts are presented in the T'aat'aaqsapa dialect of the Nuu-chah-nulth language, together with English translations, Comparisons are also made with Ida Halpern's 1974 recording, Nootka: Indian Music of the Pacific Northwest to determine the extent of musical continuity and variation over this brief period. One of the limitations of my work has been the lack of opportunity to record songs during the ceremonies in which they are usually performed, such as potlatches or tlukwanas. Another limitation has been the Western notation system, which, as received, is not sufficiently flexible for the transcription of Native music. For this study, additional descriptive signs have beau created to adapt the Native musical characteristics to the Western notation system. While the method developed in this study has facilitated the transcription of Nuu-chah-nulth music, there is still a need for further development of an independent notation system. A clear, comprehensive transcription method, flexible enough to accommodate this music, has been the primary aim of this study. If this transcription method is useful for transcribing other Native musics, then future comparative music studies will benefit from it. / Arts, Faculty of / Music, School of / Graduate

This thesis is a stylistic study of the prehistoric art record from the Northwest Coast of North America. Its purpose is three-fold: to describe the spatial and temporal variation in the stylistic attributes of prehistoric art; to evaluate theories on the evolution of the Northwest Coast art tradition; and to comment on the possible factors behind variation in the prehistoric art record. This study examines stylistic attributes related to representational imagery, concentrating on five variables: decorated forms, carving techniques, design elements, design principles, and motifs. The core sample consists of anthropomorphic and zoomorphic images from dated archaeological contexts; a total of 242 artifacts from 58 sites are examined. The material is presented in chronological order corresponding to the Gulf of Georgia prehistoric cultural sequence. The major finding of this study is that by the end of the Locarno Beach phase or the beginning of the Marpole phase the essential character of the Northwest Coast art style had developed. There are new developments in the late period, but the evidence presented suggests a previously undocumented stylistic continuity from the late Locarno Beach phase to historic Coast Salish art with no decline in quality or productivity. This study indicates that, as far back as the record extends, three-dimensional, naturalistic forms and two-dimensional incising and engraving techniques have equal antiquity. From the Locarno Beach phase onward the flat, engraved style and the three-dimensional sculpture style developed together; the formline concept developed very early out of the raised, positive lines created by deep engraving in antler. / Arts, Faculty of / Anthropology, Department of / Graduate

No description available.

Thesis (Honors)--College of William and Mary, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 118-125). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Social inequality is a trademark of Northwest Coast native societies, and the relationship between social prestige and resource control, particularly resource ownership, is an important research issue on the Northwest Coast. Faunal remains are one potential but as yet underutilized path for examining this relationship. My thesis work takes on this approach through the analysis of fish remains from the Cathlapotle archaeological site (45CL1). Cathlapotle is a large Chinookan village site located on the Lower Columbia River that was extensively excavated in the 1990s. Previous work has established prestige distinctions between houses and house compartments, making it possible to examine the relationship between prestige and the spatial distribution of fish remains. In this study, I examine whether having high prestige afforded its bearers greater access to preferred fish, utilizing comparisons of fish remains at two different levels of social organization, between and within households, to determine which social mechanisms could account for potential differences in access to fish resources. Differential access to these resources within the village could have occurred through household-level ownership of harvesting sites or control over the post-harvesting distribution of food by certain individuals. Previous work in this region on the relationship between faunal remains and prestige has relied heavily on ethnohistoric sources to determine the relative value of taxa. These sources do not provide adequate data to make detailed comparisons between all of the taxa encountered at archaeological sites, so in this study I utilize optimal foraging theory as an alternative means of determining which fish taxa were preferred. Optimal foraging theory provides a universal, quantitative analytical rule for ranking fish that I was able to apply to all of the taxa encountered at Cathlapotle. Given these rankings, which are based primarily on size, I examine the degree to which relative prestige designations of two households (Houses 1 and 4) and compartments within one of those households (House 1) are reflected in the spatial distribution of fish remains. I also offer a new method for quantifying sturgeon that utilizes specimen weight to account for differential fragmentation rates while still allowing for sturgeon abundance to be compared to the abundances of other taxa that have been quantified by number of identified specimens (NISP). Based on remains recovered from 1/4" mesh screens, comparisons between compartments within House 1 indicate that the chief and possibly other elite members of House 1 likely had some control over the distribution of fish resources within their household, taking more of the preferred sturgeon and salmon, particularly more chinook salmon, for themselves. Comparisons between households provide little evidence to support household-based ownership of fishing sites. A greater abundance of chinook salmon in the higher prestige House 1 may indicate ownership of fishing platforms at major chinook fisheries such as Willamette Falls or Cascades Rapids, but other explanations for this difference between households are possible. Analyses of a limited number of bulk samples, which were included in the study in order to examine utilization of very small fishes, provided insufficient data to allow for meaningful intrasite comparisons. These data indicate that the inhabitants of Cathlapotle were exploiting a broad fish subsistence base that included large numbers of eulachon and stickleback in addition to the larger fishes. This study provides a promising approach for examining prestige on the Northwest Coast and expanding our understanding of the dynamics between social inequality and resource access and control.

This thesis concerns the introduction of exogenous cultural materials among the native inhabitants of the Alaskan and Northwest coasts prior to the and of the 18th century. It is an investigation of the sources of these materials and the manner and chronology of their introduction. The research is based primarily on data drawn from accounts of native life by explorers and fur traders who visited the coasts of northwestern North America in the 18th century. These accounts are supplemented by ethnologic and archaeologic data collected by anthropologists in the 19th and 20th centuries.