Residence Patterns and Related Aspects of Kinship Organization in a Swampy Cree Community
Residence Patterns and Related Aspects of Kinship Organization in a Swampy Cree Community KATHRYN T. MOLOHON Laurentian University Introduction This paper examines residence patterns and related as pects of kinship organization in the contemporary Swampy Cree community of Attawapiskat, Ontario, Canada (see Honig- mann 1956, 1961; Molohon 1983, 1984a, 1984b; and Vezina 19- 78).' Attawapiskat is located at the mouth of the Attawapiskat River on the west coast of James Bay, and has a current pop ulation of about 1,000. During the first part of this century, the people under study were nomadic hunter-trappers who congregated around Hud son's Bay Company trading posts in the summer in order to trade their furs, buy supplies, and participate in religious and social activities. Beginning in the late 1960s, the majority of these people gradually became sedentarized in response to the introduction of government transfer payments (welfare pay ments), improved educational opportunities, access to medical and dental care, and improvements in both the availability and speed of long distance travel. The economy of modern day At tawapiskat is based on government transfer payments which are Research for this paper was funded by the Social Sciences and Hu manities Research Council of Canada Grant Number 410-82-0412. This support is gratefully acknowledged. I would also like to thank my research assistants in Attawapiskat, including John Edwards, Elizabeth Gull, and Gregory Hookimaw. 119 120 KATHRYN T. MOLOHON supplemented by hunting, fishing, gathering, trapping, and oc casional wage labor. Although traditional (pre-sedentarized) Swampy Cree culture is still very much in evidence, seden- tarization and modernization have been accompanied by the breakdown of geographic isolation, changes in the economy, diet, and health of the people, and changes in demographic parameters including residence patterns.
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