• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

198 Adoption of Patrilineal Surname System by Bilateral Northern Ojibwa: Mapping the Learning of an Alien System1 Mary Black Rogers Edward S. Rogers Royal Ontario Museum Introduction Among the alien systems of rules that a so-called "acculturating" society is usually required to adopt is that for assigning to individuals their "proper names". The matter of personal names has cultural and psychological ramifications, and it also presents an interesting cognitive learning situation that is not so simple as one might at first imagine. A naming system can in itself be quite complex, presenting to the members of a culture a number of steps (or layers of difficulty) in their gradual incorporation of it from childhood. These points are dramatically spot­ lighted when one looks closely at the imposed learning of a new naming system by a people already enculturated in their own sets of interlocking cultural rules. The case of the adoption of the Euro-Canadian patrilineal surname system by a group of Northern Ojibwa grew from being a "noisy" element in our data to proving itself an important study in its own right. By combining field data collected in the community of Weagamow Lake, Ontario (formerly Round Lake; see map) with information found in archival documents, we were able to reconstruct the actual historical process of surname adoption, generation by generation, for each of the 25 surnames in the present community, and then to analyze the learning and use of the system as such. It appears to be a case where the levels of complexity of the new system met with specific cultural resistance and interference, thus allowing added perspectives on the problems involved in this type of change, and highlighting the ramifications of naming through other parts of the culture. Aside from Ritzenthaler's 1945 brief communication about the acquisition of surnames by the Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin, we are not aware of other Algonquian studies that have treated this subject; it still is one "commonly neglected by the ethnologists" (Ritzenthaler 1945:175). Data Sources and Population Studied A separate paper on the methodology and sources for this study is in press (Rogers and Rogers 1978). The method consists of interdigiting fieldwork with archival searches in a rather intricate manner. It represents a case where neither informant testimony nor archival information alone would have been sufficient, but their complementary and interlocking application made possible the reconstruction of the course and structure of this naming change. From some of the older residents of Weagamow Lake we had Anglicaobtainea copy dno fMissioquit thee Registencomprehensiv at Birg ofTrou Baptisme t genealogiesLakes ; anthid sMarriage ,missio befornes whaoefd acquirethbeee n d 199 HUDSON BAY j£Oprr -^EVERM MANITOBA • HUDSONS BAY COMPANY POST (|90o) '-'TRADE ROUTE 7 • INDIAN RESERVE MAP OF NORTHERN ONTARIO SHOWING THE SCALE JN MILES WEAGAMOW AREA 200 mainly responsible for converting to Christianity the Weagamow elders' parents and grandparents. The relatively short time since the start of church influence in this region was a factor that allowed the crucial overlap of informant testimony with written records. The Mission Registry (ACR) begins in 1855, which corresponded to the farthest reach of memory and knowledge of the elders of the community as of 1958 when fieldwork began. These elders were consulted again after acquisition of this document, and worked with us during the final year of fieldwork, 1975, to interpret what we had found (including reading some entries made in Cree syllabics). Their memories were thereby triggered to .further items of genealogical interest, and to further recall of the names by which their predecessors had been known. Also of value was their own name-using behaviour as observed in natural contexts while we worked and lived with them. While the fur trade documents (HBCA) cover an earlier and longer period of contact than the church register, they do not indicate as significant an influence on the introduction of surnaming. Not motivated to change the names of their Indian trappers, the traders for their account-keeping entered such names or other means of identification as suited their purpose. Especially for the Weagamow trappers, who were less well known and whose territory was far from the post, they tended to continue the use of the single Indian name, sometimes for many years after the individual's baptism. The traders' records overlap in time with missionary naming, and also continue for a time after the signing of Treaty. This event did not occur until 1930 for the Weagamow population (1929 for the Indians of Big Trout Lake) , who were actually little known before the Treaty except to a handful of traders and missionaries. (There was no mission or permanent trading post located within their own territory, the Weagamow area, until well into the present century; see map.) From 1930, however, the government's need for a stable set of names became the urgent issue, and it was not satisfactorily resolved for another decade or two. The period of government documents (PAC RGIO) thus has the shallowest time depth, but exerted the strongest pressure, as use of the surname system finally became a practical necessity on both sides. Comparison of the three sources of written records--trader, missionary, and government--attests to their mutual in­ dependence in the matter of names. Indeed, there was dis­ parity even within one docume:;t and for the same individual. Figure 1 shows a case where the government took one choice of surname, while the church was recording a different generation as the surname origin. Prior to the Treaty the church had floated between the two, while the traders had continued the use of the single Indian name. Government records probably became a stabilizing influence on this type of wavering. However, note in Figure 1 that the government has Sam's full brother Philip as "Philip Sa-ka-na-ko-sa" on the same 1930 paylist (PAC RGIO Vol. 9554 ) that settled Sam and his other brother Mike as "Sawanis". Philip died without offspring in 1938, which obviated any resulting confusion or need for the kind of adjustments that were made in such cases in the first two decades after 201 Treaty. As can be seen in Figure 2, however, not all sets of siblings at the time of the 1929 and 1930 treaties were adj usted to a common surname for their descendants; the four sons of Manitons were recorded with three different surnames , which continue as such to this day (as will be seen in more detai l on Adams and Johnuph Evolution Charts) In short, because the Weagamow area was a pocket of late contact, virtually the entire period of acquisition of the surname system could be investigated with the method of combining informant testimony with written records--roughly a period from 1870 to 1950. .. mmm Problems and Sol utions in the Acquisition of a Naming System To ana l yze the record obtained from the sources described above, and to identify and understand the particular problems encountered in this adoption of surnaming, two further kinds of information were of importance: the Indian system of naming already existing at the time of surname introduction , r::::::::: and the exact nature of the system that was being imposed upon it . (These should include, ideall y , definitive data about the usage and functions of names in each system, within 2 n:::::::: the wider cul t u re . ) A close inspection of the name-data iJIIIIIIII record , in the light of these factors , has yielded some l!!!l!lll! success in finding order in the puzzling variety of naming events that were seen to have occurred . "Solutions " to the overall problem of selecting and stabl izing a surname were varied but not disorderly: four solution-types were isolated and will be described and shown in context , then analyzed in terms of the features of surnaming and those of the Indian system of naming and name-usage. The Indian system of naming. Traditionally, there appears to have been no regular naming that connected one kinsman with another , much less a system that could be characterized as unil ineal (cf. Graham 1969:179) . 3 Proper names were unitary in form , and unique to each individual; if dupli­ cation occurred , it was generally fortuitous. An individual did frequently have multiple names--possibly several through his lifetime . But these were considered as alternatives or substitutes , not parts of a sequential whole. The practice of nicknaming , for example, could add a name , early or later in life, based on a unique or humorous characteristic or experience; one of these sometimes became the primary name by which an individual was recalled, and in some cases jelled as the surname . 4 A further category of "secret names" was, by definition , not further explicated. Of greatest relevance here was the bestowal of a name during infancy, by a selected elder , in a ritualized name-giving occasion that carried social and religious meaning, and created a certain formal relationship between the bestower and the recipient . 5 When the Christian baptism was introduced , it was no doubt seen in a parallel light and sought as an added source of guidance, protection or power. (Weagamow informants in fact cited the missionary ' s baptisms as one source of the "good " or Christian power in contrast with "evil" Indian powers--this was the view of the missionized generation, still exerting a certain amount of influence during our early fieldwork; see Rogers 1962:09 and Black 1971:290-293). In the manner and meaning of ""0 "" ANGLICAN CHURCH F16. 1. WRNAMES RECORDE-D IN ~WANI'S r;t:\MIL.Y 1577 S<:~muel Sowons (bp.) ) I LE-GEI\ID 1895 John Sha ~nt>c c_oo ·soy (bp eh ) bp.

Load more

  33

Copy Link