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The Social Politics of Algonquian Kinship in the Contact Era Chesapeake

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The Social Politics of Algonquian Kinship in the Contact Era Chesapeake W&M ScholarWorks Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 2008 Degrees of Relatedness: The Social Politics of Algonquian Kinship in the Contact Era Chesapeake Buck W. Woodard College of William & Mary - Arts & Sciences Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd Part of the American Studies Commons, and the Indigenous Studies Commons Recommended Citation Woodard, Buck W., "Degrees of Relatedness: The Social Politics of Algonquian Kinship in the Contact Era Chesapeake" (2008). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. Paper 1539626555. https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/s2-ra1y-p322 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Degrees of Relatedness: The Social Politics of Algonquian Kinship in the Contact Era Chesapeake Buck W. Woodard Richmond, Virginia Bachelors of Fine Arts, Virginia Commonwealth University, 1997 A Thesis presented to the Graduate Faculty of the College of William & Mary in Candidacy for the Degree of Master of Arts Department of Anthropology The College of William & Mary January 2008 APPROVAL PAGE This Thesis is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts < D r Buck W. Woodard Approved by the Committee, September 2007 Committee Chair Dr. Danielle Moretti-Langholtz, Department of' ropology Dr. Martin D. Gallivan, Department of Anthropology m / , /Srctc/du & Dr. Kathleen J. Bragdon, Department of Anthropology A bstract This study explores the social politics of Mid-Atlantic Algonquians through the lens of kinship and marriage during the contact era. I utilize documentary evidence, archaeology, linguistics, and demographic data to develop a kin-based framework from which to view Chesapeake Algonquian society in the sixteenth and seventeenth century. I argue for the presence of Chesapeake-wide cross cutting social institutions - such as moieties or sodalities, and the significance of local lineages’ attachment to place and investment in institutions that maintained socio-political hierarchy. This reassessment of Tidewater ethnohistory is an effort to evaluate to what degree the primary sources support or contradict previously published interpretations. Through this process of reassessment, sections of the documentary record that have been intentionally discarded because they didn’t fit preexisting models of social organization, are highlighted and resituated into the historical narrative. I seek to foreground and examine these intentionally excluded areas of the ethnohistory in order reconfigure previous conclusions and reconcile these omissions by offering a new model. The errors and contradictions in the interpretation of this ethnohistory have had a significant impact on the way in which the social politics of chiefly societies in the Chesapeake are viewed. This reassessment sheds a new light on the dynamic and transitional socio-cultural forms of the contact era Chesapeake and provides a deeper understanding of Tidewater Algonquian social mechanisms. The reinsertion of kinship and marriage as integral to the interpretative framework acts a complement to other ideological concepts of cultural logic, such as cosmology. More narrowly this research deals with the rise of Wahunsenacah as the Mamanatowick and the expansion and proliferation of the Powhatan polity. Acknowledging that cultural systems “live within history,” the reclamation of previously discarded portions of the primary record, pertaining to the kinship network and marriage alliances that contributed to the emergence of the Powhatan as a paramount chiefdom, are discussed in a more nuanced and multi-dimensional way. Clarified and reinserted, these socio-political mechanisms reveal 1) that through the conduit of kinship the rise of the Mamanatowick’s supra-lineage was a unique historical development, 2) the historical descriptions of the Powhatan expansion obscured deeper cultural constructs such as those which lead to the formation of Tsenacomoco, and 3) the colonization of Virginia by English-speaking peoples truncated wider shifts in Chesapeake Algonquian social organization. A static reading of the seventeenth-century historical record confuses the event level of history with the conjuncture and obscures processes of socio-political change. This work resituates kinship and marriage as the primary organizing principle of contact era Mid-Atlantic Algonquians. Table of Contents Acknowledgements __________________________________________________ Page vii List of Figures Page viii List of Maps Page viii Chapter I Pase 1 Introduction Overview of Kinship Studies in Anthropology Statement of the Problem Goals of the Research Theoretical Perspectives Methodology Previous Research An Overview of the Algonquians of the Chesapeake Organization of the Study Terminologies Employed ChaDter II Paee 33 Reassessing the Primary Record On Lines of Virginia Algonquian Descent The Virginia Algonquian Descent System in Flux On Virginia Algonquian Marriage Practices and the Social Position of Women On Virginia Algonquian Residence Rules Chapter III Page 90 Degrees of Relatedness: Virginia Algonquian Lineages Chiefly Lineages: The Rise of Inequality Vestiges of the Older Form: Clan Organization Clan Representations Dividing up the Empire: The Moiety System Chapter IV Page 139 The Ground Floor: The Broader Organization of Virginia Algonquians Situating the Virginia Algonquians into the Socio-Political Untangling the “Fringe:” The Algonquians Beyond Wahunsenacah Summary Chapter V Pace 161 Building the Framework The Paramount Chiefdom of Powhatan Examples of Residual Effects of Expansion Chiskiack: The First Strike Chickahominy: The Egalitarians Werowocomoco: Alliances of the Sacred and Profane iv Paspehegh: A Different Colonial Exchange Weyanoke: Subdued Through the Influence of Relatives Kecoughtan: Strategic Planning Chesapeake: Annihilation Nansemond: A Chiefdom Pacified Patawomeke, the Eastern Shore, and the Northern Neck: Cases of Situational Tribute Piankatank - The Troubled Outlier Chapter VI Page 227 Roughing In the Argument A Critical Reassessment of the Evidence: Confronting the Documentary Record Setting the Stage for the Powhatan: A Review of Scholarly Abstractions To Make a Group: The Process of Defining Peoplehood in Algonquian Studies Case I: Pamunkey Case II: Youghtanund Case III: Mattapanient Chanter VII Page 271 The Flattening of Time and Space Separating the Raster Image: Evaluating the Layers of the Powhatan Chiefdom Revealing the Powhatan Dominant Localized Lineage Aggregates of Powhatan Algonquians The Powhatan Revealed Nansemond Warraskoyack Quiyoughcohannock Weyanoke Appamatuck Arrohatteck Powhatan Paspehegh Kecoughtan Chiskiack Pamunkey Youghtanund Orapax / Cattachiptico Mattapanient Werowocomoco / Cantaunkack Summary Chapter VIII Page 342 Conclusion Future Research Appendix A Page 352 Evolutionary Forms of Social Organization v Appendix B _________________________________________________________ Page 356 Residence and Descent System Terminologies Appendix C Page 358 Select Residency Patterns of the Chesapeake Algonquians Works Cited Pase 360 Acknowledgements Over the course of this research I have received encouragement and support from a number of sources. I would like to thank my committee - Danielle Moretti-Langholtz, Martin D. Gallivan, and Kathleen J. Bragdon for their direction, comments, and suggestions. My advisor, Danielle Moretti-Langholtz has been overwhelmingly gracious with her time, dedication, and support during the development of this project. I am indebted to her for the mentorship and guidance she continues to provide me. The Historical Anthropology graduate program at the College of William & Mary provided me with research funding during the early period of this project’s development and continuing support from the office of the Dean of Graduate Studies made the completion of this thesis possible. A special thanks to Joseph W. Whitecotton and Robert A. Pailes of the University of Oklahoma, and John H. Moore of the University of Florida who entertained questions on kinship, directed me to sources and previous enthnographic research, and encouraged me to pursue kinship as a topic of investigation. I am thankful for the members of the wider American Indian community surrounding Richmond, Virginia who have been patient, understanding, and loyal to me during the course of this project and continue to reinforce the value and meaning of the work that follows herein. Finally, I appreciate the unconditional love of my parents for supporting their son and my daughter for bearing with her father as he invested his being into this research. List of Figures Figure 1. Hypothetical Residency Patterns and Descents System of the Chesapeake. (Kroeber 1938, Lowie 1922, Murdock 1949, Goodenough 1951). Figure 2. Algonquian Speaking Groups Cross Cultural Clan Affiliations (Swanton 1979:654- 661). Figure 3. John Lawson in Captivity Among the Tuscarora. (Fundaburk 1992). Figure 4. Powhatan’s Mantle. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Figure 5. The placement of the Powhatan within the socio-political continuum, with select institutions ascending in the order in which they are most widely considered to have arisen (After Flannery 1972:401). Figure 6. A summary of the primary record
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