Islands Mo~Gnais

ACCUL'l'ORATION AMONG 'l'BE SBVEN ISLANDS MO~GNAIS by R. Alan Richardson A thesis sUbmitted to the Faculty of Graduate studies and Research in partial fulfi.llment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. Department of Sociology and Antbropology MCGill University, Montreal. April, 1961. - i - ACI<NOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks are due the following parsons and institutions without Whose help, advice and encouragement the present report and field survey would have been an exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, undertaking. To Mr. Bernard clench and Mr. Charles Nadeau, and the Indian Agency staff at Maliotenam; to Father Loisel, o.M. I., and Father Laurin,o.M.I., and their staff, and to Mr. Philip Doddridge, Principal of the Protestant High school of seven Islands, for their hospitality and introduction to both the Montagnais and canadian canmunities. To the National Museum of canada, and to Dr. Tan F. s. McFeat, of the Museum Staff, for the opportunity, and financial assistance, to carry out the field research. To the staff of the MCGill sub-Arctic Research station at KnOb Lake, for allowing me to use their facilities during my visit to the Naskapi and Montagnais settlements there. - ii - To the member s of the teaching staff of the Department of sociology and Antbropology, McGill university; specifically to Professor Toshio Yatsushiro for his interest in Canadian Arctic research, to Mr. Asen Balikci for the interest shown and advice given in both formal and informal discussions of the study, and most especially to Professor Jacob Fr ied Who served as principal adviser to this work. And finally, to the Montagnais Indiana of the seven Islands band who accepted me into their society with hospitality and much patience. very special thanks are due George, Arthur, Charles and Johnny Vollant, George Rock, Gerane Regis and their respective families for their co-operation and valued friendships. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Acknowledgements ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• i Illustx'ations. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • \_v INTROOOCTI.ON. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 1 CHAPTBR ONE 1 BACKGROUND TO HISTORIC-FUNCTIONAL PHASES: • • • • • 20 Culture Area, Ecology, Early Contact CHAPTER 'l'WOI DEVELOPMENTAL SEWENCE, PHASE IN ••••••••••••• 32 Introduction •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 33 Proto-Algonkian Sub-Pbase ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 35 FUll-Algonkian Sub-Phase •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 37 Band Distribution •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 37 Social organization•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 39 summary ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 43 CBAPTER THREB 1 DEVELOPMENTAL SEQUENCE 1 PHASE II ••• • • • • • • • • • 45 Introduc~on •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 46 Social Organization ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 47 Economie organization ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 53 Stumnary ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 59 - iv - CHAP'l'BR POUR, DBVELOPMENTAL SB(XJBNCB, PHASE III •••••••••••• 61 PIRST PART: PHASE III AS A 'l'YPOLOGICAL BNTITY ••••••••••• 62 SECOND PART: MALIOTBNAM COMMUNI'l'Y STUDY ••••••••••••••••• 64 I. Background to the Community study••••••••••••••••• 64 II. The Community StudY••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 72 social organization: Kinship, Political organization, Religion, Recreation •••••••••••••••• 72 Economie Activities•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 102 Material culture ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 111 Food Habits and Health••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 113 III. Analysis of Authority and Group organization in the cammunity ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 121 EXternal Agenciesa Government, Church, Trader. 121 Internal Mechanisms: Attitudes, Language, Family•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 129 CHAPTER FIVE, VBCTORS OF CHANGE AND ASPECTS OF couruRAL MADNTENANCE ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 133 Vectors of Change: Political, social, Bconanic........ 134 Aspects of Cultural Maintenance ••••••••••••••••••••••• 146 -v- APPBNDIX, MON~GNAIS PLACE NAMES••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 151 BIBLIOGRAPHY••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 161 ILLUSTRATIONS 1. Estimated Mobility and Interaction Patterns: old and New Reserves •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 75 2. Map showing Montagnais Place Names •••• - rear pocket - INTRODUCTION XNTROOOCTI:ON statement of Problem and Objectives The impact of Euro-canadian civilization on the Algonkian speaking aborigines of the Province of Quebec poses many problems. sane of these problems, espeaially those in volving changes in social organization and culture patterns are of interest to anthropologiste and other social scientiste. others are of more immediate or practical concern to government administrators and I:ndian welfare agencies. The present thesis has thus a two-fold objective: a general and a specifie purpose. The general purpose is to contribute to the body of anthropological knowledge wbich con cerna itself with the understanding of the processes of culture change and culture growth. Such knowledge is essential to the planning and effective implementation of governmental policies among these people. The specifie purpose will be to descr!be and analyze some aspects of the process of culture change, or acculturation, - 3 - among the Montagnais Indiana of the seven Islands band of the Quebec-Labrador region of canada. Three phases are abstracted in the acculturation process. The Haliotenam Reserve, one of the segments of the band is chosen as a typological representative of a community in Phase III of the postulated developmental sequences to be examined. Re-examination of the empirical and histarical materials avai~able in the literature, and analysis in the light of some suitable framewark based on modern acculturation theory, is indicated. This thesis will attempt just suah a re-examination of changes in social arganization and economie practices amo.ng the seven Islands Montagnais. some recent comparative materials are to be found in the analysis of similar problems fran the Eastern Arctic in Balikci (1959, 1960), Graburn (1960), Willmott (1959, 1960), Yatsushiro (1960a, 1960b). The Maliotenam community is composed of a consolidation of various bands, and thus provides a good cross-section of contemporary Montagnais cultural life. Interaction witb the otber segments of the band is extensive. - 4 - A ~imal definition of acculturation is supplied by Broom, Siegel, vogt and watson (1954;974) as, "••• accul turation may be defined as culture change that is initiated by conjunction of two or more autonomous cultural systems." such a definition includes the view that the process of acculturation is a creative one. Various studies indicate clearly that unless the basic autonomy of any given group is severely threatened, re-interpretation, re-organization ar creative forma of re-adaption to new elements and pressures, are more likely to occur than disintegration or dysfunction. The bulk of the analytic literature dealing with the Montagnais-Naskapi-cree bands of northeastern North America is not based on such fundamental premise. FUrther it is an established truism in modern anthropological thought that simple subtraction of those traits found in one society, Which are held to be diffused fran another group, does not necessari.ly give an accurate indication of the real nature of aboriginal practices. Nor is it considered valid to assume similar functions and meaning for similar traits ar forms, even between cultures experiencing recent ar historie contact. Diffusion may be accepted as a valid micro-mechanism in the growth of culture systems. aowever, the appreciation of over-all changes in social - 5 - organization and related changes in economie practices, material culture and technology, require other forma of analysis. Analytic Framework of Histor ic-Functional Phases The modal to be employed, that of sequences of develop ment based on levels of cultural autonomy, is derived in part fran more generalized procedures advanced by steward (1936, 1955), and Redfield (1953, 1955, 1956). A somewhat similar form of analysis bas been attempted by Balikci (1960) for Eskimo materials. In this work three Eskimo communities, each illustrating a different stage of acculturation, are examined. 'l'he analysis of each cOIIIDUDity is in terms of socio-economic organisation and certain religious traits, as seen before and after contact with agents of Buro canadian civilization. The history of intensive contact is in each case relatively short. comparative examination of trends in the acculturation process in each community is made. In the case of the Montagnais the history of contact is a long one. The present thesis is therefore concerned with - 6 - the identification of historie events and developmenta over a broad period of time. Abstraction of three bistoric-func:tional phases in the OV4mall processes of development is made. ( Graburn (1960) and Willmott (1959) offer descriptive and analytic materials concerning caamunity organization, eaonan.t.c activities, and kinship in the Eskimo caamunities of sugluk and Port Harrison. Both of these settlements are ex periencing acculturative forces of recent arigin, as is the Maliotenam caamunity. some parallels in the processes of development in each settlement are suggested.) The three phases of the sequences of development are established along a gradient, the chief criterion of which is the degree of actual autonany

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