The Cultural Ecology of the Chipewyan / by Donald Stewart Mackay.
ThE CULTURAL ECOLOGY OF TkE CBIPE%YAN UONALD STEhAkT MACKAY b.A., University of british Columbia, 1965 A ThESIS SUBMITTED IN PAhTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE HEObIRCMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in the department of Sociology and Anthropology @ EONALD STECART MACKAY, 1978 SIMON F hAShR UNlVERSITY January 1978 All rights reserved. This thesis may not be reproduced in whole or in, part, by photocopy or other means, without permission of the author. APPROVAL Name : Donald Stewart Mackay Degree: Master of Arts Title of Thesis: The Cultural Ecology of the Chipewyan Examining Cormnit tee : Chairman : H. Sharp Senior Supervisor- - N. Dyck C.B. Crampton . Fisher Departme'nt of Biological Sciences / ,y/y 1 :, Date Approved: //!,, 1 U The of -- Cultural Ecology .- --------the Chipewyan ----- .- ---A <*PI-: (sign-ir ~re) - Donald Stewart Mackay --- (na~t) March 14, 1978. (date ) AESTRACT This study is concerned with the persistence of human life on the edge of the Canadian Barren Grounds. The Chipewyan make up the largest distinct linguistic and cultural group and are the most easterly among the Northern Athapaskan Indians, or Dene. Over many centuries, the Chipewyan have maintained a form of social life as an edge-of-the-forest people and people of the Barren Grounds to the west of Hudson Bay. The particular aim of this thesis is to attempt, through a survey of the ecological and historical 1iterature , to elucidate something of the traditional adaptive pattern of the Chipewyan in their explcitation of the subarc tic envirorient . Given the fragmentary nature of much of the historical evidence, our limited understanding of the subarctic environment, and the fact that the Chipewyan oecumene (way of looking at life) is largely denied to the modern observer, we acknowledge that this exercise in ecological and historical reconstruction is governed by serious hazards and limitations.
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