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, sedentarization 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. Demographic data which has been collected on Attawapiskat include accurate and detailed baptism, marriage, and death records from 1883 to the present. By extrapolation from these records, genealogies of the people are being reconstructed as far back as about 1850. Maps of the location of houses in the village have been compiled, and an analysis of current resi dence patterns has been made. These combined data indicate that despite the changes which have so far been introduced by sedentarization and modernization, basic features of tradi tional Swampy Cree kinship structure are still very much in ev idence, including persistent attempts to reproduce traditional residence patterns whenever possible. Before making further comments about the residence pat terns and related aspects of kinship organization of the con temporary village of Attawapiskat, it is worthwhile to examine aboriginal residence patterns and related aspects of kinship or ganization among Swampy Cree in the area. Aboriginal Residence Patterns and Related Aspects of Kinship Organization of the Attawapiskat Swampy Cree According to Honigmann (1956:58-65), the aboriginal At tawapiskat Cree were similar to other northern forest peoples in that they had a relatively simple social organization. A sparse population density combined with an uncertain food supply reduced opportunities for contact with strangers and led to a situation where social interaction occurred primarily among kin. The (probably) bilateral extended or composite family household was the primary economic, political, and so cial unit, which is still the case in Attawapiskat today. Groups larger than the family, such as seasonal hunting or traveling groups and seasonal settlements at good fishing sites, tended to have shifting memberships and to command only'a weak sense of allegiance and identification. These larger groups were actually microcosmic, fluid bands which were often composed of kin and had fluid sizes and memberships which could adapt KINSHIP ORGANIZATION 121 to shirting food resources. Coordination of these larger groups was provided by male leaders who were chosen on the basis of competence. Beyond the microcosmic band, there was a vague, noncor porate unit which might be called the local group or macrocosmic band. Macrocosmic bands consisted of perhaps ten to fifteen families occupying a particular river drainage. No term for this kinship aggregate along a river drainage existed in the Swampy Cree language. Probably because people in macrocosmic bands realized that others in adjacent territories were already using the available food supply to its limit in a region which could support only a limited number of people, members of macrocosmic bands tended to keep to their own territories. Not much is known about the stability of macro cosmic bands, but is probable that in each generation, affinal ties created links between microcosmic units within macrocos mic bands, and thus formed "the basis for (the) circulation of people within (their) territory" (Honigmann 1956:59). Among the aboriginal Swampy Cree in the area surround ing Attawapiskat, the nuclear family seldom occupied a dwelling or campsite by itself. Households were often linked by sibling ties, as for example by two brothers-in-law living together in a household with a nucleus consisting of two sisters. Aging par ents often lived with their daughters and were supported by their sons-in-law. Two or more brothers often married sisters, and brothers could also form the nucleus of a household which included wives, children, and perhaps a son-in-law serving a period of bride service. Adoption occurred whenever parents of younger children died or found themselves with too many mouths to feed. Thus, it was not unusual for households to include adopted or fostered children. With the possible excep tion of bride service, the above aspects of family structure are still characteristic of the residents of Attawapiskat today. Honigmann (1956:61) states that among the Swampy Cree, "Siblings of the same sex felt a closer bond than those of the •+ ^ " qutPrs in particular remained close even after opposite sex. ters in pa ^^ ^ r_ marriage, especia ly ^/founded on polygyny" (1956:62). wl1^ S^nof pofygyny, this is still the case in the contemporary village of Attawapiskat. Although most marriages in aboriginal times were mono>sa' - 122 KATHRYN T. MOLOHON mous, sororal polygyny, and less commonly, non-sororal polyg yny were known. The sororate, and less commonly, the levi- rate, were practiced. Wife exchange was practiced between friends, but never between brothers or brothers-in-law, and it was also practiced with strangers. Significantly, polygyny can be identified in the records of baptisms for people associated with Attawapiskat up until about 1910, when it disappears from the records, presumably due to the influence of Roman Catholic missionaries. Adultery was not condoned in aborigi nal times, and often led to physical violence, as is still the case today. Cross-cousin marriage was both practiced and reflected in the kinship terminology of the aboriginal Swampy Cree. This is still the case for the contemporary residents of Attawapiskat. For example, siblings-in-law are classified and referred to as ei ther cross-cousins of the opposite sex or cross-cousins of the same sex. Furthermore, friendship networks have always been considered extremely important, and were supplemented abo riginally by many social customs such as wife exchange, visit ing, and generous feeding or other acts of hospitality toward guests. With the probable exception of wife exchange, these social customs as an adjunct to friendship networks are still practiced today. The Importance of Contemporary Kin Clusters The contemporary social organization of Attawapiskat cen tres around what might be called "kin clusters", or clusters of kin which are located throughout the village wherever residen tial preferences and available housing arrangements coincide. Within kin clusters, bilateral extended or composite family households are primary economic, political, and social units, as was the case aboriginally (see above). The phenomenon of kin clusters probably represents continuity with aboriginal social organization as a kind of post-sedentarized grouping of these primary organizational units. In present-day Attawapiskat ex tended family or composite family households are frequently based on parent-child or sibling ties, or both. in clusters are herein defined as subsets of bilateral kin dreds (see Murdock 1949:45-46, 56-57) whose members always live in close residential proximity, as for example next door or across the street from one another. The distinction between kin clusters and bilateral kindreds is important because mem- KINSHIP ORGANIZATION 123 bers of kindreds can be scattered throughout a village such as Attawapiskat and in other Swampy Cree villages as well. Thus, kin clusters are distinguished from kindreds by being defined as groups of kin living in very close proximity, as for example in a specific geographic area of a village. In the past, when Swampy Cree families camped in tents during the sum mer and sometimes built log cabins with moss insulation in the cracks, members of kindreds were probably less spatially- dispersed in Attawapiskat than they gradually became after the government of Canada began providing North American-style housing in the late 1950s (see Vezina). In the contemporary village of Attawapiskat, members of kindreds may be scattered throughout the village. By contrast, kin clusters are subsets of bilateral kindreds which are located

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