Sociopolitical Organization
The unit of ultimate political sovereignty was the village community or "tribelet." Tribelet population ranged from as few as 100 to as many as 1,200. Each tribelet was an independent and sovereign nation that embraced a defined and bounded territory, exercising control over the natural resources contained therein.
Tribelets in the central region varied in structural form. In the Sacramento Valley and adjacent coastal regions the ambilocal residential kin group was the key political subdivision. The principal basis for membership was co-residence rather then descent. In the San Joaquin Valley and surrounding areas unilineal kin groups were the key political subdivisions within a tribelet and occasionally constituted the tribelet itself. Membership was based on descent (usually patrilineal) rather than co-residence.
Within each tribelet were several more or less permanently inhabited settlements and a larger number of seasonally occupied resource procurement campsites used at various times during the seasonal round of hunting, fishing, and gathering activites. The land was collectively owned and every tribal member enjoyed the right to use its resources. However, in some localities, tracts that yielded plentiful supplies of seeds, acorns, or fish were claimed by individuals or families.
Within most tribelets there were several political and social, or class, distinctions: elites or nobility, commoners, the poor, and sometimes vagabonds. Elites consisted of tribelet leaders (as well as lineage leaders among those groups possessing lineages) and their immediate family, bureaucrats (chief's assistants, messengers), religious specialists, and outstanding craft specialists and may have constituted as much as 25% of any one tribelet's population. Commoners were those men and women without formal rank or special skills. Widows and orphans, along with those who did not contribute in any meaningful way to the economic system, comprised the lower class.
Tribelet leaders stood at the apex of the sociopolitcal and economic hierarchy and rarely were subordinate to any other authority. In all groups the position was the highest rank attainable and was generally patrilineally inherited, the office passing from father to son. But this was not always the case. Among the southern San Joaquin Valley Yokuts, a chief's daughter or sister occasionally took over or, as was the case among many Miwok nations, if the heir to the leadership was a minor the deceased leader's wife acted as regent. And in at least one nonpolitical ethnic nationality, the Ohlone, tribelet leaders were either women or men.
Although leadership was generally inherited, it was not automatic. The talents and inclinations of the individual were of prime consideration and succession was generally subject to male or community review and approval. Furthermore, among such groups as the Maidu and Konkow headmen were chosen through the aid of a shaman who conveyed the choice of the spirits to the people. He could also be removed by the word of the shaman. Among the various Coast Miwok tribelets, an incipient leader was tutored by the current leader and four elderly women and when he was ready the incumbent resigned or a poisoner was hired to remove him.
The functions of a tribelet leader varied from nation to nation, but usually included those of economic and ceremonial administrator. As economic administrator, the tribelet leader controlled the collection, distribution and exchange of food stores, money and valuables for the benefit of the group. In most groups tribelet leaders were expected to lead the people in their daily pursuits, talk to them with respect to moral proprieties, hear disputes, issue invitations to leaders of neighboring tribeletes. As ceremonial administrator, the tribelet leader usually set the time for and directed various ritual activities, acted as the sponsor for religious and social gatherings, frequently hiring, feeding and housing, and paying the musicians and dancers as well as providing the food for visitors during ritual celebrations. In essence, the function of the leader was to maintain the balance between individuals, between tribelets, and between the people and the supernatural realm.
Because of the duties associated with being an administrator, a tribelet leader was generally exempt from subsistence activities. The did not hunt or fish, but were supplied with food by members of the village in which they resided. Most leaders lived in comparative luxury: their houses and households were larger, they possessed greater access to goods and services, they had the opportunity to meet traders before anyone else, and held more "treasure goods." And in some tribelets, the assembly house, which was the site of all important religious ceremonies and other major social events, was regarded as the personal property of the tribelet leader, often serving as his primary place of residence. Additionally, tribelet leaders frequently had more than one spouse. This was an absolute necessity since one of the leader's roles was to entertain guests or traders who came to the village.
For additional information on the Central
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To comment on this page please send email to Chuck Smith at crsmith@cabrillo.cc.ca.us.
Page last updated: 23 August 1999