Sociopolitical Organization
The groups that inhabited northwest California all were so loosely organized that it is more accurate to call each a non-political ethnic nationality rather than a tribe. All the members of each ethnic nationality shared a culture and a language, interacted and communicated, intermarried and traced relatives, but still they did not think of themselves as a unit. People saw themselves as village residents, not as tribal members.
Each village was more or less autonomous from all others, there were no chiefs nor councils, and most of the time each family group within a village carried out its own foraging and fishing activities. In fact, social relationships between families were characterized by a minimum of exchange or sharing of food and access to resources. The only time the inhabitants within each village performed joint tasks was if its entire population was one wealthy man's entourage. It was these men of wealth (or as the Yurok called them pergerk, which might be translated as "real man" or "real person") who exercised what authority was required in a village, who took the initiative in organizing special activities, such as the ritual opening of the salmon fishing season; the construction of major facilities like fish weirs, large canoes, and plank houses; and ritual events such as the White Deerskin Dance among the Yurok. They also acted as intermediaries in negotiations involving large transfers of wealth items.
A wealthy man drew his power and status from his possession and display of accumulated wealth objects, or "treasures," such as large bipointed blades of chipped obsidian, redheaded woodpecker scalps, and strings of dentalium shell beads. And while everyone wanted to be rich, thinking about wealth constantly, praying for it, there was little the average village resident could do to become wealthy. Part of this was so lay in the generally held belief that wealth accrued largely from a type of spiritual power. This power and the knowledge of how to obtain it were controlled by persons of aristocratic birthright and was inherited through the male line. Power was also correlated with certain manners or etiquette. It was generally believed wealth could be attracted if one behaved according to standards of moderation and good manners. On the other had, certain forms of wealth, such as dentalium shells, would become offended and leave the house of a person who lacked the discipline to live correctly.
In addition to living and thinking correctly to attract wealth, several other strategies existed to increase one's wealth. Wealth objects served as objects of barter in bridewealth negotiations. Bridewealth (sometimes called brideprice) is an institution in which a groom's family gives payments to the bride's family to secure a marriage contract and to provide compensation for the family's loss of a daughter's economic and reproductive powers. Women were important economically because they performed the hard and tedious labor connected with preparing a wide variety of staple foods for consumption and storage as well as producing daughters who would attract bridewealth later on.
Another strategy for acquiring wealth involved the principle of indemnity. Fines were levied for a wide variety of transgressions, ranging from cases of homicide to such violations as traveling in a river canoe past the house of someone who had died recently. Adultery was a fineable offense, and payments was expected from those who were saved from drowning.
Being wealthy meant having a well-built house (the finest houses had names) on a desirable site, with chests of treasure in its rooms. Wealth meant owning good fishing and hunting lands that could be leased out, and paying high bridewealth for wives from other wealthy and prestigious families, thus increasing one's own wealth and status. But being wealthy did have its obligations. A wealthy man paid for most of the World Renewal Ceremony. Any transgressions he might commit cost him more than they would a poor person, and his ownership of land was so absolute that trespassers who injured themselves while on his land could claim compensation.
Not all northwest groups were as loosely organized as the Tolowa, Yurok, Hupa, and Karuk. Among the Hokan-speaking Chimariko and the southern Athabaskan-speaking ethnic nationalities the "Real Man" form of sociopolitical organization was replaced by that of the village community or "tribelet." There was one headman for each village group and his position was lifelong and hereditary (among the Chimariko) through the male line. Privileges and duties of headmen included the possession of several wives, providing the largest share of food and property at ceremonies, settling disputes, directing communal food quests, and feeding impoverished visitors.
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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