The economic basis and institutional framework of traditional Nootka polities
Date
1980
Authors
Morgan, Robert Christopher
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Abstract
There were two different forms of polity in traditional Nootka society: independent winter village groups and federations of winter village groups. Both polity types displayed the same characteristic features, which were an internal ranking of potlatch seats, a name, seasonal residence at an aggregate village site, unity for purposes of warfare, territorial unity, internal peace, and a decision-making body which coordinated the unit's political affairs. The federation polity, however, was a more complex and highly segmented organization than the winter village polity, the federation being composed of descent units from more than one winter village group.
Using data from all available ethnographic and ethnohistorical sources on the Nootka, the thesis examines relations among winter village units within federations in comparison to relations between independent groups. This analysis shows that some variations in marital, ceremonial, and material exchange practises were related to the within-federation versus bet ween-polity variable. Members of the titleholding class frequently married out of the political group to establish interpolity alliances, whereas their low class kinsmen usually married within the political group. Guests from other political communities attended the presentation of winter ceremonial dramas given by Loqwana secret societies which were sub-village, non-kinship sodalities. The presentations by societies from a maximal political unit - an independent winter village group or a federation - were given at one village, and were fitted into a series according to the rank of the titleholders which headed the separate secret societies. Material resources were used for provision and for political-ceremonial purposes, most particularly in potlatches. Material exchange between independent polities took the form of balanced and negative reciprocity, whereas exchange among winter village groups within federations was closer to the generalized pole and the flow was centripetal.
The thesis uses data on the primary food resource in the Nootka area, which was Pacific salmon, and shows that there was a significant difference between the amount of salmon resources directly available to independent and to federated winter village groups respectively. On average, independent groups were located in the richer territories, while federations developed where winter village territories rank lower on the salmon resource variable.
Some winter village groups amalgamated when the size of the unit was too small relative to that of neighbouring polities. More generally, however, political federation was a response to limitations in the amount of resources available in the winter village group territory. The thesis identifies four modes of obtaining resources not available in the group territory; these were reciprocal interpolity exchange, titleholder marriage, which could confer usufructory rights to resources owned by titleholders in other political groups, voluntary fusion with another polity, and expansion through warfare. Nootka warfare was frequently directed towards the acquisition of additional territory. The thesis reconstructs the federation process and argues that political federation usually resulted when warring groups established peace, exchanged rights to exploit their respective resource base, and began to reside together in summer at a village site owned by a leading titleholder in one winter village unit.