Looking for tribes in all the wrong places : an examination of the Central Coast Salish social network
Date
1995
Authors
Kennedy, Dorothy Irene
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Abstract
Anthropological evidence is being relied upon increasingly in aboriginal claims litigation in British Columbia. In one such case, a debate focused on whether or not a Central Coast Salish defendant's group should be classified at the "band" or "tribal" level, as defined by Elman Service's model of sociocultural integration. It is contended that the Service model was misapplied and that the flow of people and goods can best be understood within the framework of a social network, as suggested in the earlier work of Wayne Suttles and William Elmendorf. Five hypotheses are presented, each designed to test and to quantify the extent and intensity of the social alliances of individuals and villages resulting from a predominantly exogamous marriage practice. This study confirms an earlier-postulated rate of village-exogamous-patrilocal residency. Specific quantitative examples focus on the Squamish and their interrelationships with neighbouring Coast Salish groups.