In the Handbook of North American Indians 1978 adistinction isdrawn between the Western Abenaki of interior New Hampshire and Vermont and the Eastern Abenakiofwesternand central Maine..
Trang 1ETHNONYMS: Abenaque, Abenaquioicts, Abenaquois,
Ab-naki, Eastern Indians, Mawooshen, Moasham, Obenaki,
Openango, Oubenaki, Wabnaki
OrientationIdentification The Abenaki appear first as "Abenac-
quiouoict"onChamplain'smapof1632;theywerelocatedin
the interiorof Maine between theKennebec and Penobscot
rivers.In 1604,Champlainhad called the Indians ofmodern
NewBrunswick and Maine"Etechemins" (lumpingtheIndi
ans of southeastern New Englandunder the term
"Armou-chiquois").Because "Etchemin' was laterapplied more
spe-cificallytothe modern MaliseetandPassamaquoddyof New
Brunswick andeasternmost Maine, somescholars have
con-cluded that the communitiesChamplain foundinMaine in
1604 subsequently withdrew eastward and were replaced by
Abenakiexpandingfrom theinterior. Others,includingthis
writer,have favored theviewthatthe apparent shiftwas more
likelydue to confusion resulting from the changing mixof
place-names, personalnames,and ethnic identifications that
alternated andoverlappedin timeandspace inNewEngland.
Location In the Handbook of North American Indians
(1978) adistinction isdrawn between the Western Abenaki
of interior New Hampshire and Vermont and the Eastern
Abenakiofwesternand central Maine The Western Abenaki
included people of the upper Connecticut River called the
"Sokoki." The Eastern Abenaki can be further subdivided
fromwest to east intothePequawket, Arosaguntacook,
Ken-nebec, and Penobscot, reflecting community clusters along
the Presumpscot, Androscoggin, Kennebec, and Penobscot
rivers.Allthroughthedevastating epidemicsandwarsof the
seventeenth and eighteenthcenturies, many survivors from
the firstthreedivisions, aswellas manyWesternAbenaki,
re-locatedtothe Penobscot Most WesternAbenaki,alongwith
some Eastern Abenaki, eventuallysettled atOdanak (Saint
Francis),nearthe St Lawrence RiverinQuebec Most
East-ernAbenaki survivedatOld Town andinothercommunities
of central Maine, where they are known today as the
Penobscot Indians Bothcommunitieshaveabsorbedpeople
from southern NewEngland and to alesserextent fromthe
Maritime Provincesover the last three centuries.
Demnography. There were probably around 14,000
East-ern Abenaki and 12,000 Western Abenaki in 1600 These
populations collapsed quickly to around 3,000 and 250,
re-spectively, owinglargelytoepidemics and migrationearlyin
the seventeenth century. Furtherdemographicchangestookplace as refugees arrived from thesouth, the number ofvio-
lent deaths increased in the course ofcolonialwarfare, and
communitiesbecameconsolidatedat afew locations In 1973there were probablyno more than 1,000Western Abenaki,
220 of whom lived at Odanak Others remain scattered in
Vermont andin other portions of theiroriginal homeland
The population at Old Town was 815 in 1970, with many
people of Penobscot descentliving elsewhere
Linguistic Affiliation Abenaki dialects belong to theEasternAlgonkiansubdivision oftheAlgonkian-Ritwanlan-
guage family Depopulation and family relocations have so
confused Abenakihistorythatit maybeimpossibleto ever
re-construct the contents and distributions of century dialects
seventeenth-History and Cultural Relations
The Abenakiwerecontactedsporadically byBasqueand
per-haps French fishermen during the sixteenth century Their
hostility to Giovanni da Verrazano in 1524 suggests thatthere had been earlier unfriendly contacts. By the time of
more intense French andEnglish explorationjust after1600,
theAbenakiwereaccustomedtodealingwithEuropeans,andthere was brisk trading of furs for European manufacturedgoods KidnappedAbenakiwereintroducedtofascinatedEn-
glishaudiencesbytheir captors The French tookadifferentapproach, sendingJesuitmissionaries to converttheAbenaki
to Roman Catholicism An epidemic of hepatitis or some
similar diseasewipedoutthe communities ofeastern chusetts after 1616, openingthe wayforEnglish settlement
Massa-in that area in 1620 Meanwhile, the French established
themselves at Port Royal (in modern NovaScotia) and on
the St LawrenceinQuebec,with Abenakiterritory then cominga zone ofcontentionbetween the Europeanpowers.
be-The Abenakiweredrawninto sixcolonialwarsbetween 1675
and 1763 English settlement ofthe Mainecoast was largelyabandoned during King Philip's War (1675-1676) There-
after the Abenaki increasingly became economically tied to
theEnglish,butreligiouslytiedtothe French.Althoughthey
were dependent in different ways upon each, the Abenakimanaged to remain independent from both through KingWilliam's War (1688-1697), Queen Anne's War (1702-1713), King George's War (1744-1748), and the SevenYears' War (1756-1763), each of which was an Americancounterpartto wars inEurope Dumnmer'sWar (1721-1725)
was aconflict between the Indians and the English that
de-spite Frenchsupportfor the Indiancausehadnocounterpart3
Trang 24 Abenaki
conflictinEurope The Jesuit missionarySebastienRMlewas
killed during this war, and afterward many Abenaki from
westernMainebeganmovingtosafercommunitiesinQuebec
and on thePenobscotRiver Fromthistimeon, the
Penob-scot were principal spokesmen for the Abenaki indealings
with theEnglish.Afterthe defeat of the Frenchin1763, the
Penobscotjoinedwith six other former French alliesin a
con-federation that haditsheadquartersatCaughnawaga,
Que-bec.By this time the western and coastal region of Maine had
been lost to English settlement The Abenaki sided with
AmericanrebelsintheAmericanRevolution, and those
re-maining in the UnitedStatesretainedmostofinterior Maine
Newtreaties with Massachusetts (whichthen held the
Prov-ince ofMaine)began to benegotiatedin1786 By 1833 the
Penobscot were reduced to a few islands in the Penobscot
River.These were unconstitutionalagreements,however,and
recentland claims by the Penobscot and other Maine Indians
have led to verylargesettlements in compensation for the lost
land
SettlementsAbenaki villages based on hunting, fishing, and collecting
wereprobably alwaysmorepermanent than those of
horticul-tural communities to the south and west TheAbenakiwere
unwilling to risk serious horticulture as long as they were at
the mercy offrequent crop failures so far north.Thus, the
Abenakisettlement pattern does not featurea large number
ofvillagesites, each the result of a shortoccupation.Onthe
otherhand, both the coast and the interiorlakes are dotted
with the traces oftemporary camps that were used for
sea-sonalhuntingandgathering by family groups At the time of
firstcontact with Europeans, village houses appear to have
beenwigwams These werelarge enoughto accommodate an
average of ten people each, although the range of three to
twenty-seven people per house suggests considerable
varia-tion inhouse size Houses athuntingcamps were either small
versions of thedomedwigwam or pyramidal structures having
square floorplans Inall cases these earlyhouses were
shin-gled with sheets of bark Later Penobscothousescombined
Europeanlogwalls withbarkroofs, and latervillages were
pal-isaded.Stilllater, in thenineteenthcentury,framehouses of
European design replacedthe earlier forms entirely
Economy
Subsistenceand Commercial Activities Thelate
prehis-toric subsistencesystemprobablyfeaturedfamilyexcursions
from the main village to coastal camps during the warm
months to hunt andgathermaritime resources Spring and
fall runs of migratory fishwere harvested from the main
vil-lages,which were located mainly at strategic points on major
estuaries Families dispersed upstream to traditional areas
along the tributaries of the main streams in the colder
months There wereprobably midwinter reunions at the main
villageswhen families returned to exchange canoes and other
fallhunting equipment for snowshoes, toboggans, and other
equipment appropriate forhunting over snow and ice After
1600, the development of a regular fur tradeled to the
con-versionof traditional family hunting areas into more carefully
defined family hunting and trapping territories As the
human and beaver populations shrank, the demand for furs
and theimportance of their trade for the acquisition of
manu-facturedgoods increased By the nineteenth century, familyterritories hadgrown to about a hundred square miles each.The fur tradecollapsed and the Penobscot gave up most oftheir interior landsby 1818 Thereafter they worked in lum-
bering and theproduction ofsplintbaskets and canoes forcash income
Industrial Arts Birchbark was perhaps the single mostimportantaboriginal material and was used to makeshelters,canoes, moose calls, trays, and containers, among otherthings Baskets made from ash splints and sweetgrass, forwhich theAbenali are stillknown, provided an alternativesource of income Thetechnique wasapparentlyintroduced
by European settlers on the Delaware River in the teenth century andspreadoutward from there as it came to beadopted by Indiancraftspeople in onecommunity after an-other Penobscot men were known asskilled canoemakers,
seven-and it is no accident that the Old Town canoemanufacturing
company got its start across thePenobscot River from IndianIsland Other crafts weretypical of the EasternAlgonkians ofNew England
Trade Although some limited trade with other nationsprobably occurredprehistorically,the clan system that facili-tated trade elsewhere in the EasternWoodlands was not de-veloped among the Abenaki After 1600, however, tradeflourished with Europeans as theAbenaki were drawn intothe world economicsystem as animportantsource of beaverpelts Copper pots replaced native bark containers and earth-enware, gunsreplaced bows, and glass beads replaced porcu-pine quills very quickly in thesedecades Both French andEnglish trading posts were established in and around Abe-nahd territory, and these led totheconstruction offortsde-signed to protect these trading interests through and betweenthe colonial wars
Division ofLabor Primarydistinctions were made on thebasis of age and sex Men were hunters, fishermen, leaders,and shamans Women were gatherers, hide workers, follow-ers, and curers Boys and girls aspired to and practiced atthese roles
LandTenure Land ownershipwas not an issue before thedevelopment of the fur trade andthe historic establishment
offarming Bythe early nineteenth century, the Abenaki wereaware of theadvantageof theexclusiveownership oftrapping
territories and knew from experience the consequences ofconveyingtitle to Europeans Yet by 1818 the disappearance
of the fur trademade the ownership of the Maine forests pear useless to them, and theygave up everything but theright to hunt,fish, and collect ash splints over most of theirformer territory Meanwhile, the ownership of individualplots became more important for managing gardens andhouse lots on remaining reservation land
ap-Kinship
Kin Groupsand Descent The nuclear family was the mary kin groupin traditionalAbenakiculture Atthe end ofthe nineteenth century, local lineages were often identifiedwithspecific animal totems Those with aquatictotems usu-ally hadtrapping territories toward the coast and were known
pri-as saltwaterfamilies Those with terrestrial totems were found
in the moreremote interior Unlike true clans, the commonancestries of thesefamily units were often known, or at least
Trang 3Abenaki 5
discoverable Moreover, theancienttradingfunctions oftrue
clans appear not to have givenrise tothetotemicgroups of
thePenobscot Thekinship systemwasbilateral, withsome
preference for the patrilineal side Family (lineage) identities
wereusually inherited patrilineally, butayoungcouple who
chose to reside with the wife'sfamilywould assume that
fam-ily identity over time
Kinship Terminology One's mother and fatherwere
dis-tinguished from their siblings, but there was a tendency to
lump cousins and siblings together
Marriage and Family
Marriage Lineage exogamy was customary, which was
ex-pressed as a prohibition against marryingfirst or second
cous-ins.There was,however,nosystemof exogamy based on
fam-ily totems Dominant men often had more than one wife The
levirate and sororate were common.Polygyny but not
polyan-dry was allowed, partly in recognition of male dominance,
partly as social security for widowed people Householdswere
led by dominant men A young married couple might reside
matrilocally if the husband's father was dead or weak or
al-ready had many sons or ifthe wife's father was strong or
lacked sons Older dominant men might have large
house-holds under their control, but the maturation of strong sons
could lead to the breakup of such a household
Domestic Unit The domestic unit was made up of one to
fouradult male warriors,anearly equal number of wives, and
a mix of children and elderly This was the unit that moved to
theinteriorwoodsin winterandto coastcampsinthe
sum-mer It was probably also the basic production unitforfishing
and gathering activities even when in residence in the main
village
Inheritance Aboriginally, families made their own
houses, tools, and clothing Sharing and gift giving were
im-portantmechanisms for redistributing items produced by
spe-cialists within and perhaps between families Hunting and
trapping territories,houses, and perhaps some portable goods
wereconsidered the property of the family as a whole, a
con-ceptthat obviated the issue of inheritance
Socialization Sisters were treated with formality and re
spectby brothers Boys often took practicalinstructionfrom
their father's brothers.Women wereisolatedduring
menstru-ation Young men were also isolated for long periods and
given special food if they were identified as gifted runners
Dominant fathers, caring mothers, kind uncles, and
fun-loving aunts were familiar figures in the socialization of
Abe-nakichildren
Sociopolitical Organization
Social Organization The basic social unit was
tradition-ally the residential family Individuals maintainedclose
rela-tions withothers sharingthe samefamily totem Familiesfell
into anatural division between saltwater and terrestrial
to-tems, but there is little evidence that this division was ever
formalized Menoften establishedlifelong partnerships that
went beyond the ties of kinship or close residence Exchange
couched as giftgiving served to maintainsuch relationships
while at the same timefacilitating the redistribution of prized
items
Political Organization Prior to the nineteenth century,village leadership normally resided with a dominant localfamily A strong man, or sagamore, usually emerged fromsuch afamily to hold aleadership positionforlife Therewas
oftenasecond sagamore who also held his position for life.JohnAtteanandJohn Neptuneheld these positions at thePenobscot village of Old Town until 1866 Up to that timeresistance had been building among members of saltwaterfamilies, who referredtothemselvesasthe"New Party." Stateinterventionled to an annual (later biennial) cycle ofalter-natingleadership by the New Partyand the Old Party until
1931 Sincethen leadership has been by election
Social Control Leadership and social order were tionally maintained through the force of strong personalities.Sagamores depended upon broad consensus and lacked theformal power to actwithoutit.Butpolitical power, personalcharisma, virility, and shamanistic powerwere nearly inter-changeable concepts Consequently, a strong man had muchreal power even though it was not defined formally
tradi-Conflict Abenakiconcepts of shamanistic powerallowedfor the diversion of conflict into the realm of the supernat-ural This eliminated much open physical conflict within thecommunity asdid warfare with non-Abenaki communities
Religion and Expressive Culture
ReligiousBeliefs Supernatural beingsincluded Pamola, apowerful monster who was believed to live atop MountKatahdin, the highest mountain in Maine Gluskabe was atrickster and culture hero whose exploitswere more humor-ous than frightening Many living men andsome women hadtheir own shamanistic powers that allowed them to leavetheir bodies and enter the realm of thesupernatural, usually
in animal forms Strange occurrencesinvolving animals werecustomarily interpreted as being the acts of shamans in theiranimal forms
Religious Practitioners All shamans possessed at leastone animal form into which they couldtransform themselves.Seven forms were attributed toJohn Neptune, the most pow-erful of the last shamans Such men were virile and had strongpersonalities Their powers were often expressed throughpolygyny and political leadership The rare female shamanswere especially feared and respected in this male-dominatedsociety
Ceremonies Dancing was an important part of promptu ceremonies, including theinstallation of sagamores,marriages, and occasions when visiting brought people to-gether temporarily Ceremonies appear tohave been irregularcompared to the periodic seasonal societies to the southwest.Death and mourning brought any current festivities to anabrupt end, and close relatives mourned for a year
im-Arts Elaborate stitching and curvilinear incised designsdecorated prized bark artifacts In recentcenturies, ash splintbasketry has been taken up, along with the use of metal-toothed gauges for splitting the splints The use of tubularwampum was as important here as elsewhere in the Northeast
in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and several obscot collars and belts survive Later artisans favored glassseed beads sewn on trade cloth Bead designs included floraland geometric motifs, as well as thewell-known double-curve
Trang 4Pen-6 Abenaki
motif Other crafts were the more standard ones shared by
various Northeast Indian societies
Medicine Curers,aclass of individualsseparate from
sha-mans, understood the medicinal characteristics of various
plants, but didnotnecessarily possess shamanistic powers
Death and Afterlife The dead wereburied intheirbest
clothesinindividualinterments.Ideas aboutanafterlifewere
probablyconsistentwith shamanisticbeliefs, butcenturiesof
Catholic missionizing have greatly modified traditional
beliefs
Bibliography
Day,GordonM (1978)."Westem Abenaki." In Handbook of
North American Indians Vol 15, Northeast, edited by Bruce
G.Trigger, 148-159 Washington, D.C.:Smithsonian
Insti-tution
Eckstorm, Fanny H (1945) OldJohn Neptune and Other
Maine Indian Shamans Portland, Maine:
Southworth-Anthoensen Press
Snow,Dean R (1968).'Wabanaki'Family Hunting
Territor-ies."' AmericanAnthropologist 70:1143-1151
Snow, DeanR (1978) "Eastern Abenaki." In Handbookof
NorthAmerican Indians Vol 15, Northeast, edited by Bruce
Trigger, 137-147 Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian
Insti-tution
Speck, FrankG (1940).Penobscot Man: TheLife History ofa
Forest TribeinMaine Philadelphia: University of
Identification "Acadia" ("Acadie") was the name given
tothe firstpermanentFrenchcolonyinNorth America
His-toriansdisagreeas totheoriginsof thename.Onepossibility
isthatitderives from"Arcadia,"a name given to alandthat
was considered a sortofearthly paradise in ancientGreece
The Italian explorerGiovannidaVerrazzano gave thename
"Arcadie" to an areaheexplored alongtheeasternseaboard
ofNorth Americain1524 Theother,morelikely, possibility
isthat"Acadie"wasborrowed from theMicmacpeople ofthe
present-day Maritime Provinces of Canada: it is found in
many Micmac place names such as "Tracadie,"
"Shunena-cadie," and "Tanacadie." Today,"Acadie" isusedtoreferto
in the Maritime Provinces that populated by
French-speaking descendants of the original inhabitants ofthecolony of Acadia
Location The Maritime Provinces include New wick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia BeingCanada's three smallest provinces, together theycoverjustover 1 percent of Canada's land surface The territory pre-
Bruns-dominantlyinhabitedbyAcadiansincludes almost half of theprovinceof New Brunswick, where French is the majority lan-
guage both in the three northern counties andon the eastcoast Elsewhere,Acadiansform a scatteredpopulation living
inisolatedpockets in western Prince Edward Island, westernNova Scotia, and eastern Nova Scotia The sea forms
south-a natural boundary around the Maritime Provinces, exceptNewBrunswick, which touches upon the province of Quebec
to the north andthe state of Maine to the west
Given their position on Canada's Atlantic coast, theMaritimes have a cool, temperate climate: cold continentalair massesfrom thenorthwest alternate with warmer, humidmaritime airfrom the southwest Wintersare long and cold,and snowfalls abundant The cityofMoncton, in thegeo-graphical center of the region, hasanaverage annual snowfall
of ninety-two inches.Typically, spring and summer are shortseasons, and the autumn is long and pleasant, with coolnights Summers are very warm in inland areas and along theGulf of St Lawrence,but cooler on the Atlantic coast Theaverage temperature in Moncton is 180 F in January and64° F inJuly, although high temperatures occasionally reach86° F in July Average annual precipitation is thirty-nineinches.The growing season lasts on the average 133 days,be-ginning in early May and ending in September Within theAcadian areas of theMaritimeProvinces aretwo regions withdistinctly different weather patterns Northern NewBrunswick has a colder, more continental climate, with ashortergrowingseason InCampbellton, for example, the av-eragegrowingseasonlastsonly 110 days Southwestern NovaScotia, incontrast,has a humid, temperate climate with rainywinters and few extremes intemperature
Demography In 1986, the total population of the
Mari-time Provinces was 1,709,000.In censusreturns, the main dicator used to identify the Acadian population is the mothertongue In 1986 the total population with French as themothertonguewas295,000,or 17 percentof the population
in-of the Maritimes The vast majorityofAcadians now live inNew Brunswick Those whose mother tongue in 1986 wasFrench numbered 248,925 in New Brunswick, 39,630 inNovaScotia, and 6,525 in Prince Edward Island
Thereis no citywhere the Acadians form a majority ofthe population Thelargest concentration of urban Acadians
is in Moncton, where they form a third of the population of80,000
Linguistic Affiliation Recent figures have shown that theFrench language is in sharp decline in Nova Scotia andPrince EdwardIsland, where Acadians form only 5 percent ofthe population Though almostallNewBrunswick Acadiansused French as their firstlanguagein1986,one-thirdof Nova
Scotia Acadians and almostone-half of thoselivingin Prince
EdwardIsland indicated that English was the main languagespoken at home The rate ofacculturation ishighestinurbanareas where Acadians form a small minority, suchasHalifax,
St John, andCharlottetown, although the recent opening of
Trang 5Acadians 7
French-language schools in these cities may influence the
trend
The French language, asspoken by Acadians, includes
many archaic elements that originated in the
seventeenth-centurydialects spokenin western France.The strongest
lin-guisticaffiliations are found between Acadia and the Loudun
areainthe northern part ofPoitou.There are severalregional
linguisticdifferences in Acadia itself In northern New
Bruns-wick, for example, the proximity of the province of Quebec
has influenced the spoken language, whereas isolated areas
such as Cheticamp, on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia,
have maintained a more archaic form of speech In the
Moncton area, constantintermingling between Acadians and
English speakers hasspawnedahybridform ofspeech, known
as Chiac In French-language schools, modem standard
French is taught, and students are strongly encouraged to
avoid mixing French and English Educational institutions
also tend to condemn the use of archaic expressions no
longer accepted in modem French usage, although in recent
years many voiceshave been raised in the Acadian
commu-nitycalling for themaintenanceof the distinctive elements of
the Acadian dialect
History and Cultural Relations
The first French colonists arrived in Acadia in 1604 After
ill-fated attempts to establish colonies on ile Sainte-Croix
(Dotchet Island, Maine) and at Port-Royal (Nova Scotia),
Acadia was abandoned and Britain seized control of the area,
naming it Nova Scotia in 1621.In1632,the Treaty of
Saint-Germain-en-Laye returned AcadiatoFrenchjurisdiction and
permanent colonization began Between 1632 and 1654,
when Acadia once again fell to the British, about fifty families
of colonists arrived from France, and those few families
formed the nucleus of the present-day Acadian population
Politically, the next hundred years continued to be
marked by instability Because of the weak positionit
occu-pied on the margins ofboth the French and the British North
American empires,Acadia changedhands several times In
1713, the Treaty of Utrecht gaveBritainpermanentcontrol
ofpeninsularNova Scotia, and with the Treaty ofParis in
1763, France lost the rest of what had been the colony of
Acadia During the tense period between thesetwotreaties,
the Acadians werereferredtoby the Britishasthe "French
neutrals" because oftheir desire to avoid all involvement in
military conflicts But despite the Acadians' avowed
neutral-ity,the British begantodeport themin1755, with thegoal of
destroying their culture and placing settlers from New
En-gland on their lands Amongatotal population of about
thir-teenthousand, at least ten thousandweredeportedbetween
1755and 1763 The resteither fledtoQuebecor were
cap-tured anddetained inmilitarycamps
Once apermanent peace had been established, a new
Acadia was born,asprisonersbeing released from detention
searched for lands on which to settle They were joined by a
number of Acadians returning from exile, althoughmostof
these weredrawn toward Quebec, which remaineda
French-speaking territory, orLouisiana, where they settledinlarge
numbersand became knownas"Cajuns."For twocenturies,
theAcadian populationintheMaritime Provincesincreased
both innumbers and inproportion of the totalpopulation,
until the 1960s, whenthe Acadian percentage of the
popula-tion leveled offin NewBrunswick and began to decline in
Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island Today's Acadianshaveawhole range ofsocial, educational, and cultural insti-
tutions and are active participants inthe political process,bothprovincially and federally, although their political influ-
ence is significant onlyin NewBrunswick
Settlements
InAcadian ruralcommunities long lines of houses stretchalong both sides ofa mainroad Land is divided into parallelstrips beginning at the road and continuing beyond thecleared area intothe woods Livestock used tobe brandedand leftto roamfreeinthe woodsduring grazing season,butnow all pasturelandisfenced in The mainoutbuilding is abarn constructed of vertical wooden boards The parishchurchisusually foundatthecenterof the village, with localinstitutionssuch as the post office, credit union, and cooper-ativestorenearby Except in communities with a population
ofover athousand, thereisrarelyacluster of houses in thecenterof the village Rather, the population is evenly spread
out along the main road This is true inboth farming andfishing communities, as Acadiansincoastal areas tradition-ally practiced both activities Rather than living in a clusteredcommunity around aharbor, fishing families lived on farmsand oftentraveled several miles to reach the local harbor dur-ingfishingseason
The average rural house is quite small and made of wood.The kitchen, the largest room, is the center of activity for thehousehold Nineteenth-century houses usually included asmall roombeside the kitchen and two upstairs bedrooms.Acadians have always had a tendency to modify their houses
asneeded Often, small houses were enlarged with the
addi-tionofa newwingasthefamily grew For exterior wall ing,modem clapboard has now replaced cedar or spruce shin-gles, and asphalt shingles have replaced the original woodenones on the roof
cover-Urban houses show various influences in style Again,wood is the most important element used in construction Inurban areas occupied by Acadians, the main signs of theirpresence arethe Catholic church, the French school, and thecredit union
Economy
Subsistence and Commercial Activities Until the latenineteenth century, rural Acadian communities hadasub-sistenceeconomybased on a combination of mixed farming,fishing, and forestry The development of the commercialfishery, and particularly the lobsterindustry,brought amod-
est revenue torural Acadians beginning in the 1880s larly, the development of the forest industry permittedAcadi-ans to earn money cutting wood during the winter, whenfarming and fishing activities had ceased In inland areas,where subsistence agriculture was the main activity, cuttingwood in remote lumber campsduring the winter provided theonly source ofcash income After WorldWar11, subsistenceagriculture ceased and the more marginalinlandcommuni-tiesbecamedepopulated.Insomeareas,successfulcommer-
Simi-cial farming has been developed, the main crop being toes An important dairy industry also now exists Therelative success of commercial fishing andfarming has pre-vented massivedepopulationinrural areas, althoughaten-
Trang 6dencyto move toindustrialcentersoutside theregionhas
ex-istedsince the late nineteenth century and still continues.
The traditional diet of Acadians consisted of salt pork,
saltfish,wildgame (deer, moose,andrabbit),andalimited
amountofvegetablessuchas potatoes,turnips, carrots,and
string beans, as well as tea, bread, and molasses Products
such as tea, flour, sugar, and molasses were obtained from
localstoresandwereoften bartered for such farmproductsas
butter and eggs
IndustrialArts Weavingandknittingareimportantcraft
activities for women. Colorful hooked rugs have been
pro-duced in large quantities since the early twentieth century,
whentravelingmerchantsbegan yearlytripstoAcadian
com-munities inordertoexchange manufacturedgoodsforrugs
Today, rugs and hand-woven goods are sold primarily
through craft outlets
Trade SincetheGreatDepression, whenmanyAcaditans
found themselves indebtedtolocalmerchants, the
coopera-tivemovementhas hadastrongfollowing. Consumercoops
are foundthroughout Acadia, andmanypeople alsobelong
to producercoops, marketing such diverse products as
chil-dren's clothing, potato chips, and frozen fish
Division of Labor Traditionally, men tended to leave
their homesinordertoengageinseasonal activitiessuchas
lumberingandfishingwhile thewomencarriedout notonly
workactivities inthe homebut also much of the farm work
Most women now seek salaried employment outside the
home to contribute to the domestic economy, but in farm
householdswomenstill tendtoparticipateactivelyin
agricul-tural work
Land Tenure Landisprivately held, although largetracts
of landinthe woodedinterioraregovernment-ownedCrown
Lands thatmaybe leased for forestexploitation.Most
Acadi-ans tend to be small landowners, and even in cities private
ownership ofdwellings, rather than renting, is the norm.
Kinship
Kin Groups and Descent The nuclear family is at the
centerofthe socialstructureof Acadians.Apartfrom
idpnti-fying stronglywith their immediatefamily, people also
iden-tifywith their extended family, orParents, including
grand-parents, cousins, aunts, and uncles, and even to a certain
extentwith distant relations with whomtheysharea common
lineage. Because of the limited number of families thatgave
rise to the Acadian people in the seventeenth century, the
communitytodaycanbe consideredatypeoflarge,extended
family,wheremultiple alliances have been formedamong
in-dividual kingroupsovertheyears.The fact thattheyare a
mi-nority group with no distinct territory has contributed to
makingAcadiansawareof theimportanceofmaintainingthe
bonds existing among families In the past, knowledge of
one'slineagewasmaintainedorally byafamilyelder.Today,
Acadiansusearchivalsources to tracetheirfamilytrees,often
seekingto trace both their male and their femalelineages.
Kinship Terminology. It is common practice to refer to
anindividualbyhisorherfather's firstnamerather thanby
familyname.Forinstance,in avillagewhere thereareseveral
families sharing the name Bourgeois, the son of Georges
Bourgeois maybe known asUandre iGeorges, ratherthan
LUandre Bourgeois
Marriage and Family
Marriage. Acadiansocietylong maintained,boththrough
church and parental influences, a taboo regarding marriage
outside the Acadian Catholiccommunity.Pressureto marrywithin one's own cultural group has now diminished, butAcadians still tend to follow the established practice Cou-
ples now usually marry in their midtwenties, whereas the
normusedtobe theearly twenties, andevenyoungerinthe
caseof females.AlthoughtheCatholic churchdisapprovesof
divorce,Acadians have followed the national trend towardan
increase inthe divorcerate.Thebirthrate,whichinthepast
was veryhigh by Canadian standards, has decreased cantly since the 1960s
signifi-Domestic Unit The single-family household is the basicdomesticunit.Agedparentsoften live witha son ordaughter, although it isbecoming a commonpractice to sendelderlyparentsto nursing homes when their health deteriorates In
thepast, youngmarriedcouplesoften lived with thegroom'sparents until theyhad the means tobuild their own home
Inheritance Early Acadians divided their landholdingsamongtheirsons.When the landparcelsbecametoosmalltosustainafamily,thesonsmovedaway tosettleon newlands
Inthe twentiethcentury, thetendencyisforoneofthedrentoinherit theland,while therestof theestate isshared
chil-amongall the children
Socialization Inruralcommunities, an unwrittencode ofbehavior exists, and those whotransgressit meetwithdisap- provalthatmaybeexpressedindifferentways.Physicalpun-
ishment hasalwaysbeenrare,andrejection,eithertemporary
orpermanent,from localsocietyisthemost commonform of
withvarying success.
Political Organization. Each Canadian province has a
democratically elected legislature, with each member sentingariding (district) inhisorherprovince.Theprovin-
repre-cial legislatures share power with the federal government.Voterselect memberstoboth theirprovincial legislatureandthe federalparliament in separateelections
Social Control With the modernization of Acadiansoci
ety,it isdifficultto maintainsocial controlthrough
commu-nity-imposedsanctions, and thereis agreaterdependenceon
the Canadianlegal system
Conflict Sincethe end of the conflict between the Britishand the Frenchin 1763,Acadia has beenapeacefulland.By establishing themselves in separate areas, Acadians and
English-speaking citizens in the Maritimes largely avoidedconflict.A strong element of anti-Frenchprejudice persists,however,and thisis mostevidentintowns,suchasMoncton,
where the two groupsnow interact on a regularbasis
ZL#1L4L4;L41 W
Trang 7Achumawi 9
Religion and Expressive Culture
Religious Beliefs Acadians have always been Roman
Catholics Their attachmenttothe church enduredeven
dur-ing the difficult years ofresettlement inthe lateeighteenth
century,when churchserviceswereheldonly duringrare
vis-itsby missionaries from Quebec.Inthe absence ofapriest,it
wascustomary forvillagerstogatherforSunday prayers led by
an elder of the community Though adhering strictly to
Roman Catholic practices, Acadians traditionally had a
strongbeliefinsorcery, associating sorcererswith the power
of the devil There wasalso a strong belief that the souls of
thedeceased inpurgatorycould manifest themselvestothe
living To protect themselves from evil influences, Acadians
used the power of prayer, as well asholy objects and holy
water,and occasionally requested a priest to perform an
exor-cism.With thechangesindogma the church has undergone
sincethe 1960s,religious beliefs have tended to become more
rationalized
Religious Practitioners Parish priests,though still highly
respected figures in thecommunity, no longer have the
abso-lute authority they once held in Acadian society Until the
middle of the twentiethcentury, it was not uncommon for
people to believe a priest could heal a sick person or stop a
forest fire by reciting certain prayers
Ceremonies Christmas and Easter are the most
impor-tantreligious holidays, but traditional feast days have tended
tocoincide with less important dates on the religious
calen-dar.Forexample,afestivecelebration marking the middle of
the winter was held on Candlemas Day, February 2, and the
third ThursdayinLentwasknown as Mi-Careme (Mid-Lent),
with people excused from their Lenten obligations for the
day The patron saint ofAcadia is Our Lady of Assumption,
and August 15, Assumption Day, is the Acadian national
holiday
Arts Acadians possess a rich oral literature consisting of
songs, folktales, and legends Ballads and tales brought from
France by the original settlers have been preserved to a
re-markable extent The Acadians' propensity for music is a
dis-tinctive cultural trait, and inalmost every family there are
singers and musicians who play folk or country music
Medicine Before the middle of the twentieth century,
Acadians rarely consulted professional medical practitioners
The midwife had an important role in the community, and
traditionalherbal medicinal cures were widely used Regional
medical clinics have nowreplaced the village midwife, but
herbalmedicine is still usedinrural areas, and people
consid-ered to have the gift of stopping bleeding orscoringspecific
ailments are commonly consulted
Deathand Afterlife It wasoncecustomary for Acadians
tohold all-night wakesintheirhomes,but the establishment
of funeral parlors, with theirset hours, has now changed the
form of the wake Acadians like to keep mementos of the
dead-forexample, photographs of the deceased atthe
fu-neral parlor The month ofNovember usedtobereferredto
as lemoisdes morts, andreligious ceremonies would then take
placein cemeteries There has beena recentdeclinein
reli-gious observancesregarding the dead, butit isstillcommon
to celebrate a massinmemoryofadeceased persononthe
anniversaryof the death
Seealso Cajuns, French Canadians
Bibliography
"Acadians." (1988) InTheCanadian Encyclopedia 2nd ed.Edmonton: Hurtig Publishers
Daigle, Jean, ed (1982) The Acadians of the Maritimes
Moncton: Centred'etudes acadiennes
Lapierre, Jean-William, and Muriel Roy (1983) Les diens Paris: Presses Universitaires deFrance
Aca-Tremblay,Marc-Adelard,and MarcLaplante (1971) Famille
etparente enAcadie Ottawa: National MuseumofMan
Vernex, Jean Claude (1978) LesFrancophones du Brunswick Paris: Librairie HonoreChampion.
Little is known about theAchumawiprior to the eth century First contact wasprobably with trappers in theearly 1800s, followed later in thecentury by an influx of goldminers and settlers which disrupted the traditional culture.Because the group lacked centralized leadership and wasmarred by factionalism and regional self-interest, much of itsaboriginal land was lost to Whites.Since the 1950smembershaveconducted a series of legal battles to regain some of thisland The Achumawi were in close and regular contact withthe Atsugewi, who were bilingual inthe two languages.Con-
twenti-tacts with other groups wereinfrequent
The Achumawi were divided into eleven named tribes or tribelets, with each occupying a distinct territory.Villages were located on or near water such as rivers or marsh-lands Thetypicalwinter dwelling was thesemisubterraneanlonghouse, with tule mat-covered conical dwellings usedin
sub-the summer Today, about fivehundred Achumawi liveon
the Round Valley and XL RanchReservations, withthe
re-mainder dispersed among the White population
The Achumawi occupied a rich and variedecological
Trang 8re-I 0 Achumnawi
gion that included pine and oak forests, sagebrush lands,
swamps, streams, lakes, meadows, and grasslands All
pro-videdresourcesforfood and manufacturesobtainedthrough
hunting, fishing, and gathering Fish, birds, bird eggs, and
deer,badgers, and other animalsweretaken for food and for
rawmaterialsfortools,utensils,andclothing.Tubers,roots,
and bulbs weredug, andsunflowers,tobacco, and other plant
foods and materials collected.In regions withlargeoak
for-ests, acorns were the dietary staple Twinedbasketrywas a
highly developed craft that survived into the twentieth
century
The aboriginal kinship system has not been well
de-scribed Evidently, descentwas bilateral and marriage
part-ners were expected to be nonrelatives, which in practice
meantpeopleliving outside of one's own ornearbyvillages
Marriagewasmarkedby gift exchange,and both widows and
widowers were seen as "property" ofthe deceased spouse's
family Marriagebetween members of different tribeletswas
apparently encouraged as a means ofbuilding cross-tribelet
solidarity Puberty rites for boys were minimal, and agirl's
first menstruation wasmarked by a ten-day rite
Achumawi society was divided intoeleven named
tribe-lets, eachcontrolling a distinct territory Ties between
tribe-lets werebasedon the common useof theAchumawi
lan-guage and tribelet exogamy
Religiousbeliefs and practices focusedonthe
identifica-tionandtreatment of illness and misfortunes Male and
fe-male shamans, thecentralfigures inthisprocess, soughtto
effect cures through contact with the powerful tamakomi
forces Each male sought contact with and protection froma
personaltinihowi,"guardian spirit."Deathwasunmarked and
the soul was thought to travel to the western mountains,
where theAchumawi hoped it would remain
Bibliography
Garner,VanHastings (1982).TheBroken Ring: The
Destruc-tion of the California Indians Tucson, Ariz.: Westernlore
Press
Olmsted, David L., and Omer C Stewart (1978)
'Achu-mawi." In Handbook of North American Indians Vol 8,
Cali-fornia, edited by Robert F Heizer, 225-235 Washington,
D.C.: Smithsonian Institution
ETHNONYMS: (contemporary): Black Americans,
Afro-Americans; (archaic): Colored,Negro
OrientationIdentification African Americans constitute the largest
non-European racialgroup intheUnited StatesofAmerica
Africanscame totheareathatbecamethe United Statesin
the sixteenth centurywith the Spaniards, but their first
ap-pearanceas agroupintheEnglish colonies occurredin1619,when twenty Africans were brought as indentured servantsto
Jamestown, Virginia Subsequent importations of AfricansfromwesternAfrica stretching from Morocco on the northtoAngola on the south over a period oftwo hundred yearsgreatly increased the African population in the UnitedStates By the time of the Emancipation Proclamation in
1863, they numbered 4.5 million people A composite ple, comprised of numerous African ethnic groupsincludingYoruba, Wolof, Mandingo, Hausa, Asante, Fante, Edo,Fulani, Serer, Luba, Angola, Congo, Ibo, Ibibio, Ijaw, andSherbro, African Americans havea commonorigin in Africaandacommonstruggle against racial oppression Many Afri-
peo-canAmericans showevidence of racial mixture with NativeAmericans, particularly Creek, Choctaw, Cherokee, andPawnee, aswellaswith Europeans from various ethnicback-
grounds
Location African Americans werepredominantly a ruraland southern people untilthe Great Migration of the WorldWar11era.Thousands ofAfricans moved to the major urbancentersof the North to find better jobs and moreequitableliving conditions Cities such as Chicago, New York, Phila-delphia, and Detroit became magnets for entire southerncommunities of African Americans The lure of economicprosperity, political enfranchisement, and social mobility at-tracted many young men Oftenwomen and theelderly wereleft on the farms in the South, and husbands would send fortheirfamilies,and childrenfor their parents, once they wereestablished in their new homes Residential segregation be-came a pattern in the North as it had been in the South.Someofthese segregated communities in the North gainedprominence and became centersfor culture and commerce.Harlem in New York, North Philadelphia in Philadelphia,Woodlawn in Detroit, South Side in Chicago, and Houghin
Cleveland were written into the African Americans' tion as places of high style, fashion, culture, and business.The evolution of the African American communities fromsouthern and rural tonorthern and urban has been going onsince1945.According to the 1980 census, the largest popula-tions arefoundinNewYork, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia,Los Angeles,Washington, D.C., Houston, Baltimore, NewOrleans, and Memphis In terms of percentage of population,the five leading cities among those with populations of over300,000 areWashington, D.C., 70 percent; Atlanta, 67 per-cent; Detroit, 65 percent; New Orleans, 55 percent; andMemphis, 49 percent (East St Louis, Illinois, is 96 percentAfrican American, butitspopulation is less than 100,000.)Demography The 1990 population of African Americans
imagina-is estimated to be 35 million In addition to those in theUnited States, there are approximately 1 million AfricanAmericans abroad, mainly in Africa, Europe, and SouthAmerica AfricanAmericans constitute about 12 percent ofthe American population This is roughly equal to the per-centages of Africans in thepopulations ofVenezuela and Co-lombia The largestpopulation of African people outside thecontinent of Africa resides in Brazil; the second largest is inthe UnitedStates of America The followingcountries havethe largestpopulations of Africans in the world: Nigeria, Bra-zil, Egypt, Ethiopia, Zaire, and the United States The citieswith the largest populations of African Americans are NewYork, 2.1 million; Chicago, 1.4 million; Detroit, over
Trang 9AfricanAmericans 11
800,000; Philadelphia, close to 700,000; and LosAngeles,
more than 600,000 Seven states have African American
populationsofmorethan 20 percent Thesearesouthern and
predominantly rural: Mississippi,35percent;South Carolina,
30percent; Louisiana,29percent; Georgia, 27 percent;
Ala-bama, 26 percent; Maryland, 23 percent; andNorth
Caro-lina, 22percent
linguistic Affiliation AfricanAmericans are now native
speakers of English During the seventeenth century, most
Africans in the Americas spoke West African languages as
theirfirstlanguages In the United States, the African
popu-lation developed a highly sophisticated pidgin, usually
re-ferred to by linguists in itscreolized form asEbonics This
language was the prototype for thespeechof thevastmajority
of African Americans.It wascomposedof African syntactical
elements and English lexical items Use of this language
made itpossible for Africans fromvariousethnic and
linguis-tic groups (such asYoruba, Ibo, Hausa,Akan, Wolof, and
Mande) to communicate withoneanotheraswellaswith the
Europeans with whomtheycame in contact
The impact of theAfrican American language on
Ameri-cansocietyhas beenthoroughand all-embracing Fromthe
ubiquitous 'O.K.," a Wolof expression from Senegal,tothe
transformations of words like'bad" and'awesome"into
dif-ferent and more adequate expressions ofsomething entirely
original,one seesthe imprint of AfricanAmericanstylesthat
arederived fromthe Africanheritage.There are morethan
threethousandwords,placenames, and concepts with
Afri-can origins found in thelanguageof the UnitedStates
In-deed, the most dynamic aspects of the English language as
spoken in the United States have been added by the popular
speakers of the African Americanidiom, whether
contempo-rary rap musicians, past jazz musicians, or speakers of the
streetslang that has added so much color to American
En-glish Proverbs, poems, songs, andhollers,whichcomewith
the historical saga of apeople whose only epics are the
spiritu-als, the great songs, provide a rich texture to theever-evolving
language of the AfricanAmerican people
History and Cultural Relations
AfricanAmericansdidnot comefreelytoAmerica.Theirsis
not a history of apeople seeking to escape political
oppres-sion, economic exploitation, religious intolerance, or social
injustice Rather, the ancestors of the present African
Ameri-cans were stolen from the continent ofAfrica, placed on
ships against theirwills, and transported across the Atlantic
Mostof the enslaved Africans wenttoBrazil andCuba, buta
great portion landed in the southern colonies or states of the
UnitedStates Attheheightof the European slavetrade,
al-most every nation inEurope wasinvolvedinsomeaspect of
the enterprise Asthe trade grewmoreprofitable and
Euro-pean captainsbecame moreambitious, larger ships with
spe-ciallybuilt'slavegalleries"werecommissioned These
galler-ies between the decks were nomorethaneighteen inchesin
height Each African was allotted no more than a
sixteen-inch wide and five-and-a-half-foot-long space for the many
weeks or months ofthe Atlantic crossing Here theAfricans
wereforced to lie down shackledtogetherinchains fastened
tostaplesinthedeck Where the spacewas twofeethigh,
Af-ricans often satwithlegsonlegs, like riderson acrowded sled
They weretransportedseatedinthis position witha
once-a-daybreak forexercise Needlesstosay, many died or wentinsane
The North made the shipping of Africans its business;the South made the working of Africans its business From757,208in1790to4,441,830in1860,the African American
population grew both through increased birthrates andthrough importation of new Africans By 1860, slavery hadbeen virtually eliminatedintheNorth and West, and by theend of the Civil War in 1865, it was abolished altogether.Afterthe war, 14 percent of the population was composed ofAfricans, the ancestors of the overwhelming majority living inthe UnitedStatestoday
During the Reconstruction period after the Civil War,African Americanpoliticians introduced legislation that pro-vided for public education, one of the great legacies of the Af-ricanAmericaninvolvement in the legislative process of thenineteenth century Education has always been seen as amajor instrument inchanging society and bettering the lives
of African American people Lincoln University andCheyney University in Pennsylvania, Hampton in Virginia,and Howard University are some of the oldest institutions oflearningfor the African American community Others, such
asTuskegee, Fisk, Morehouse, Spelman, and Atlanta
Univer-sity,are now a part ofthe American educational story of cess and excellence
suc-The Great Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and1960sushered in a new generation ofAfrican Americans whowerecommitted to advancing the cause of justice and equal-ity RosaParks refused to give her seat to a White man on aMontgomery city bus andcreated a stir that would not enduntil the most visible signs of racism were overthrown MartinLuther King, Jr., emerged as the leading spokesperson andchiefsymbol of a people tired of racism and segregation andprepared to fight and die if necessary in order to obtain legaland human rights Malcolm X took the battle a step further,insisting that the African American waspsychologically lost
aswell and therefore had tofindhistorical and cultural ity inthe reclamation of the African connection Thus, out ofthe crucible of the 1960s came a more vigorous movement to-ward full recognition of the African past and legacy Relation-ships with other groups depended more and more on mutualrespect rather thanthe African Americans acting like clients
valid-of these other groups African Americans expressed theirconcern that theJewish community had not supported af-firmative action, although there was a long history of Jewishsupport for African American causes Acceptingthe role ofvanguard in the struggle to extend the protection of theAmerican Constitution to oppressed people, African Ameri-cans made serious demands onmunicipal and federal officialsduring the civil rights movement Voting rights were guaran-teed and protected, educational segregation was made illegal,and petty discriminations against AfricanAmericans inho-tels and public facilities were eradicated by the sustained pro-tests and demonstrations of the era
Economy
African Americans have been key components in the
eco-nomic system of the United States since its inception.The
in-itial relationship of the AfricanAmericanpopulationtotheeconomy was based uponenslaved labor Africans were in-
strumentalinestablishing theindustrial and agrarian power
Trang 1012 African Americans
of the United States Railroads, factories, residences, and
placesofbusinesswereoftenbuiltbyenslaved Africans.Now
AfricanAmericansareengagedin every sectorofthe
Ameri-caneconomy,thoughthe level ofintegrationinsome sectors
isless than inothers.Aconsiderableportionofthe African
American populationworksin the industrial or service
sec-tors.Others arefoundintheprofessionsasopposedtosmall
businesses Thus, teachers, lawyers, doctors, and managers
account for the principal professional workers These
pat-terns arebaseduponpreviousconditions of discriminationin
businesses throughout the South Most African Americans
could find employment in communities where their
profes-sionalservices wereneeded; therefore, the above-mentioned
professions and others that cater to the African American
population providenumerousopportunitiesforemployment.
During the past twenty years, the number of businesses
opened byAfricanAmericans hasbegun to increase again
During the period ofsegregation, many businesses existing
solely for theconvenience of the AfricanAmerican
popula-tionflourished When the civilrightsmovementendedmost
of thepettydiscriminations anditbecamepossiblefor
Afri-canAmericans totrade and shop atother stores and
busi-nesses,thebusinesses locatedinthe AfricanAmerican
com-munitysuffered Thereis now agreaterawarenessof the need
to seebusinessesasinterconnected andinterdependentwith
the greaterAmerican society Alarger and more equitable
roleisbeing played bywomen inthe AfricanAmerican
com-munity Indeed, many of the chief leaders in the economic
development of the African American community are and
have beenwomen.Bothmenandwomenhavealwaysworked
inthe majority of African Americanhomes
Kinship, Marriage and Family
Marriage and Family. African American marriage and
kinship patterns arevaried, although most now conform to
those of the majority ofAmericans Monogamyis the
over-whelmingchoice ofmostmarriedpeople.Becauseof therise
ofIslam, there is also agrowing community ofpersonswho
practicepolygyny. Lack ofmarriageablemalesis creating
in-tensepressuretofindnew waysofmaintainingtraditions and
parenting children Within the African American
popula-tion,one canfindvariousarrangementsthatconstitute
fam-ily Thus, people mayspeakoffamily, aunts,uncles, fathers,
mothers,and children withoutnecessarilymeaningthat there
isagenetickinship.AfricanAmericansoftensay'brother"or
"sister" as a way to indicate thepossibilityofthatbeing the
actual fact.Intheperiodoftheenslavement,individuals from
the samefamilywereoften soldto differentplantation
mas-tersandgiventhenamesof thoseowners,creatingthe
possi-bilitythat brothersor sisterswouldhave different surnames.
Mostof the names bornebyAfricanAmericans are derived
from the enslavementperiod. These are notAfrican names
butEnglish, German, French,andIrishnames, for themost
part FewAfricanAmericanscan tracetheirancestryback
be-fore the enslavement Those that cando so normallyhave
found recordsinthe homes of theplantationowners or inthe
local archives of the South AfricanAmericanslove children
and believe that those who havemanychildrenarefortunate
It is not uncommon to find families with more than four
children
Socialization African American childrenaresocializedin
thehome,but the church oftenplaysanimportantrole.entsdependuponotherfamilymemberstochastise,instruct,anddiscipline theirchildren, particularly ifthe family mem-
Par-bers liveinproximityand the children know them well lization takes place throughrites and celebrations thatgrowoutofreligiousorcultural observances Thereis agrowingin-
Socia-terest inAfrican child socializationpatterns with the
emer-gence of the Afrocentric movement. Parents introduce the
mfundalairites ofpassage at anearlyageinorderto provide
the child with historical referents Increasingly, this rite has
replaced religiousriteswithin the AfricanAmericantraditionfor children Although it is called mfundalai in the North-
east, it may be referred to as the Changing Season rite in
othersectionsof the UnitedStates.Thiswasdoneinthepast
inthe churches andschools,where children hadto recite
cer-tain details about heroines and heroes oraboutvarious
as-pectsof AfricanAmericanhistoryand cultureinordertobeconsideredmatureinthe culture.Many independentschoolshave been formedtogaincontroloverthe cultural andpsy-
chological education of African American children A
dis-trust of the public schools has emerged during the pasttwenty-fiveyearsbecauseAfricanAmericansbelieve thatit isdifficult for their children to gain the self-confidence they
need from teachers who donotunderstandor are insensitive
totheculture Youth clubs establishedalongthe lines of theAfricanage-set groupsarepopular,as aredrillteamsand for-malyouthgroups,oftencalled'streetgangs"iftheyengagein
delinquentbehavior Thesegroupsare, moreoften thannot,healthyexpressions of male andsometimesfemale socializa-tionclubs Church groups andcommunitycenterorganiza-
tionsseektochannel the energiesof thesegroups into
posi-tive socialization experiences They are joined by the
numerous Afrocentric workshops and seminars that train young people in traditional behaviors and customs.
Sociopolitical Organization
SocialOrganization. AfricanAmericans canbe found in every stratum oftheAmerican population. However, it re-
mains afactthatthevast majorityof AfricanAmericansare
outside of the social culture of the dominant societyin theUnitedStates Inalittleless than 130years,AfricanAmeri-
cans who were emancipated with neither wealth nor goodprospectsfor wealth have been abletoadvanceintheAmeri-
cansociety againstall odds.Considereddeterminedand gedlycompetitivein situationsthatthreatensurvival,African
dog-Americanshavehadto outrun economicdisasterin every era.
DiscriminationagainstAfrican Americansremains inprivate
clubs, countryclubs,social functions, andin sometions.Nevertheless,AfricanAmericanshavechallengedhun-dreds of rules and regulations designed to limit choice
organiza-Among the majorplayers inthe battle forequal rightshavebeen the NationalAssociationfor the Advancement ofCol-
oredPeople (NAACP) andthe UrbanLeague.Thesetwo nizationshaveadvanced the socialintegrationofthe African
orga-American population onthe legal and social welfare fronts
TheNAACP isthemajorcivilrightsorganizationaswellasthe
oldest.Itshistoryinthestruggleforequalityandjusticeisendary.ThurgoodMarshall,the first African Americanto sit
leg-ontheSupremeCourt,was oneof theorganization'smost
fa-mous lawyers. He argued twenty-four cases before the
Trang 11Su-African Americans 13
preme Courtas alawyerandiscredited with winning
twenty-three.Althoughthereis noofficial organization of theentire
AfricanAmericanpopulation, andnotrulymass movement
thatspeakstotheinterestsof the majority of thepeople,the
NAACPcomesclosesttobeing aconsciencefor thenationand
anorganizedresponsetooppression,discrimination,and
rac-ism At the local level, many communities have organized
Committeesof Elders whoareresponsibleforvarious
activi-ties within thecommunities These committees are usually
informal and are set up to assistthe communities in
deter-mining the best strategiestofollowinpolitical andlegal
situ-ations GrowingoutofanAfrocentricemphasison
commu-nityandcohesiveness,thecommittees areusuallycomposed
of older men andwomenwho have made special
contribu-tions to the community through achievement or
philan-thropy
Political Organization African Americans participate
freely in the two dominant political parties in the nation,
Democratic and Republican Most African Americans are
Democrats, a legacyfrom the era of Franklin Delano
Roose-veltandthe New Deal Democrats who brought about a
meas-ure of social justice and respect for the common people
There are morethan six thousand African Americans who are
elected officialsinthe United States, including the governor
of Virginia and the mayors of New York, Los Angeles,
Phila-delphia, andDetroit Aprevious mayorof Chicago was also
anAfricanAmerican Concentrated in the central cities, the
AfricanAmericanpopulationhas a strong impactonthe
po-litical processes of the older cities The national Democratic
partychairpersonisof African Americanheritage, and some
ofthe most prominent persons in the party are also African
Americans.TheRepublicanpartyhas its share, though not as
large, of African American politicians There is no
inde-pendentpolitical party in the African American community,
although it has remained one of the dreams of leading
strategists
Social Control and Conflict Conflict is normally
re-solved in the African American communitythrough the legal
system, althoughthere is a strong impetus to use consensus
first.Theidea of discussing an issue with other members of
the community whomightshare similar values is aprevalent
one within the African American society A first recourse
whenproblems arise isanother person This is true whether it
is a personal problem or a problem with family members
Rather thancalling a lawyer first, the African American is
most likely tocall afriend and seek advice To some extent,
thetraditional African notion of retaining and maintaining
harmony isatthe heart of thematter.Conflicts should be
re-solved bypeople, notby law,is oneofthe adages
Religion and Expressive Culture
Religious Beliefs African Americans practice the three
mainmonotheistic religions, as well as Eastern and African
religions The predominant faith is Christian, the second
largest group ofbelievers accept the ancestral religions of
Africa-Vodun, Santeria, Myal-and a third group of
follow-ers practice Islam Judaism and Buddhism are also practiced
by somepeople within the community Without
understand-ing the complexity of religion in the African American
com-munity, oneshould notventure toodeeply intothe nature of
the culture While the religions of Christianity and Islam
seem to attract attention, the African religionsare presenteverywhere,even inthe minds of the Christians and Muslims.Thus,traditional practitioners have introducedcertainrites
that have becomeapart of the practices of the Christians andMuslims, suchasAfricangreetingsand libationsto ancestors
TheAfrican American isspirituallyoriented; havinggivento
theAmericansociety thespirituals, themastersongs, the
Af-rican AmeAf-rican people have learned how to weave religion
intoeverythingsothat thereis noseparationbetween religionand life Many of the practitioners of the Africanreligionsuse
thefounding of Egypt asthe starting date for thecalendar;thus6290A.F.K (AftertheFoundingofKemet)isequivalent
to 1990.Thereis nosingle setof beliefstowhichall African
Americans subscribe
Ceremonies Martin Luther King, Jr.'s,birthday,January
15, andMalcolm X'sbirthday, May 19,arethetwo most
im-portantdays inthe AfricanAmericancalendar Kwanzaa, acelebration offirst fruits, initiated by the philosopher Mau-lana Karenga, is the most joyous occasion in the AfricanAmerican year Kwanzaa is observed from December 26 toJanuary 1,andeach day is named after an important virtue
Death andAfterlife There is nowide acceptance of mationinthe AfricanAmericanculture; the majority of Afri-
cre-canAmericanschoose burial Funeralsareoftenoccasionsofsadness followed by festivities and joyousness 'When the
Saints GoMarchingIn" was made famous as the song to veyAfrican Americans tothe other world by African Ameri-can musicians in NewOrleans Sung andplayedwithgustoand great vigor, the songsummed up the victorious attitude
con-of apeople long usedtosuffering on earth
See also Black Creoles of Louisiana, Sea Islanders
BibliographyAsante, Molefi, and Mark Mattson (1990) The Historicaland Cultural Atlas of African Americans New York:
Poli-McPherson, James, et al (1971) Blacks in America:
Biblio-graphic Essays Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Books
MOLEFI KETE ASANTE
Trang 1214 Ahtna
Ahtna
ETHNONYMS: Ahtena, Ahtnakotana
TheAhtna, an Athapaskan-speaking American Indian
group, werelocatedintheeighteenthcenturyinthe Copper
River basinof Alaska and numbered about five hundred.First
European contact was withRussians in theeighteenth
cen-tury,but itwasthe discovery ofgoldintheir territoryin1899
that opened the group to intensive and sustained outside
contact In 1980 the Ahtna numbered three hundred and
continuedtoliveinthe CopperRiverbasin wherethey
per-sisted in the practice ofsomeof their traditional subsistence
andreligiousactivities.The Ahtnawereandareculturally
re-lated to theneighboring Tanaina
Intheeighteenthcenturythe Ahtnafished, hunted,and
gathered for their subsistence andwereheavily involvedin
the fur trade Salmon, caught with traps, nets, weirs, and
spears, was their most important food source The Ahtna
weredivided into threegeographical groups, each speaking a
separatedialect and composed of several villages Each village
wasmade up of several families andwasledbyits ownchief,
ortyone.Each family occupied a semisubterranean wood and
pole frame house covered with spruce bark Within Ahtna
so-cietytherewas acomplexsocialstructureconsisting ofvillage
leaders, shamans, commoners, anda servant'class Religious
lifecentered around thepotlatch
Bibliography
Goniwiecha, Mark C., and DavidA.Hales (1988) "Native
Language Dictionaries and Grammars of Alaska, Northern
Canada and Greenland." Reference ServicesReview
16:121-134
Hanable, William S., andKaren W.Workman(1974).Lower
Copperand Chitina River:AnHistoric Resources Study
Jun-eau: Alaskan Division of Parks, Department of Natural
Resources
Laguna, Frederica de, and Catharine McClellan (1981)
"Ahtna." In Handbook of North American Indians Vol 6,
Subarctic,edited by June Helm, 641-663 Washington, D.C.:
Smithsonian Institution
Alabama
The Alabama (Alibamu), with the Kaskinampo, Koasati
(Alabama-Coushatta), Muklasa, Pawokti, andTawasa, lived
insouth centralAlabama andthenorthwesterntipofFlorida
Their descendantsnowlive principallyon thePolk County
Reservation in Texas (the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of
Texas),inthe Alabama-Quassartetribaltown inOklahoma,
andintheCoushatta Community in Louisiana They spokeMuskogean languages The population of the Alabama-Coushatta tribe of Texas was 494 in 1980, andthat of theCoushatta Community was 196 in 1966 Atourism-basedeconomy hasgiven economic stability to the community
Bibliography
Bounds,JohnH (1971) "TheAlabama-Coushatta Indians
of Texas."Journal of Geography 70:175-182
Roth, Aline T (1963) Kalita's People: A History of theAlabama-Coushatta Indians ofTexas Waco, Tex
Aleut
ETHNONYMS:Aleutian, Alyoot
Orientation
Identification Theorigin ofthe name "Aleut" is
uncer-tain It ispossibly derived from the Olutorski tribe, on theOlutorsk River,innortheastKamchatka,andwasappliedbyearly Russian fur hunterstoresidents of the Aleutian Islands.But it may instead be derived from the Chukchee word for
"island,"aliat Finally, it is possible that"Aleut" comes fromthe name the westernmost Aleuts, on Attu Island, used torefer to themselves, "Aliut," which was then extended east-ward by the Russians Today, Aleuts infrequently refer tothemselves with the Aleutword"Unangin" (or"Angajin"),
meaningapproximately "we, thepeople."
Location At the time of initial Russian contact in 1741,Aleutsoccupied all the Aleutian Islands west to Attu Island,the western tip of the Alaska Peninsula, and the Shumagin Is-lands south of the Alaska Peninsula Inthe late 1700s andearly 1800s, Aleuts were settled on the Pribilof Islands in theBering Sea Today, some thirteen Aleut villages remain,mostly in the Pribilofs and eastern Aleutians
Demography At contact, there were an estimated twelvethousandtofifteen thousandAleuts, but this number quicklyanddramatically declined in thefirstdecades of Russian oc-cupation Today fewer than twothousand live in several smallcommunities inthe Aleutian and PribilofIslands,while ap-proximately another fifteen hundred reside elsewhere inAlaska or other states
Unguistic Affiliation TheAleut language belongs to the
Eskimo-Aleut (or Eskaleut) language family Eastern,
cen-tral, and western dialects existed until quite recently; nowonly the first two are spoken to any degree, andthose mostly
by adults
History and Cultural Relations
Archaeological evidenceisclear that Aleuts have lived in theAleutianarchipelago for at least the last four thousand years