Be-cause of regular contact with the United States, theuse of English,especiallyincities,isincreasing.InNorthAmerica, most recent immigrants speak HaitianCreole, while those who came ear
Trang 1Haida 135
Haida
ETHNoNYMs- Haidah, Hydah, Hyder
Orientation
Identification TheHaidaare anAmerican Indiangroup
whosetraditional territorycovered the QueenCharlotte
Is-landsoff thecoastofBritishColumbia anda sectionof the
Alexander Archipelago in southeastern Alaska The name
"Haida" is an Anglicized version ofthe Northern Haida's
nameforthemselves,meaning'to be human,tobeaHaida."
Location TheQueenCharlotteIslands, which includes2
large and about 150 small islands, liefrom thirty toeighty
milesoff thenorthcoastof BritishColumbia, between 520
and 54° 15'N Haida territory insoutheastern Alaska
ex-tendedtoabout 55° 30'N.This is anecologically diverse
ter-ritory,withconsiderablevariationfromonelocaletoanother
inrainfall, flora, fauna, topography, andsoil. Atthetimeof
firstcontactwith Europeansinthe late1700s,theHaidawere
settled in a number of towns that formed six
regional-linguisticsubdivisions:the Kaigani people, the people of the
northcoastof Graham Island, the Skidegate Inlet people, the
people of thewest coastofMoresbyIsland, the people of the
east coast ofMoresby Island, and the southern (Kunghit)
people In the 1970s, four divisionswerestill recognized
Demography A census conducted from 1836 to 1841
suggested atotal Haidapopulation of about8,000.By 1901
thepopulation haddeclinedtoabout900andthen to588in
1915 Since thattime, ithasgradually increased, and today
thereare about 2,000HaidainCanada and 1,500in
south-easternAlaska
linguistic Affiliaton The Haida language is apparently
unrelatedto anyotherknownlanguage, althoughat one time
it wasclassifiedin theNaDenelanguage family.Before
Euro-peansettlement,therewereNorthernandSoutherndialects
andanumberof subdialects spokeninspecifictowns or
re-gions. Today, there arefewHaida speakers left
History and Cultural Relations
ThefirstknownEuropeancontact waswiththeSpanish
ex-plorerJuanPerezin1774.Forthe nextfiftyyears,the Haida
tradedsea otterpeltswith European tradingships foriron,
manufactured goods, and potatoes, which the Haida then
began tocultivate themselves In 1834 the Hudson's Bay
Companyestablished theFortSimpsontradingpost in
Tsim-shian territory which became the center of Indian-Wite
tradeaswellastradeamong the variousIndiangroupsforthe
next fortyyears. The tradingtrips disrupted the traditional
economy, led to warfare with the Kwakutl, andbrought a
smallpox epidemictotheQueenCharlotte Islands that ledto
arapid population declineinthe latenineteenthcentury. By
1879the Haida,were soreducedinnumber that they had all
resettledinthecommunities ofSkidegate and Masset.The
firstmissionary to visittheHaidacame in1829,but the first
toestablishresidenceonthe QueenCharlottes didnot arrive
until 1876 (inMarret); the first missionary tothe Kaigani
Haida arrivedin1880 (Howkan) The Skidegatemission was
foundedin 1883 From 1875to 1910the Haida underwent
considerableculturechange, largelyinthe direction of accul-turation into the adjacentWhite society The potlatch was outlawed, many features of the traditional religion disap-peared,White-style housingreplaced the cedar plank houses,
and totem-poleraising wasdiscontinued;wagelabor increas-ingly replaced traditional economic pursuits The Queen Charlotte Haida weregranteda number of reserves that re-flect theirmany subsistenceplaces.The twolargestreserves are theSkidegateand Haida (Masset) reserves,whichwere laid out initially in the 1880s and added to in 1913 The Kaigani Haida are notreservation Indians
Settlements
At thetime of European contact, the Haida lived in a number
of'towns,'although itis notclear howlarge orpermanent
thesetowns really were Wintervillages,consisting of one or two, rowsof cedarplank dwellingsfacingthesea,were more permanent and substantial settlements Ina row infrontof the dwelling houses were thetotem housepoles Today, Haida housestyles are like those of their White neighbors
Economy Subsistence and CommercialActivities The traditional economy restedon acombinationoffishing,shellfishgather ing, hunting, and thegathering ofplant foods Because of seasonal variations in foodavailability, much effort was
ex-pended on extracting as much food aspossibleand preserving foodstuffs bydrying,smoking, wrapping in grease, and so on for use inleanseasons.Halibut andsalmonwere the most im-portantpreserved foods (by drying, smoking), and sea
mam-mals (which were also preserved) were more important than land mammals for food Dozens of species ofberries,plant
stalks,tree fibers,seaweed, and roots were harvested and pre served.Current jobs and sources of incomeincludethe
com-mercial fishing industry (fishingand fish andshellfish
pro-cessing), logging,andartsandcrafts (wood carving,argillite carving, graphics, jewelry, weaving, and soon)
Trade The Haida traded heavily with the Coast Tsim-shian andTlingit.With theformer they tradedcanoes,slaves, and shells forcopper, Chilkatblankets, and hides; with the latter they traded canoes, seaweed, and dried halibut for eulachons and soapberries There was also some internal trade between Haida communities
Industrial Arts Wood was used for a widevarietyof
ob-jectsincluding canoes ofseveralsizes for different purposes, totem poles, houses, boxes, dishes, and weapons Spruce roots and the innerbarkof the red cedar were used by women
to twinebaskets for various uses and to make spruce root hats
Division of Labor Labor was divided on thebasis of sex and, to a lesserextent,on thebasis ofsocial classdistinctions Women gatheredplant foods and plant materials for manu-factures, preserved food,preparedskins, madeclothing,and twinedbaskets.Menhunted,fished, made canoes, built the houses, and carved and painted Both sexes collected shell-fish and hunted birds Fishing, canoe making, and carving wereviewed as prestigious occupations Slaves did much of the heavy work, although people who did not work were lookeddown upon
Trang 2136 Haida
LandTenure Thelineagewasthe basic property-owning
unit Lineages controlled rights to streams, lakes, plant
patches, trees, sectionsofcoastline, andwinterhousesites
Lineages also owned names (personal and object such as
canoenames), dances, songs, stories, andcrestfigures
Kinship
Kin GroupsandDescent The Haida hadamoiety
struc-ture,witha RavenandanEagle moiety,eachcomposedofa
number of lineages Therewere noclans Thelineages traced
their originstosupernaturalwomenassociated with the two
moieties.Thelineageswereusuallynamed after thesiteof the
lineage origin, and a few were further divided into
sublineages Villages usuallywereinhabited by members of
different lineages, andsometimesboth moieties were
repre-sented aswell Eachlineagewasmarkedbyitsseveralcrests,
usuallyanimals butsometimesother environmental features
such as a rainbow or clouds Crests were widely
displayed-ontotempoles,thebody,boxes,utensils,drums,
andcanoes
KinshipTerminology Kin termsfollowed the Crow
sys-tem. Affinalkinweredistinguished fromconsanguines
Marriage and Family
Marriage Marriages were arranged, often by the parents
when thebetrothed were still children Polygyny was
permit-ted for chiefsbutwas rare.Thepreferred partner was
some-oneinone's father'slineage,andthereis someevidence of
bi-lateral cross-cousin marriage
Inheritance Aman's propertywent tohis younger
broth-ersand nephews.The widowwasusually left with little more
than her own property A woman's property went to her
daughter
Socialization Girlswereevidentlypreferred as they
guar-anteed the perpetuation of thelineage.Much ofchild rearing
involved formal instruction, with boys being taught male
tasks and behaviors bytheir fathers and mother'sbrothers,
and girls taughtfemale tasks andbehavior by their mothers
The puberty rites for girls involved seclusion, food
restric-tions, and various taboos There was no comparable rite for
boys
Sociopolitical Organization
Social Organization Although there was no ranking of
lineages, there is some evidence thatsomelineages were
con-sidered to be wealthieror morepowerfulthan others Atthe
individual level, therewere three social categories-nobles,
commoners,and slaves Nobles owned the houses, were
gen-erally wealthier, inherited chieftanships, used high-rank
names, and hosted potlatches.Commoners did not have
ac-cess to these signs of status.Slaves were war captives and their
children
PoliticalOrganization There was no overarching political
structureabove thelineage level of organization Each lineage
wasled by a chief who inherited the position through the
ma-triline That is, thetitlewaspassedon to nextoldestbrother,
other younger brothers, or the oldest sister's oldest son
Chiefs made decisions regarding property use, internal
line-age business, andwar The owner of the dwelling was the
house chief whomanaged the affairs of thedomestic unit In multilineage settlements, the "town master" or "town mother' was thehighest ranking, wealthiest house chief Conflict The Haidawerefearedwarriorsandfoughtwith the Coast Tsimshian, Bellabella, and Southern Tlingit, amongothers,forplunder,revenge,orslaves Internal warfare also existed
Social Control Social controlwasmaintainedatthe line-age, town, and household levels bythe appropriate chiefs Thefairly rigid class system servedto reinforce expectations about appropriate behavior
Religion and Expressive Culture
Religious Beliefs Animalswereclassifiedasspecialtypes
ofpeople,moreintelligentthan humans and with theability
to transform themselves into human form Animals were
thoughttoliveonland,inthe sea, andinthe skyin asocial order that mirrored that of the Haida Traditional beliefs have beenlargely displaced byChristianity, although many Haida still believe in reincarnation
Ceremonies TheHaidaprayedand gaveofferingstothe masters of the game animals and to the beings who gave wealth Majorceremonial events were feasts, potlatches, and dance performances High-ranking men were expected to host these events Property was distributed through the pot-latch on anumber of occasions including the building of a cedar house, naming and tattooing of children, and death Potlatches alsoincluded feasts and dance performances, al-though a feast might be given apart from the potlatch Arts Aswithother Northwest Coast groups, carving and painting werehighly developed artforms The Haida are re-nowned for their totem poles in the form of house-front poles, memorial poles, and mortuary columns Painting usu-ally involved theuseofblack, red, andblue-green to produce highly stylized representations of the zoomorphic matrilineal crestfigures Thebody ofahigh-rankingindividual wasoften tattooed andfaces were painted for ceremonial purposes Death andAfterlife Treatment of the deceasedreflected statusdifferentials.Forthose of highrank, afterlying in state for afew days inthe house, the body was buried in the lineage gravehousewhere it remained either permanently or until it wasplaced in a mortuary pole When the pole was erected, a potlatch was held both to honor the deceased and to recog-nize his successor Commoners were usually buried apart from thenobles, and carved poles were not erected Slaves were tossed intothe sea The Haida believed strongly in rein-carnation, andsometimesbefore death an individual might choose the parents to whom he or she was to be reborn At death, the soul was transported by canoe to the Land of the Souls to await reincarnation
Bibliography Blackman, Margaret B (1981) Window on the Past: The Pho-tographicEthnohistory of the Northernand Kaigani Haida Na-tionalMuseumof Man, CanadianEthnology Service, paper
no 74 Ottawa
Blackman, Margaret B (1982) During My Time: Florence
Trang 3Haitians 137
EdenshawDavidson, aHaida Woman.Seattle: University of
Washington Press
Boelscher, Marianne (1988).The Curtain Within: Haida
So-cialand MythicalDiscourse.Vancouver:Universityof British
Columbia Press
MacDonald, GeorgeF (1983) Haida MonumentalArt:
Vil-lagesofthe Queen Charlotte Islands Vancouver: University of
British Columbia Press
Steams,Mary Lee(1981).HaidaCultureinCustody Seattle:
UniversityofWashington Press
Swanton, John R (1905) Contributions totheEthnology of
the Haida American Museum of Natural History, Memoir
no 5, 1-300
MARGARET B BLACKMAN
Haitians
Orientation
Identification Haitians are Blacks from the island of
Haiti,whichoccupiesone-third oftheisland of Hispaniolain
theCaribbean Sea The other two-thirds ofHispaniolais
oc-cupiedby the Dominican Republic ContemporaryHaitians
aredescendantsofAfricanslavesimportedby theFrench
col-onists toworkonthesugarplantationsintheeighteenth
cen-tury.Haiti has beenanindependentnation since 1804when
aslaverevolt overthrewthe Frenchgovernment. Haitiansin
Haitiare ahomogeneousgroup,with themajordistinctions
basedonsocialclass andurban-rural residence Ninety
per-centofthe populationisrural, and the other 10percent is
mostlymulatto and forms the elite.IntheUnitedStates, the
Haitianpopulationiscomposedof naturalizedU.S.citizens,
legal immigrants, legal nonimmigrants (students,
govem-mentworkers), children borninthe United States, and
un-documented aliens and refugees The large number of
Hai-tianswho havecome toNorthAmericasincethemid-1970s
has made the grouphighly visible andhas resulted intheir
being thevictimsofeconomic,political,andresidential racial
discrimination Haitiansseethemselvesasdistinctively
Hai-tian,withthe identities of West IndianorBlackbeingof
sec-ondaryimportance.
Location. IntheUnitedStates, Haitiansliveprimarilyin
NewYork City, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia,
Boston,andMiami.Perhapsas many asone-half liveinNew
YorkCity InCanada, Haitians livemainly in Montreal
Demography Estimatesplace the Haitian population in
the UnitedStatesatabout800,000with perhapsas many as
one-half thatnumber classified asundocumented aliens or
refugees Abouta quarter are childrenborn inthe United
States In Canada, Haitians number about 25,000 In both countries, mostHaitians have arrived in the lastthirty years
Linguistic Affiliation Haitians speak Haitian Creole,
whichis adistinctlanguage,not adialect of French About 8 percent, mostof whom aretheelite, also speak French Be-cause of regular contact with the United States, theuse of
English,especiallyincities,isincreasing.InNorthAmerica, most recent immigrants speak HaitianCreole, while those who came earlier and their American-bom children speak English
History and Cultural Relations
Haitiis unique in a numberof ways: it isthe second oldest in-dependent nation in the NewWorld; it is theonly nation in history to achieveindependence through a slaverevolt;itis the poorest nation inthe hemisphere; and its culture isthe
moststrongly African cultureinthe New World Migrationto NorthAmerica wentthroughfour stages During the period
of Frenchcolonization in the 1700s someFrench and their slaves migrated to the southern colonies and settlements The period of the HaitianRevolution (1791-1803) brought some50,000 Whites andBlackstoNorth America, withmost
settling in cities in the Eastand the South From 1915 to
1934 Haitiwasoccupied by the United Statesand thousands
ofmiddle-class Haitians immigrated to the United States Most settled in cities, establishing businesses or obtaining professional employment, and eventually assimilated into mainstream society From 1957 to 1986 Haiti was ruled by the Duvaliers, first Francois "Papa Doc" and then his son, Jean-Claude TheDuvaliers' repressive ruledrove thousands
ofmiddle-class Haitians north from 1957 to 1971
Beginning in the early 1970s, Haitian "boat people" began arriving in Florida Unlike most of the earlier immi-grants, they were mainly rural, poor,uneducated, and male After 1977 the number of these immigrantsincreased
dra-matically,makingthemhighlyvisibleandleading to often re-pressive government actionincluding deportation or intem-ment indetentioncamps.Althoughthe courts put anend to mostoftheseabuses, the public stereotyped Haitiansaspoor, illiterate, illegal aliens Haitians werethenidentified as an at-riskgroupfor contracting the AIDS virus, aclassification that was laterrescinded by the government Notsurpisingly, Hai-tianswhohave arrived since the 1970s and constitute the ma-jority ofthose inNorth America,aresubject to various forms
of racial and cultural discrimination Because of linguistic andculturaldifferences, they usually do not affiliate with the African-American community or with Black West Indians The children born in the United States, however, adopt English astheir primary language and associate with African-Americans
Settlements
In the cities where they have settled, Haitians tend to live in the sameneighborhoods and oftenonthesameblocks and in the samebuildings InNewYork, the major Haitian commu-nitiesare inQueens and Brooklyn, with Queens seen as the home for those who are more affluent and own their own homes.'LittleHaiti" in Miami isprobablythe most
Trang 4distinc-138 Haitians
livelyHaitiancommunityinNorthAmerica, withnumerous
businesses operated by Haitians and withan almost
exclu-sivelyHaitianclientele
Economy
As mentioned above, Haitians who settled in North America
before the 1970s often started small businesses or found
skilled orprofessionalemployment Theyeither became part
ofmainstream economy or continued to serve the Haitian
community Those who have arrivedsincethe 1970s include
some with business experience in Haiti who have opened
businessesin Haitian communities But mostoftherecent
immigrantshavebeen poor and uneducated andworkat
low-level, low-paying jobs Unskilled factory work and
mainte-nancework are common for men, and many womenworkas
domestics Many Haitians liveinpovertyinslum
neighbor-hoods,oftensharing dwellingunitsandpoolingresources to
helppay the variouslegaland travel costs involvedinbringing
relatives to North America In some cities, economic
self-help organizations and church or government-backed
pro-grams havedeveloped to provide economic and other
assist-ance For undocumented immigrants, who seek to avoid
government contact, finding and holding regular
employ-ment is even moredifficult Among Haitians immigrating to
Florida, somehave become migrant farm workers, following
the crops as they ripen up and down the eastern United
States
Kinship, Marriage and Family
The networks of kin ties and various family forms inrural
Haiti have largely disappeared in urban North America In
fact, many Haitian families in North America are
frag-mented, with some having membersstillin Haiti, andothers
with members in two or more places in North America or
elsewhere Ties are regularly maintained among such kin,
however, with the ultimate goal of family members settling
near one another Household composition inNorthAmerica
isoften determinedby the economic status of the household
and its role in the chain migration process In the North
Americancontext, male dominance in the family has
disap-peared and Haitian families are more egalitarian In
two-generationfamilies, in which the children have beenbornin
NorthAmerica, conflict has emerged between parents who
speak Haitian Creole and emphasize Haitian culture and
children who speak English and identify with the
African-American community Education has been markedlydifficult
for Haitian children because of thelanguage difference and
because Haitian parents, while valuing education,
tradition-ally vest considerable authority in the schools and play a less
active role than do White American parents
Sociopolitical Organization
SocialOrganization Haitiansidentitythemselves as such
and generally do not identify with the African-American,
Black West Indian, or other Caribbean communities in
North America They have also chosen not to seekpolitical
or economic representation through established
African-American or Latino political channels Whatever their
self-identity,once Haitians enter public schools or the workforce,
they are identified by Whites as Blacks and treated as such In
Canada, Haitians were encouraged to settle in Quebec and Montreal because theywerethoughttobeFrench-speaking
Butrather than learnFrench, some have chosen to affiliate with English-speaking Canadians through their choice of churches and schools for their children
There are clear distinctions in the Haitian-American community between those who arrived in the past and those who arrivedrecentlyand between thepoor and thewealthy (bon moun).These distinctions are manifested inbehavior, speech, placeofresidence, anddegreeofidentificationwith the Haitian community Thewealthier, and morerecently,
theeconomicallystable tendtoliveinsuburbs,whereas the poor remain in the inner cities In some communities there is
a division between those who prefer to speak French and those whopreferCreole
PolitialOrganization. Haitianneighborhoods,including
Little Haiti inMiami, are notable for therelativelyfew Hai-tian associationsand organizations that have developed In Miami, forexample, the Haitian Chamber of Commerce is theonlyHaitianbusiness association of any importance Hai-tian neighborhoods are also notable for their peacefulness
and the absence of conflict Haitian politics center on politi-caldevelopmentsin Haiti From Duvalier'staking of power in
1957 until the present, the Haitian community in the United States hasbeen active in opposing his regime andattempting
toreplace him Haitians have also tried to become active po-litically in the United States, with only limitedsuccess
Religion and Expressive Culture
The major religion in Haiti is Voodoo, an ancient religion that combines elements of ancestor worship with theworship
of therecentlydeceased Voodoo rituals often takeplace at thetime of illness or death and involve healing thesick and appeasing angry ancestors In Haiti, some Haitians are RomanCatholics or Protestants In North America,Haitians belong to or form their own Roman Catholic, Baptist, and other churches Some areJehovah'sWitnesses Theexistence
ofVoodoo in North America is poorlydocumented;when it
ispracticed it isevidentlyinprivate so as not todraw atten-tionfrom the outside community, which sees it as a pagan cultrather than a legitimate religion
As inother areas oflife, Haitians in North America
pro-videthe Haitian community with its own music, dance, enter-tainment, socialclubs, theater, and radio programs See also Black Creoles in Louisiana, Blacks in Canada
Bibliography Laguerre, Michel S (1984) American Odyssey: Haitians in New York City Ithaca: CornellUniversity Press
Lawless, Robert (1986) "Haitian Migrants and Haitian-Americans: From Invisibility into the Spotlight." Journalof EthnicStudies 14:29-70
Richman, Karen E (1984) "From Peasant to Migratory
Farmworker.Haitian Migrants in U.S Agriculture." In Hai-tian Migration and the HaiHai-tian Economy, edited byTerry L McCoy, 52-65 Gainesville: Center for Latin American Studies, Universityof Florida
Trang 5Stepick, Alex (1982) 'HaitianBoatPeople: AStudyinthe
Conflicting Forces Shaping U.S Refugee Policy." Law and
Contemporary Problems45:163-196
Woldemikael, Tekle M (1988) Becoming Black American:
Haitiansand American InstitutionsinEvanston, Illinois.New
York: AMS Press
Haichidhoma
TheHalchidhoma lived along theColoradoRiver in Arizona
nearthe mouth of the Gila Riverand spoke a Yuman
lan-guage.Theynowlivewith the MaricopainArizonaonthe
Gila RiverIndian Reservation
See Maricopa
Bibliography
Harwell, HenryO., and Marsha C S.Kelly (1983) "Marin
copa." In Handbook ofNorth American Indians Vol 10,
Southwest, edited by Alfonso Ortiz, 71-85 Washington,
D.C.: SmithsonianInstitution
Han
The Han (Hankutchin) are anAthapaskan-speaking group
who liveinthewestern partofthe YukonTerritoryinCanada
and theeast-centralpartof AlaskaintheupperYukonRiver
drainage area. It has been estimated that there are about
thirty-five speakersofthe Hanlanguage who, along with a
fewhundred others, are assimilated intoWhitesociety.
Bibliography Crow,JohnR, andPhilipRObley(1978) "Han."In
Hand-bookofNorthAmerican Indians Vol 6, Subarctic, edited by
JuneHelm,506-513.Washington,D.C.: Smithsonian
Insti-tution.
ETHNONYMS: Kancho, Kawchodinne, Kah-cho-tinneh,
K'a-tcho-gottine, Kk ayttchare Ottine, Peaux deLievre, Rabbit Skins, Ti-ni'-tinne; Bitards Loucheux (one band), Dene, Tinne, Slave (with other northeastern Northern Atha-paskans)
Orientation Identification The Hare refer to themselves as "Ka go
gofini," (whichmay meanbig willowpeople), or as"gahwi6
gofini" (rabbitskinpeople, whichis a recenttranslationfrom English) The suffix-gofinimeans"the peopleof"; hare, wil-low, andarrow have similarroots, and the Harehave been called "the people of" all three The names "Hare" and
"Peauxde Lievre," whichWhites have used forover two hun-dredyears,refertotheextremedependencesomeHare Indi,
ansplacedonthevaryinghareLepusamericanusforfood and clothing
Location TheHare live todaywheretheylivedwhen first contacted byWhites:inwhatis nowthe Canadian Northwest Territories,north of Great Bear Lake andonbothsides of the MackenzieRiver.Since1806, FortGood Hope,located today
at66°16'Nand 128°38'W,has evolvedfromatradingpost visited by most Hare Indians several times a year for
eco-nomicand,after 1860,religious reasons intothesettlement where mostoftheHare live today
Demography. In 1978, 430 Hare Indianswereregistered
on theCanadian Indian band rollat FortGoodHope and ColvilleLake.The firstcensus, in1827, estimatedthe
popu-lation of the Hareasapproximately300,butby thattimethey had beenstrongly affected by epidemic disease from which, apparently, mortalitywassignificant
Linguistic Affiliation The Hare speak an Athapaskan language that shares high mutual intelligibility with and dif-fersinonlyminordialecticalwaysfromMountain, Bearlake, and Slavey Divergence from neighboring Kutchin is sharp with the exception, perhaps, ofone enigmatic
nineteenth-century bandthat apparentlywas a cultural and biological amalgamofHare and Kutchin-the "nela gotine" (end of the earth people orBitards Loucheux)
History and Cultural Relations
Thereis noevidence thattheHarehave lived anywhere other than where theyaretoday Their neighborsarethe Kutchin andInruvialuitorMackenzie DeltaInuitto thenorth,the Yel-lowknife to theeast, theSlavey and Bearlake to the south, and theMountaintothewest. Relationswiththesevarious
groups have varied widely: the Hare greatly feared and avoidedthe Inuit,andtheywerebullied by the Yellowknifein the fur trade;someHareIndianswereformerlyMountain In-dians, and others inthenineteenth centurybecamepartof thegroup thenemerging asthe so-called Bearlake Indians Beforethe earlynineteenthcentury,theHarewereonly indi-rectly affected by the European fur trade By 1806, fifteen
years after Alexander Mackenzie's voyage of exploration downtheriverthat bearshisname, atradingposthadbeen establishedintheterritoryof theHare Fromthatyear on,the
Hare 139
Hare
Trang 6140 Hare
Hare participated directly in the trade, and many annually
visitedFortGood Hopetoexchange peltsandprovisionsfor
Europeangoods In 1859, the Roman Catholic Oblates
ar-rivedand severalyearslater builta missionandchurch for the
Hare, whoin timebecame nominalCatholics, many
gather-ingforthree religious celebrationseachyear.Throughoutthe
nineteenthcentury,theHare wereperiodicallyaffectedby
ep-idemicdiseases
In1921, the HaresignedTreaty 11with Canada After
World WarII, the governmentbecame involved in almost
every aspect of Hare life through health, education, game,
and social welfareprogramsandregulations.The numbers of
Whites living among the Hare increased-by 1972, to 50
Whites in a population of about 370 Hare Indians at Fort
GoodHope
Settlements
In aboriginal days, the Hare mostprobably lived inbands
composed flexibly and onthe basis ofkinship andaffinity
Theirsites werelocatedatadvantageous fishingandhunting
spots,and the bandsrangedin sizefrom smalltolarge-the
latter ifataskdemandedcooperation asdidthe annual hunt
for caribou for clothing and food After European traders
came,theactivitiesof theHare and theircamplocationswere
adjusted to accommodate In the nineteenth century, one
major settlement grew at Fort Good Hope, itself originally
positioned and moved severaltimes forthe convenience of
transportationand the trade; but fewHareIndians lived there
foranylength oftime before 1900
At FortGood Hope todayarethepermanentresidences
ofover3,509nativepeople,two missions,theHudson'sBay
Company, andvarious governmental services-school,
po-lice, nursing station, and administration In the twentieth
century, a major aggregationofHareatColville Lake (67°2'
N, 126°5' W) initially declined because ofdeaths and
be-causethestoreandmission werelocatedatFortGoodHope
But since 1960 the establishment ofa mission and trading
posthaveagainmadeColville Lakeasmallpermanent
inde-pendentsettlement Theconstruction ofa winterroad has
easedtravelto and from FortGoodHope
Economy
Subsistence and Commercial Activities Traditionally,
theHarewerehuntersand fishers.Both largeand smallgame
andbirdswereshot with bows and arrows, speared, snared,
surrounded, or netted Formerly, a cooperative
August-Septemberhunt forcaribouwas very important, as was a
sec-ond huntinApril.Therestof theyear, the Hare fished for
lake trout, whitefish, and other species and hunted small
gamelikebirdsandhares For someHareIndians who lived
nearthe Mackenzie River, thedependence on hareswas so
greatthat whenthepopulationoftheseruminantscrashed,
whichoccurredcyclically, starvationandon occasion
canni-balismwere the results After European furtraders arrived,
the Hareadjusted theirannual cycletoaccommodate
trap-ping: marten, lynx, and minkin winter,beaverand muskrats
inlatewinterandspring. Dogsincreased in importanceand
numbers asfurtrapping did Before 1900, musk-oxenwere
important tothe diet; in recent years, moose have
repopu-latedHareterritory and many are shot.Forthe lastone hun-dred years, the Hare havesupplementedtheir diet with tea, flour, sugar, and other store-purchased foods
Today, few Hare Indians depend on the bush alone for fulfilling all theirneeds, andmostspendsummermonthsin town, hoping forfire-fighting jobs The ideal is to combine wage labor with subsistence activities, including trapping, during the course of the year Indeed, though the replace-ment value of fish and game consumed is substantial, the bulk of any person's orfamily's income is from wage labor or welfare and transfer payments
Industrial Arts Fromwood, roots,caribou and hare skins, sinew,bone, antler, and stone, theaboriginal Hare made and used spruce-framed birchbark canoes, snowshoes, nets and snares, bows and arrows, clothing, baskets inwhich liquid, with the aid of hot stones, was boiled, scrapers, and other
products Today, store-purchased goodshave replaced most
ofthe aboriginal technology Formerly, some clothing was decorated with porcupine quill weaving; today, silk embroi-dery and beadwork infloral and geometricdesigns adorn jack-ets, vests, moccasins, gauntlets, and mukluks
Trade Unlike their neighbors, the Kutchin and the Yellowknife,the Hare were not known to be interested traders
or middlemen Nevertheless, theyparticipated in the trade withEuropeanfurtraders from the late eighteenth century on and annually brought the skins and meat of caribou and musk-oxenand fursofbeavers, martens, and muskrats to ex-change for European goods and, after 1890, tea, flour, and other foods Inthenineteenth century, middlemen Hare In-dians traded European goods occasionally with Mackenzie Delta Inuit
Division of Labor Although few tasks were theexclusive provinceofeither men or women throughout the historic pe-riod, womenhavetended to be principally responsible for tak-ing care ofyoung children, making clothing, collecting ber-ries, preparing food, drying fish, and pulling toboggans; and menforhunting,fishing, trapping, and making drums Even today, some women do not handle or use boats on their own because to do so would bring badluck
LandTenure There is no permanent ownership ofland or resources The Harehavealways been able to hunt, fish, and trapwhere they wish,aslong asthey feelsecureand aslong as
no one elsehashabitually used, and plans to continue to use,
aspecificarea In 1950,the Hare were assigned a game area northwest of Great Bear Lake as theirexclusive hunting and trapping area, which represented a fraction of their former range
Kinship
KinGroupsand Descent Thereis no concreteindication that descent hasbeenotherthan bilateral, despite certain ter-minological and marriage patterns linked elsewhere to uni-lineality The Hare have used bothconsanguineal andaffinal ties tojoinaspecificresidentialgroup, whichusuallyhasas a core several people closely related by blood No descent groups form
KinshipTerminology For the traditional Hare,
terminol-ogy in thefirst ascending generation was a mixture of bifur-cate collateral (females) and bifurcate merging (males) In
Trang 7Hare 141
one's owngeneration, Iroquoiscousin terms wereused; and
teknonymywas common
Marriage and Family
Marriage Monogamy, perhaps serial, was probably the
most commontraditionalmarriagepattern;polyandry,which
was sometimes fraternal, occurred, andpolygyny, especially
sororal, may have been preferred but was uncommon The
Hare observed a nuclear familyincest taboo, and marriage
proscription extended toparallel cousins Marriage to cross
cousins waspreferred Bride-service wasperformed, and
ini-tialuxorilocalitymight be continued or followed by
virilocal-ity;bilocality seemed the ultimate pattern The levirateand,
perhaps, the sororate were both observed Because of
mis-sionary influence, polygyny, polyandry, actual cross-cousin
marriage, andchildbetrothal havedisappeared Marriage in
adulthood,churchceremony,monogamy, absence ofdivorce,
living outof wedlock with a partner whomay be doingthe
same, and initial uxorilocality and ultimate neolocality are
the rule
Domestic Unit The nuclearfamily has always been the
basic unit ofeconomic cooperation The householdhas
al-ways consisted of a nuclear family, of afamilyextendedby
bride-service orinitial uxorilocality or a widow or widower
and adopted child, of a bilateral extended family (usually
witha sibling core), or ofindividualswho havejoined each
other for sometask likehunting, trapping, or trade
Inheritance There is no set of rules forinheritance,
per-hapsbecause land and rights are not individually owned
Tra-ditionally, individualsdestroyed much of their own property
atthe death of arelative Today, property like a cabin is
inher-itedby a spouse, child, close relative who is in need, or a
friend
Socialization Young children, males more than females,
are indulged and treated with affection Sanction is largely
throughridicule;spankingisvery rare and occursonlywhen a
childputs himself in danger Young children begin their
at-tempts to use adult technology at an early age and learn
mainly bytrial and error and imitation.Today,whenchildren
andadolescentsarenot in school, they are expected to help
with a rangeof increasinglygender-specific householdchores
Childrenenculturate emotionalrestraint,independence,re
sourcefulness, flexibility, andreciprocity Formerly, girls
un-derwentexclusion andobservedanumber of taboos at
men-arche There exists considerable ambivalence today about
formal education Toparticipatefullyhasmeant, for parents,
residence in town and, for adolescents who continue with
high school, both life in a hostel away from town and gaps in
their knowledge about the bush To drop out, however,
meansrisking nonparticipation in the new economy
Sociopolitical Organization
Social Organization Distinctions of status and wealth
seemalways to have been minimal among the Hare The
nu-clearfamily was the basic unit of social life, joining with (or
departingfrom)others on the basis ofkinshipandaffinity in
ahighly flexible fashion In the class society that emerged in
thepost-European-contactera,patron-clientrelations
devel-oped between, on the one hand, traders, missionaries, and
governmental agents whocontrolled the distribution of
val-ued imported resourcesand, on the other, the Hare Insome instances, the control was so great that castelike relations
developed
PoliticalOrganization Hare leaders lackpower but pos-sess authority, which, however, may be highly ephemeral
Theirleadershipderives fromspecialhunting, fighting,
trad-ing,orshamanicskills,fromtheirabilitytoinfluence others
suggestively, orfromtheirkinshipconnections.This has al-waysbeenthe case Political action at thelevel of 'the Hare"
isunknown Whereasaparticularband mighttake action, the sameprincipals are notconsistently involved because band
membership fluctuates The Hudson's BayCompany intro-ducedtheposition oftrading chief and, later, the Canadian governmentthebandchief;ineach case, the title has beena misnomer because the person inwhom it resided has been a spokesmanat best In 1921, the Haresigned Treaty 11 with theCanadian government, and the Hare Band at Fort Good Hope was created Today, the Hare countthemselves, with other NorthwestTerritoriesAthapaskans, asmembersof the DeneNation, which for years has beenpressing for the settle-mentof outstanding andconflictingtreaty rightsand for
self-determination In1988, the Dene Nation and the Metis As-sociation ofthe Northwest Territoriessignedan agreement-in-principle with the government ofCanada in which the former would receivecash, surface rights to (and a share of mineralroyaltiesfrom)overseventy thousand square miles of land, and other guarantees
Social Control TheHaredepended heavily on gossip, rid-icule, andother diffuse negative sanctions to effect control Shamans, who had the power to kill, could also exercise social control In the twentieth century, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and NorthwestTerritoriescourts have pro-vided formalsanctions for the Hare, although the informal diffuse negative sanctionshave remainedimportant in daily life
Conflict In their relations with others, especially the Inuit, theHare traditionally havepossessedareputation for timidity They have withdrawn rather than fought Perhaps because of the emphasis placed on emotional restraint and the dependence on diffuse negative sanctions, drinking
today-culturally constructedas asociable, generousactivity
up to apoint-frequentlybecomes violent as suppressed con-flictsfindexpression.Since 1970, the Hare and other native people in the NorthwestTerritories havebecome increasingly
vocal concerning the exploitation of natural resources and
treaty andpolitical rights
Religion and Expressive Culture
ReligiousBeliefs Insofar as can be ascertained, the abo-riginalreligion wasanimistic, and the Hare believed also in theexistence of a host ofsupernaturalsand in the powers of medicine men or shamans The Hare lived in an animistic universe inwhich certain animals had to be respected by ob-servance of a seriesoftaboos Inaddition, apoorly under-stoodhost ofsupernaturalspeopled the universe: a river mon-ster,bushmen,athunderbird, aspirit of the moon, a master
of animals, ghosts,and perhaps a creator Today, the Hare are baptized and confirmed into Roman Catholicism, variably observe the Sabbath and say rosaries, and believe in the Christian God and inheaven and hell Some traditional
Trang 8liefs persist-inreincarnation,ghosts,thepower of shamans
to cure someailments, the efficacyofdreams andamulets,
bad luck if certain taboos arebroken
ReligiousPractitioners Haremedicinemen,orshamans,
were visionarieswho couldpredictthefuture,locate lost
ob-jects, counteract the malevolence of non-Hareshamans,
re-lievehunger, and cure and kill A shamangained his powerin
dreams and could sing to an animal like awolf,wolverine,or
caribou (withwhom he maintained a transformative and
tu-telary relationship),which would helphimachieve success
Some Hare shamans had reputations that reached their
neighbors Since the 1860s, Oblate priests have spread
Roman Catholicism and livedamongthe Hare Whilethe
de-cline in shamanism is linked to the arrival ofChristianity,the
beliefinthespecialpower of shamanism enduredover a
hun-dred years later
Ceremonies Aboriginal ceremonies were probably few
andrangedfromhighlyindividualistic rites(when,for
exam-ple,a Hareleft anofferingona deceased relative's grave to
appease thespirit)to onesofconcern to a family or the entire
band (suchasforetellingfuture events orcombating
starva-tion or sickness thataffected all).Today, some HareIndians
say their rosaries every night, in town or in camps in the bush,
and some-in particular older people-go regularly to
church, whereas others neither say rosaries nor attend
serv-ices.SundayMass at FortGoodHoperegularlyattracts
one-fifth of the population; a much higherproportion attends
servicesatChristmas andEaster, which are the focalpoints
ofweeks-longgatherings that, forthe last hundred years, have
brought many to Fort Good Hope
Bibliography Broch,Harald Beyer (1986) WoodlandTrappers:Hare Indi-ans ofNorthwestern Canada Bergen Studies in Social An-thropology, no 35 Bergen, Norway: University of Bergen, Departmentof SocialAnthropology.
Hara,Hiroko Sue (1980) The Hare Indians and Their World NationalMuseum of Man, Mercury Series, Canadian Ethnol-ogyServicePaper63 Ottawa:NationalMuseumsof Canada
Hultkrantz,Ake (1973).'The Hare Indians:Notes onTheir Traditional Culture and Religion." Ethnos 38(1-4): 113-152
Osgood, Cornelius (1932).'The Ethnography of the Great Bear Lake Indians." Annual Report for 1931, National Mu-seumof Canada Bulletin 70:31-97
Savishinsky, Joel S (1974) The Trailof the Hare: Life and Stress in anArctic Community New York: Gordon & Breach
Savishinsky,Joel S., andHiroko Sue Hara (1984)."Hare."In HandbookofNorth AmericanIndians Vol.6,Subarctic, edited
by JuneHelm, 314-325 Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian In-stitution
SHEPARD KRECH III
Hasidim
Arts By the twentieth century, traditional ring and pin
and hand games had given way to card games andcribbage,
althoughgamblinghasbeen a feature of both traditional and
modem games The Hare haveadopted the square dance, but
it has notsupplantedthetraditional drum dance that
accom-panies importantcommunity events
Medicine The traditional Hare combated ailments by
using certain herbs andby turning to their medicine men,
who sangandeitherextrudedthe diseasethrough suckingor
demanded confession of breaches of taboo In the
mid-twentiethcentury, some Hare Indians have continued to rely
on traditional medicine men to singover,touch, and cure
somesickpeople, but for illnesses like tuberculosis they have
depended upon the White man's medicine Today, the Hare
makeuse ofthe nursing station or, in the bush, of traditional
techniques unlessthe problem is clearly one thatdemands
treatmentinahospitalorby modem medicine
Death andAfterlife Formerly, the dead were placed on
scaffolds, but interment by burial has occurred since the
Oblates arrived The body is prepared by the most distant kin
ornonkinwho observetaboos and henceforth to some degree
are avoidedby the kin of the deceased The belief in the need
to appease and feed the ghost of the deceased continues
today, but self-mortification and destruction of property,
both formerly common, no longer occur
ETHNONYM:Chassidim
Orientation
Identification Hasidim are ultrareligious Jews who live withinthe framework of theircenturies-oldbeliefsand tradi-tionsand who observe Orthodox law so meticulously that they are set apartfrom most other Orthodox Jews Even their appearance isdistinctive: the men bearded in black suits or longblack coats, and women in high-necked, loose-fitting
dresses, withkerchiefs ortraditional wigs covering their hair They are dedicatedto livinguncontaminatedbycontact with modem society except in accord with the demands of the
workplaceand thestate They do not, for the most part, own radio ortelevision sets, nor do they frequent cinemas or
thea-ters.Theydress andpray astheirforefathers did inthe
eight-eenthcentury, and they reject Western secular society, which they regard asdegenerate They do not, however, constitute a uniform groupbutare dividedinto a numberofdistinctive
sects andcommunities, each organized around the teachings
of a particular rebbe, or charismatic religious leader Al-though the various Hasidic sects share a desire to maintain the integrity of Orthodox Judaism, they are sometimes
sharply dividedon practice, points of philosophy, and the personality of their religious leaders In spite of their
differ-ences, all attachgreat importance to preventing assimilation
Trang 9Hasidim 143
byinsulatingtheir members from the secular influences of the
hostculture,whichtheyperceivetobedisruptiveof the
life-style theywishtoobserve.Tooutsiders, the Hasidimare a
ho-mogeneous entitywhoselife-styleandreligiouspractices
mir-rorthose ofprevious generations Sucha viewexaggerates the
reality. Despite the perception of Hasidic societyasrelatively
static,andasunresponsivetosocial, political,economic, and
technological changesoverthe pastdecades, a moreprecise
appraisal is that it is an ongoingsociocultural entity
con-stantlyadaptingto events inthelargersocietyand is,inthe
process, becoming transformed Owing to their persistent
and organized efforts, the Hasidim have both maintained
their distinctive way of life andadaptedtosocietal influences
that in the case ofotherethnic andreligiousminoritieshave
resultedintheir assimilation
Location andDemography Although theestimation of
numbers is difficult, the Lubavitcher and Satmar constitute
the twolargest groups, with approximately 25,000 followers
intheir respective areas of Brooklyn, NewYork A current
es-timateof the numberofHasidicJewsinNorth Americais
be-tween90,000 to 100,000 The Hasidic population of
Mon-treal is but a fraction of its New York counterpart-it
numbers some 4,000 persons Outside ofNewYorkand
Mon-treal, the Hasidicpopulation isrelatively small The
excep-tion istheLubavitchsect,whichhas creatednucleiof
com-munities throughoutNorth America Several Hasidic sects
haveestablished enclaves to remain shieldedfromtheurban
environment Three such settlements include New Square,
near Spring Valley, New York, Kiryas Yoel, in Monroe
County,NewYork,named afterthe previous Satmar rebbe;
and Tash inBoisbriand, Quebec, established by the Tasher
rebbe
History and Cultural Relations
The Hasidic movement began in the middle ofthe eighteenth
century inGaliciaonthePolish-Romanian border and in the
Volhynia regionof theUkraine Itwasfounded by Rabbi
Is-rael Ben Eliezer(1700-1760)whobecameknownasthe Baal
Shem Tov (Master of the Good Name) The movement
emerged as a populist reaction against what its followers
con-sidered the elite, remote, and formal character of rabbinic
leaders In contrast to the mechanical and rigid forms of
wor-ship, theBaalShem Tovpreachedpiety ofheart and service
of Godthrough the emotions To serve God, the duty of
every Jew, was notconfined exclusively to the study of
Tal-mudbutembracedevery aspectof daily life The Baal Shem
Tov's ministry stressedthejoyfulaffirmation oflife and
coun-seled against asceticism andself-affliction It wasonlyafter
his death, however, that the systematic dissemination of
Hasidismbegan The movement evolved into a number of
dy-nasticcourts, comprising a rebbe and his followers As the
rebbe's power was inherited by his sons, in succeeding
genera-tions the number of rebbeim (plural ofrebbe) multiplied and
dynastic courts were established in villages and towns
throughout Eastern and Central Europe
Inessence, Hasidic institutions are only comparatively
autonomous and are connected with, and affected by, those
in the largerJewish community and surrounding society The
very presence of the non-Hasidic Jewish population
contrib-utes tothedevelopment of the Hasidic community by
offer-ing financial supportfor its various institutions It also
pro-videsthe Hasidim with a market for their products,including kosher bakedgoods, kosher meat, andreligiousarticles The precise nature of the relationship is influenced by the particu-lar sect'sviews of the threats posed by suchcontacts.The dif-feringcases of the Lubavitcher and Satmarer illustrate this point.Althoughthe differencesbetween themarefew-their appearance and religious practice are nearly identical and bothstrictlyobserveJewishlaws-theirstylesandoutlooks in
crucialwaysarevastlydifferent TheSatmar groupisan
insu-arcommunitythat seeksnopublicity and shuns outsiders It
alsostaunchlyopposesthe State of Israelonthegroundthat theJewishstatecannotrightly come intoexistenceuntil the arrival of the Messiah In contrast, underRabbiSchneerson,
theLubavitcher rebbe, this sect has altered the Hasidic pat-tern by looking outward They have sent vans ("mitzveh
tanks") into Manhattan and the suburbs, offering, to Jews only, religious books and items and a place to pray.They have also recruited many young Jews at colleges in NewYork and California, offering intellectual programs, drug clinics, and outreach houses Aimedatintensifyinglessobservant Jews' identification withOrthodoxJudaism, theLubavitchsect is uniquein itsinvolvementwith the widerJewishcommunity Their outreach activities, however, have offended the more extremistHasidicsectswhose relations withoutsiders,both Jewish and Gentile, are governed pragmatically They are viewed bythe larger Jewish community as ultra-Orthodox and fanaticalas aresult oftheirzealous observance ofthe Code of JewishLaw.Whileacknowledgingthatcontactwiththe out-sideworld cannot be avoided completely, they believe itcan
becontrolled
Settlements
Forthe most part, Jerusalem and B'NaiBrak in Israel and Brooklyn, New York, were the choices of residence of the Hasidic Jewswho survivedWorld War 11 A sizable
commu-nitywasalsoestablished in Montreal, Quebec The arrival of theHasidim in the 1940s and 1950s differed from the previ-oussettlementsofHasidic Jews in North America, since, for thefirsttime, a number ofHasidic rebbeim settled in the New York area for instance, the Satmarer rebbe and the Klausen-burgerrebbe establishedthemselves inWilliamsburg,and the
Lubavitcher rebbe and the Bobover rebbe moved to the CrownHeights area In 1990,Williamsburg, Crown Heights, and BoroPark, all in Brooklyn, serve as the center of Hasidic Jewryandinclude adiverse set of institutions catering to the Hasidim's needs
Economy
Commercial Activiies As with other activities in the Hasidicworld,employment is balanced on the scale of reli-gious values HasidicJewsdonot pursueoccupational careers
as isthe norminWestern culture, but organizetheir liveli-hood sothat itdoes not interfere with their religious obliga-tions,such as refraining from work on the Sabbath and major Jewishholidays.As arule,following their yeshiva studies but sometimes concurrentwiththem, young men usually learn a trade orbusiness, oraretakeninto a family business if condi-tions permit MostHasidim are skilled workers and are em-ployed in variousfacets of the diamond industry, particularly
inthe NewYork area, but also hold such jobs as electricians, carpenters, wholesalers, operators ofsmall businesses, and
Trang 10144 H-asidim
manufacturers Many as well are employed in
religious-oriented occupations and serve as religious teachers, ritual
slaughterers, overseers of food productsrequiring rabbinical
supervision, scribes forreligiouslettersand documents, and
the manufacturers ofreligious articles suchas phylacteries,
prayershawls, andmezzuzoths Tobetter control their hours
of employment so as to meet their religious obligations,
Hasidim prefereitherto be self-employedor towork for an
Orthodox Jew who will be sympathetic to their religious
requirements While the number of business enterprises in
the Hasidic community is increasing, the professional class
remainsverysmallsinceHasidimrestrictseculareducational
opportunities for their members Since inonly therarest of
casesdo Hasidim attend college oruniversity, professionals
amongthe Hasidim received their seculartraining priorto
af-filiating with the Hasidiccommunity
DivisionofLabor Attitudes towardwomenworking
out-side the home haveundergone modification.Asthevalue of
conspicuousconsumptionhas takenrootamongyoung
mar-riedcouples, it is generally expected thatin the absence of
small childrenathomea womanoughttobeemployed.Aside
fromservingasteachersintheirownschools,women are
usu-ally employedin somesecretarialcapacityinsmallbusinesses
Kinship, Marriage and Family
Marriage Boysandgirlsare segregatedat a veryearlyage
andneverparticipate in activitieswhere thesexes aremixed
Ideallyneither malenorfemale hasanysexualexperience
be-foremarriage,theaverage ageofwhichisyoung-usually
be-tween the agesofeighteen and twenty-butvaries with the
particularHasidic sect. Datingandfallinginlove are as
for-eigntothe Hasidimastheyarethenorm inthelargersecular
culture The selection ofa mate isarranged throughthe aid of
friends and members of thecommunity whoact inthe
capac-ity ofshadchan, or marriage broker There is a tendency to
prefermarriageswithinthesame sect or atleastwithinsects
sharingasimilarideology Althoughintermediariesbringthe
couple together,the latter domeetandaregiventhe
opportu-nity to talk and judge the other's suitability as a marriage
mate.Suchencountersoftenconsistsimplyofconversations
inthe living roomof thegirl's family, although somemight
take a stroll unescorted In some instances, notably among
theLubavitcher,thecouple mightgoforadriveor meet in a
public setting After a few meetings between aprospective
bride andgroom, adecisionregardingmarriageisreached.It
will require approval by the respective families, and the
rebbe'sblessingwill besought.Procreation,God's
command-ment, is oneof themostimportantfunctions of the Hasidic
family, andcouplesstriveto have childrenas soon as
possi-ble.Mostforms of birth controlarereligiouslyforbidden and
thetendencyistowardlargefamilies.Althoughratesof
sepa-ration and divorce remain low, they may increase as the
Hasidim respond to social and economic changes in the
world around them
Domestic Unit The familyis acentralinstitution inthe
Hasidim's efforts to ensure conformity to a prescribed
life-style,as itisthe first andmostenduringlocus of the
sociali-zationprocess It isthe mediatoror communicatorof social
values and links the individualtothelargersocialstructure.
Inthiscapacity, itbecomes one ofthecornerstonesof
com-munitycohesion,continuity,and survival.Structurally
speak-ing,the Hasidicfamilyappears tobe much likeitstraditional North American counterpart Its organization shows a
divi-sionof laborwhereby the husband and father serves as the overall supervisor in religious matters, and the wife and motherischargedwithkeepingthe house andensuringthat the children adhere to the prescribed religious precepts Socialization The religious education of the young is a
central considerationintheHasidiccommunity.From
child-hoodon,parentsareinstrumentalincommunicatingtotheir children theappropriateattitudes and behavior The ultimate
objectiveof thereligioustrainingistoproduceaGod-fearing personwho iswell socializedintothe sect's normative struc-ture. Since Hasidic normsdemand astrictseparationof the
sexes, separate schools are available for boys and girls and their formal educationdiffers Formales,the centralactivity
of the schoolday,untiltheyaresixteenorseventeen, consists
oflearningTorah The primarysubject matteristhe Penta-teuch, and this, together with the Babylonian Talmud and samebiblical commentaries,constitutesthecorecurriculum
Following graduation from the elementary division, the youngman moves totheyeshiva-upperdivision-where the
same basic subject matter is emphasized, except that more commentaries are added, and the coverage increases The
girls' religious curriculum does not parallel the boys'. Al,
though it has undergone somechanges in recent years, the
generalrule againstteachingTorahtogirls has resultedin a
dilutedcurriculum,whichemphasizesaknowledgeofHebrew
readingforprayer,Biblestories, moralteachings,and
simpli-fied law andcustomcodes Forboth,thelanguageof
instruc-tion is Yiddish
A feature common to allHasidic sects is the viewthat secular education threatens their traditionalvalues; inorder
to shield their children from its potentially harmful
influ-ences, they run their own schools where secular classes are
closely supervisedto ensurethat thepupilswillnot encounter
anyconflict with thecontentsoftheirreligiousstudies Secu-larprograms exist alongside the religious curriculum in the
schools,buttheyarehardlyaccordedequalimportance Text-booksarecensoredinadvance andpurgedof allsuspect
sto-ries and pictures Nonacademic subjects such as music and
physicaleducationaretotallyabsent Those hired for secular
studies-virtuallyallareoutsiderssinceHasidim donot
pur-suehighereducationtoqualifyforteacheraccreditation-are
specificallyinformed about theconstraintswithin whichthey mustoperate.The secular studies program forgirlsis gener-allymoreliberal than the boys',since the formerare
permit-tedtohaveagreateramountof diversion from theirreligious
studies Inthecaseofboys, onlyminimaltimeisdevoted to secular education-usuallynot morethanacoupleofhours lateinthe afternoon-andbyage sixteensuch studiesare ter-minated for both sexes. The coordination of secular
educa-tion helps the Hasidim uphold community boundaries,
screeningoutpotentiallyharmful secular influences and
con-tributingtothemaintenanceof theirparticular life-style. Sec-ular studiesprogramsare not seen asbearinganyrelationship
tooccupational choice in adulthood
Sociopolitical Organization
The rebbeoccupiesaunique positioninthe Hasidic
commu-nity Heis ineverywaythe leader of his flock and that factis