Book

The changing culture of the Snowdrift Chipewyan

National Museum of Canada (209)Published In 1965 • Pages: 14, 133

By: VanStone, James W..

AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
In contradiction to the general premise that culture change within the Mackenzie River Valley and Great Slave Lake region would tend to represent a relatively homogeneous universe of interacting forces, the author has qualified this generalization by reference to actual historical records of cultural contact in the area which show a variation of effects depending upon the intensity of the contacts (p. xiii). To study one particular aspect of this problem -- the effects of contact intensity -- VanStone chose as his sample the village of Snowdrift, which represents a homogeneous population, living in an isolated community with few outside contacts. As background information for his analysis the author presents data on the culture history of the Chipewyans, the annual cycle, government assistance programs, subsistence techniques, individual life cycle events, social structure and community life, the individual and his place in the culture, and religious institutions and concepts. The source concludes with a discussion of the effects of acculturation, limited as it is, on the various cultural elements as listed above.
SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
Acculturation and culture contact
Sociocultural trends
Hunting and trapping
Fishing
Alcoholic beverages
External trade
Division of labor by gender
Rest days and holidays
Community structure
Community heads
Community councils
Public welfare
Medical care
Burial practices and funerals
General character of religion
Missions
Infant care
Child care
Techniques of socialization
cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
Chipewyans
HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
2000
RegionThe area the document pertains to
North America
Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
Arctic and Subarctic
Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
Book
Evaluation
Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
Ethnologist
Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
5: Excellent Primary Data
AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
John Beierle ; 1989-1991
Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
1960-1961
Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
eighteenth century - 1960s
Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
village of Snowdrift, south shore of Great Slave Lake, Northwest Territories, Canada
NotesAdditional notes
[by] James W. VanStone
Includes bibliographical references (p. 117-119)
LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
Chipewyan Indians