The changing culture of the Snowdrift Chipewyan

VanStone, James W.

Book

The changing culture of the Snowdrift Chipewyan

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

By: VanStone, James W..

Abstract
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.

Acculturation and culture contact

Division of labor by gender

Rest days and holidays