Intergroup Behavior and Imagery

The social anthropological literature on marriage, trade, and political alliance contains ample documentation of the varied manner in which co-operative interactions between societies or ethnic groups reinforce cultural differences. Barth's (1969:15-19) notion of the complementarity of cultural differences among interacting groups is an attempt to model such systems of interdependence, and it is a concept with somewhat paradoxical implications for the organization of ethnic boundaries. Rather than reducing behavioral variation to homogeneous codes and values, social interchange between ethnic groups is viewed as a structured canalizing process which permits cultural differences to persist. Moreover, when interactions are of a co-operative nature, transactions between groups may be enhanced and stabilized by those differences. There is a reverse side to this processual coin. Economic competition, warfare and other hostile relations can also reinforce, if not magnify, social and cultural differences between societies in conflict (LeVine and Campbell 1972:29-42). It is the relationship of both combative (or negative) and co-operative (or posi? tive) forms of interaction to outgroup imagery and social distance that forms the general concern of this paper. Are positive and negative interactions accommodated in the same system of relationships? Is current intergroup behavior wedded to socioeconomic arrangements developed between ethnic groups in the past? Are interethnic attitudes and stereotypes symbolic commentaries upon and resolutions of distressing behavior? Such questions form an analytical framework for assessing empirical case material on Chipewyan-Cree relations in contempo? rary northcentral Canada. The preliminary answer at this stage of investigation will be affirmative. Intergroup behavior and imagery appear to operate in all the contexts suggested above but in a complex manner that requires the understand? ing provided by a judicious balance in historical and functional-synchronic forms of research. The Chipewyan and Cree Indians are both subarctic hunting people who became intimately involved with each other in the EuroCanadian-organized fur trading economy. While many transactions between the two groups are of a cooperative nature, Chipewyan attitudes and assessments of their Cree neighbors are highly variable and laden with much negative imagery. This ambivalent ethnic stereotyping will be analyzed in terms of its role as an ideological commentary upon historical conflicts between Chipewyan and Cree and as an on-going boundary-maintaining mechanism. Special emphasis will be given to the position of the Chipewyan in interethnic exchanges, particularly the southern Chipewyan who have maintained the most direct involvement with Cree communities

Geography · Canadian Identity and History · History · Indigenous Studies and Ecology · Psychology · Social Psychology

• Ethnoarchaeological Collaborations

  Robert Jarvenpa, Hetty Jo Brumbach•Ethnoarchaeology•2015

  Incluir item

• On the incompatibility of ‘Western’ and Aboriginal views of Restorative Justice in Canada

  Reza Barmaki•Contemporary Justice Review•2022

  Incluir item

• Occupational status, ethnicity, and ecology

  Open Access•Robert Jarvenpa, Hetty Jo Brumbach•Human Ecology•1985

  Incluir item

• Ethnostatus Distinctions in the Western Canadian Subarctic

  J B Waldram•Culture•2021

  Incluir item

• Archeologist-Ethnographer-Informant Relations

  Open Access•Hetty Jo Brumbach, Robert Jarvenpa•Archeological Papers of the…•1990

  Incluir item

• Ethnoarchaeology of Subsistence Space and Gender

  Open Access•Hetty Jo Brumbach, Robert Jarvenpa•American Antiquity•1997

  Incluir item

• An Athapaskan way of knowing

  Open Access•David M Smith•American Ethnologist•1998

  Incluir item

• Knowledge, Power, and the Individual in Subarctic Hunting Societies

  Open Access•Robin Ridington•American Anthropologist•1988

  Incluir item

• The political economy and political ethnicity of American Indian adaptations and identities

  Robert Jarvenpa•Ethnic and Racial Studies•1985

  Incluir item

• Fundamentals of Ecology

  I Jack Stout, Eugene P Odum•Journal of Wildlife Management•1972

  Incluir item

• Ethnic groups and boundaries

  Fredrik Barth•Ethnic groups and boundaries•1969

  Incluir item

• Native Rights in Canada

  Thomas R Berger, Peter A Cumming et al.•University of Toronto Law Journal•1972

  Incluir item

• Indians in the Fur Trade

  Calvin Martin, Arthur J Ray•Journal of American History•1976

  Incluir item

• The Structural Study of Myth

  Claude Lévi-Strau, Claude Lévi‐strau et al.•Journal of American Folklore•1955

  Incluir item

• The Emergence of the Micro-Urban Village Among the Caribou-Eater Chipewyan

  James Smith•Human Organization•1978

  Incluir item