Kinshipwrecking
John Smith's adoption and the Pocahontas myth in settler ontologies
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2389145 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Rachel Bryant (0009-0007-4856-3477, Dalhousie University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 300-308 |
| Publication date | 2018-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | AlterNative An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1177-1801 • E-ISSN: 1174-1740 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/1177180118804279 |
| OpenAlex | W2897174143 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 18 |
John Smith's Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles (1624) canonized a settler colonial narrative activity that I call kinshipwrecking-a conventional mode of storytelling that destroys and moves to supplant traditional Indigenous kinship structures and obligations. Smith's archetypal refusal of Indigenous kinship is arguably the most important element of his text, and yet it has been treated as an afterthought in most previous scholarship. His Historie depicts the process of colonization as a war between English patriarchal governance and Indigenous kinship systems-the latter of which are portrayed as power structures that must be infiltrated (through alliance or adoption) and exploited by the English and destroyed/transformed from within. The colony Smith wrote about is today remembered as the first permanent English settlement on Turtle Island, and Settlers in what some now call Canada and the USA continue to live their lives within the legacy of Smith's archetypal and systematic rejection of Indigenous kinship. Using Mattaponi oral history as a counter narrative that both challenges and contextualizes Smith's in/famous tale, this article considers the Settler mythology of Pocahontas and Wahunsenaca (Powhatan) through the lens of Indigenous customary or traditional adoption practices
Alliance · Archaeology · Art · Colonialism · Genealogy · Indigenous · Kinship · Literature · Mythology · Narrative · Political science · Scholarship · Sociology · Storytelling · Anthropology · Canadian Identity and History · Classics · History · Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights · Indigenous Studies and Ecology · Law
Brothers Among Nations
Mohawk Interruptus
Freedom Bound
A Discussion Paper on Indigenous Custom Adoption Part 2
Adoption is (not) a Dirty Word
Engendering The State
Archival absence
Native Acts
Households of Faith
The Deadly Politics of Giving
Linking Arms Together
Rethinking the Colonial State
He is the master of his house
Pocahontas's People
Lethal Encounters
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |