Personality Structure in the Plains

The Indians of the High Plains of North America have always been a favorite topic of anthropological discussion. Theirs is a unique record of cultural unity achieved from diversity. The Plains form one of the most clearly delimited and the most homogeneous of the culture areas of North America, yet most of the tribes we associate with the flowering of this area entered it within a very short period of time and stemmed from a wide variety of cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Until the horse spread through this area, often in advance of the white men who had introduced it on this continent, the High Plains were only sparsely populated outside of the few river valleys. Although game, and particularly buffalo, was abundant, hunters could not subsist in any numbers in most of the area because of the great distances which separated the sources of water. Hunters wandering in search of a herd could well die of thirst before they made contact with it. There were seasonal hunts carried out into the Plains by those who lived on their peripheries and a few tribes, such as the Querecho described by Coronado's expedition, apparently did live all year in some sections of the area. But the difficulties of traversing the Plains on foot were enough to discourage most of the surrounding tribes from capitalizing on the resources of food represented by the vast herds of buffalo. The horse removed these limitations. Now it was possible to camp near a stream, range widely each day, probably bring down a few buffalo or antelope, and carry the meat back packed on the horse. The lure of an assured food supply in a free and open country was irresistible. Almost overnight, during the 17th and early 18th Centuries, thousands of people flowed in from all sides to fill the vacuum. As each tribe emerged into this swirling, shifting potpourri of peoples, they repeatedly made contact with others they had never seen before, many of them groups of very different origin from themselves. Occasionally they made peace and an alliance, however informal, with another tribe, though

Personality · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · Archaeology and Natural History · Psychology · Social Psychology

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