Northwest Coast Culture

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North American cultural areas

The Northwest Coast Cultures include similar Indian cultures from northern California to southern Alaska , which are grouped together as a common cultural area. The main food of these Indians was fish, seals and wild plants. Different tribes hunted whales. They belonged to the specialized, sedentary and complex organized hunters and gatherers . The Northwest Coast Indians lived in plank houses made of cedar wood. Due to the abundance of marine food, the tribes along the coast had an easy life. The material culture was remarkable. The social order was based on three social ranks: aristocracy, ordinary, and slave. The latter, who were mostly prisoners of war, were often killed by their owners with so-called slave slayers at the so-called potlach (Nootka word, patschatl = to give ) . So they demonstrated the importance of their rank. The potlach only served one purpose, to increase one's own prestige.

The base currency of these tribes was the copper , shield-like, artistically chased, engraved copper sheets. As a means of transport, they had long, richly carved canoes made from cedar logs. The totem poles (coat of arms poles ) that they set up on the front of their houses symbolized the history of their clan. In most tribes, an Indian was not allowed to marry anyone from his clan or that of his mother. In many tribes, maternal line of succession also applied.

Archaeological research

The archaeological investigation of the Fraser estuary resulted in the determination of the sequence of stages within the northwest coast culture. Three main periods emerged:

  • Early period (1000 BC - turn of the ages);
  • Intermediate time (turn of the ages – 1250 AD)
  • Late period (1250 – present).

In the early Locarno Beach phase, the hunt for marine mammals was the main source of food. The equipment inventory mainly comprised harpoon tips made of antlers and bones, more rarely made of cut slate or stone chips. They probably used fur boats. While larger tools suitable for woodworking were lacking, there were small cross-axes and chisels made of nephrite . The beginning of the typical north-west coast character of the three-dimensional sculpture is evidenced by the discovery of several small stone lip pegs and a throwing wood hook in the form of a human head.

In the Marpole phase (300 BC – 400 AD) the inventory was refined and expanded. More and more people used better crafted tips made using the technique of knocking off and sharpened stone tools. The crescent-shaped knives, similar to the "woman's knives" of the Eskimos, now had more professional shapes. Large stone hatchets and heavy hammers suggest that dugouts were now being made. The villages probably consisted of log houses, as we know them from ethnographic evidence. They covered a larger area. The manufacture of stone sculptures is emerging as a significant development. It is mainly the representation of seated people holding bowls in their hands. The material of the sculptures was steatite (soapstone) or sandstone . The heads already have the typical raised eyebrows and notched eyes of the Northwest Coast style. Perhaps the vessels were used in shamanic rituals.

Some peoples of the northwest coast

peoples culturally belonging to the coastal Salish

Kalapuya-speaking groups

Tsimshian-speaking peoples

Wakash-speaking peoples

See also

literature

  • Glyn Daniel (Ed.): Lübbes Encyclopedia of Archeology. Edited and supplemented German edition. Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 1980, ISBN 3-7857-0236-1 , pp. 165-166.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Pacific Northwest Tribal Nations Map - Traditional Names and Locations

This article is based on the article Northwest Coast Culture ( Memento from July 1, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) from the free encyclopedia Indianer Wiki ( Memento from March 18, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) and is under Creative Commons by-sa 3.0 . A list of the authors was available in the Indian Wiki ( Memento from July 1, 2007 in the Internet Archive ).